Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Who Started the Great War?



In Europe's Last Summer: Who Started the Great War in 1914? David Frumkin attempts to answer who started World War One.   

He comes to a novel conclusion.   Austria-Hungary started the war, but they did not mean to start the war that the German Empire had in mind.  Germany wanted to start a world war because of it perceived that it was losing an arms race against Russia, and, to a lesser extent, France.

Austria-Hungary simply wanted a limited war against Serbia, which it saw as a Slavic threat to the German ethnic supremacy of the Empire.
German took Austria-Hungary’s little war and created a world war.  Or more precisely, it took two wars, and molded them into one; creating a seeming cause and effect where none existed.
I am not conversant enough in this topic to know if Frumkin has valid points.  But I like how he takes our preconceived notions of the Great War and turns them on their head.

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