I had a class about WWII and found it rather interesting, but still didn't know of some of the things you guys pointed out in the WWII thread, so I figure I will ask you about WWI.

I don't know anything, really, about WWI. I want to know how it started, some important events, the end of it. All the good stuff. I figure this is more informative than just reading an article about it.

We dont like learning about it because it shows how stupid fighting for peace is, which is the cliche and faulty justification for wars today. It kind of makes the enlightened democracy drum thumpers look less enlightened when the only way to stop monarchy was by wasting 30 million lives.

And here I thought you were going to tell him that it was started by jewish financiers.

If anyone figures out just exactly why WWI started, let ol' Nox know. It's been close to 90 years now and so far no one else has.

Nox

i think it started with the assassination of archduke ferdinand in austria, forget by who or why.

hey it's been a long time since i had history class.

Well, it started for many reasons because of the Alliances Countries had with each other. And A good book about WWI is the Guns of August

Izzy,

Yes, Gavrilo's shots did set the process in motion (see other topics covering this) but they actual 'why' still isn't there. 'STUPID' is one adjective, except that it pales in describing the absolute idiocy involved.

I'm getting wound up so I'll stop.

Nox

gavrio princep shot franz ferdinan as a protest against the austro hungarian empire which dominates serbia to a degree. Austria demands princep and an appology, the serbs state that it is in their jurisdiction and threaten to invade.

and then the dominoes start to fall; Russia says it will invade Austria if then invade serbia, because the serbs are slavic people and more than that their nation offers a in road to the balkans. Which would, if they were part of Russia allow Russia access to a port on the mediteranian which would allow them to conduct commerce year round as opposed to the six months out of the year that St.Petersburg, Archangel and odessa aren't frozen. The same reason that Russia invaded Chrimea.

Russia's entry activates its alliance with france, france's entry activates Austria's alliance with germany. The english enter for good measure on the side of the french wary of Germany's naval build up and colonial aspirations. Turkey who sees a chance to strike back at Russia for Chrimea allies itself with the central powers.

Ultimately the three factors that history attributes to the begining of the war are secret alliances, multinational empires, and national aspirations within those empires.

Ok, heres how it went, the Serbians (i think, not sure sorry, kinda tired here) assassinated the archduke ferdinand of austria-hungray. So austria-hungray blamed Sarajevo for it, but it wasnt a planned assassination, i think it was just a act of terror not sure. Well austria tried striking a deal with them, but they refused (at this time germany was already backing Austria and Russia was backing Sarajevo). Well, then the war errupted. Austria-Hungary declared war on russia... and 3 days later so did Germany. France was afraid they would get invaded and fought back. I think England was worried too and did the same thing. Russia got wh00ped cause of the whole revolution they had. America jumped in the war because German submarines kept on sinking their passenger ships (which had supplies going to help the UK). The germans did sometimes surface and tell the passengers to get off and THEN they would sink it, but then they got mad and just sank em when they saw em. After World War 1 when the germans lost, they (allies) blamed ALL of it on germany and made germany pay 20 billion in reperations (Treaty of Versailles). That sums it up, if you want more info just look on www.google.com

They only got mad and sank Merchant ships after they started using Decoy ships. which are Merchent ships that have hidden guns and trick the Submarine Captain into surfacing so they could Sink it with their guns. A good book about this is Time Life series Called the Seafarers and the title is the U-Boats

hm, never knew that...

It was really a war that brought into light new technology on a massive scale like the Airplane, Poison Gas, The Submarine, The Machine Gun, and the stupidity of the Alliance idea.

the idea for submarines was around during the revolutionary war, and the machine gun was already out before it too, maby not as effective, but they were used.