Changes

''[[World War I]] began in August 1914 with a massive German invasion of France by way of Belgium. The Allied Powers of France, Russia, and Britain opposed this aggression.'' This ignores the whole "crisis of July" - and the fact that Austria-Hungary had declared war on Serbia in late July 1914: this was the ''aggression'' which Russia opposed, by general mobilization against Austria and Germany - which lead to the declaration of war from Germany to Russia on August 1, 1914 - three days before the invasion of Belgium. --[[User:AugustO|AugustO]] ([[User talk:AugustO|talk]]) 06:08, 3 June 2016 (EDT)

''[[World War I]] began in August 1914 with a massive German invasion of France by way of Belgium. The Allied Powers of France, Russia, and Britain opposed this aggression.'' This ignores the whole "crisis of July" - and the fact that Austria-Hungary had declared war on Serbia in late July 1914: this was the ''aggression'' which Russia opposed, by general mobilization against Austria and Germany - which lead to the declaration of war from Germany to Russia on August 1, 1914 - three days before the invasion of Belgium. --[[User:AugustO|AugustO]] ([[User talk:AugustO|talk]]) 06:08, 3 June 2016 (EDT)

:Yes, I agree wholly. There are extremely important lessons to be learned among diplomats and never to be forgotten here. I hope we don't loose the opportunity. WWI was the result of diplomatic failures in Foreign Ministries among all the participants; when they failed, then the War Ministries were called upon to do their jobs. It wasn't directly caused by excessive militarists, more by idiot diplomats.    [[User:RobSmith|RobS]]^{[[User talk:RobSmith|''#NeverHillary'']]} 14:37, 3 June 2016 (EDT)

:Yes, I agree wholly. There are extremely important lessons to be learned among diplomats and never to be forgotten here. I hope we don't loose the opportunity. WWI was the result of diplomatic failures in Foreign Ministries among all the participants; when they failed, then the War Ministries were called upon to do their jobs. It wasn't directly caused by excessive militarists, more by idiot diplomats.    [[User:RobSmith|RobS]]^{[[User talk:RobSmith|''#NeverHillary'']]} 14:37, 3 June 2016 (EDT)

::I don't actually agree with this "no fault" view of the origin of the war. But I took out the offending material all the same; This article should focus on Wilhelm's role. As far as A.J.P Taylor goes, he is quite notorious for his view of WWII. He views Hitler the same way he does the Kaiser, i.e. as someone who didn't want war, but just kind of blundered into one. The popularity of such views has a lot to do with the Cold War, when people worried that the U.S. and Russia would blunder into war. Tuchman's ''Guns of August'' came out around the time of Cuban missile crisis and made "World War I" was a useful shorthand for "blundering into war." Tuchman's book itself is actually quite nuanced and not responsible for this simplistic interpretation. Fritz Fischer showed that Germany made the decision to go to war at least a year before it started. So the real reason for the war was not Franz Ferdinand and Sarajevo. [[User:PeterKa|PeterKa]] ([[User talk:PeterKa|talk]]) 07:27, 5 June 2016 (EDT)

::I don't actually agree with this "no fault" view of the origin of the war. But I took out the offending material all the same; This article should focus on Wilhelm's role. As far as A.J.P Taylor goes, he is quite notorious for his view of WWII. He views Hitler the same way he does the Kaiser, i.e. as someone who didn't want war, but just kind of blundered into one. The popularity of such views has a lot to do with the Cold War, when people worried that the U.S. and Russia would blunder into war. Tuchman's ''Guns of August'' came out around the time of Cuban missile crisis and made the phrase "World War I" a useful shorthand for "blundering into war." Tuchman's book itself is actually quite nuanced and not responsible for this simplistic interpretation. Fritz Fischer showed that Germany made the decision to go to war at least a year before it started. So the real reason for the war was not Franz Ferdinand and Sarajevo. [[User:PeterKa|PeterKa]] ([[User talk:PeterKa|talk]]) 07:27, 5 June 2016 (EDT)