In the period leading up to the [[First World War]], senior military advisors monitoring external military forces, analyzed the information to determine if it's just an exercise, and if not, reported to political leaders what they perceived as a general mobilization by their counterparts. The information was interpreted to mean "mobilization means [[war]]," and the country observing the mobilization invoked its own mobilization, rapidly escalating tensions beyond the control of politicians and [[diplomat]]s. Millions of active duty and reservists were mobilized into [[military]] units and sent to the front. Within 60 days, 2 million soldiers from both sides had been killed. | In the period leading up to the [[First World War]], senior military advisors monitoring external military forces, analyzed the information to determine if it's just an exercise, and if not, reported to political leaders what they perceived as a general mobilization by their counterparts. The information was interpreted to mean "mobilization means [[war]]," and the country observing the mobilization invoked its own mobilization, rapidly escalating tensions beyond the control of politicians and [[diplomat]]s. Millions of active duty and reservists were mobilized into [[military]] units and sent to the front. Within 60 days, 2 million soldiers from both sides had been killed. |