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History Simplified: If World War I was a bar fight (Original Post) trof Mar 2014 OP
Which brings us to the Paris Peace Conference pscot Mar 2014 #1
Don't forget JustAnotherGen Mar 2014 #2
The 'little' guy' was Japan? trof Mar 2014 #8
Yep JustAnotherGen Apr 2014 #11
Excellent! hedgehog Mar 2014 #3
My knowledge of WWI is sketchy. Hoping a history buff would weigh in here. trof Mar 2014 #4
Fairly good on some things muriel_volestrangler Mar 2014 #6
Thank you. trof Mar 2014 #7
One sentence warfare: Russia wanted Istanbul and the Bosphorus, so they started a conflagration. Octafish Mar 2014 #5
Real cause of WWI, in my opinion, blatent stupidity Stuart G Mar 2014 #9
They had 2 more recent wars of their own to look to muriel_volestrangler Mar 2014 #10

pscot

(21,024 posts)
1. Which brings us to the Paris Peace Conference
Mon Mar 31, 2014, 11:56 AM
Mar 2014

Seventeen battered drunks crawling around the floor looking for cigarette butts.

JustAnotherGen

(31,818 posts)
2. Don't forget
Mon Mar 31, 2014, 01:03 PM
Mar 2014

Georges Clemenceau asking George: Whose the little fellow over there standing on top of the guy from China?

JustAnotherGen

(31,818 posts)
11. Yep
Tue Apr 1, 2014, 05:50 AM
Apr 2014

Clemenceau actually said that. "Who is the little fellow" in regards to one of the Japanese representatives.

Little did the world know . . . .

muriel_volestrangler

(101,311 posts)
6. Fairly good on some things
Mon Mar 31, 2014, 06:33 PM
Mar 2014

Turkey gets left out a bit. After "a show of not looking at anyone", and the fight has begun, there could be "Turkey aims a kick at Russia, so Britain tries to punch it, but can't punch it and Germany at the same time, so shouts for its little brother Australia to do it".

You could also complicate it with Romania and Bulgaria - basically a couple of chancers who wait until they think they can see the chance to join in a winning side and get their own back for previous fights.

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
5. One sentence warfare: Russia wanted Istanbul and the Bosphorus, so they started a conflagration.
Mon Mar 31, 2014, 06:25 PM
Mar 2014

Details:

Pushing Toward The Final War

by Paul Craig Roberts

In The genesis Of The World War, Harry Elmer Barnes shows that World War 1 was the product of 4 or 5 people. Three stand out: Raymond Poincare`, President of France, Sergei Sazonov, Russian Foreign Minister, and Alexander Izvolski, Russian Ambassador to France. Poincare` wanted Alsace-Lorraine from Germany, and the Russians wanted Istanbul and the Bosphorus Strait, which connects the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. They realized that their ambitions required a general European war and worked to produce the desired war.

A Franco-Russian Alliance was formed. This alliance became the vehicle for orchestrating the war. The British government, thanks to the incompetence, stupidity, or whatever of its Foreign Minister, Sir Edward Grey, was pulled into the Franco-Russian Alliance. The war was started by Russia’s mobilization. The German Kaiser, Wilhelm II, was blamed for the war despite the fact that he did everything possible to avoid it.

Barnes’ book was published in 1926. His reward for confronting the corrupt court historians with the truth was to be accused of being paid by Germany to write his history. Eighty-six years later historian Christopher Clark in his book, The Sleepwalkers, comes to essentially the same conclusion as Barnes.

In the history I was taught the war was blamed on Germany for challenging British naval supremacy by building too many battleships. The court historians who gave us this tale helped to set up World War 2.

CONTINUED...

http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/03/28/pushing-toward-final-war-paul-craig-roberts/

Stuart G

(38,421 posts)
9. Real cause of WWI, in my opinion, blatent stupidity
Mon Mar 31, 2014, 06:45 PM
Mar 2014

The idiots in charge thought it would be simple, easy war, over in a short time..
Then rearrange the borders a little and settle it.
You know, like European wars of the 1800s. Instead of looking at the American Civil War for what it would be, the leadership looked elsewhere....

If the leaders had looked to the American Civil War, they could have seen the nightmare, and avoided it..maybe..The idiots could not foresee the millions of deaths. Change in the type of weapons, or trench warfare......

....stupid idiots ...that is what they were.....let alone, the ultimate nightmare of WWII.
....cause of the hate, need to place blame, and stupidity....

muriel_volestrangler

(101,311 posts)
10. They had 2 more recent wars of their own to look to
Mon Mar 31, 2014, 07:01 PM
Mar 2014

The Austro-Prussian War, and the Franco-Prussian War. WW1 turned out to be far more static that either, or than the US Civil War, thanks to improvements in defensive weaponry - machine guns, and simple barbed wire.

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