I think WWI was avoidable but there was a lot going on at the time and it seems like many of the Great Powers were spoiling for a glorious little war that would be over by Christmas.
It was over by Christmas....Christmas of 1918.
I absolutely agree. The statesmen of the time simply had no idea what a mass war with high technology would mean.
In America, the War of Secession had provided mankind with a terrible foretaste , but in Europe it wasn’t much noticed. The world was truly much „bigger“ in those days…