As Boris says: those powers - the 'Axis' powers - didn't go to war because of the assassination of the Arch-Duke. They went to war because they believed that they were going to gain control of Europe.
The Austro-Hungarian empire seized on the death of the ArchDuke as a pretext, and gave an almost impossible ultimatum to Serbia.
Serbia promptly accepted 90% of their terms. They accepted all the terms that they could possibly accept and still maintain sovereign control over their own army. Austro-Hungary had saved face - there was no sense in which the Axis powers were backed into a corner.
However peace simply wouldn't do. The Axis powers wanted war because they believed - not unreasonably - that they were going to win it. They had a very precise, war-winning plan - the Schlieffen plan - and they meant to use it.
WW1 was a war of territorial aggrandizement launched by the German Confederation and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They could have had peace, but they wanted war.
We are often told that WW1 began because of a comparatively trivial assassination - but this is not true. World War One was a horribly sincere war of oppression.
Hope this is helpful.
The Axis powers were the adherents of the Three-Power Pact--the "Axis Pact"--of 1940.
Right you are, other than the Germans, Austro-Hungarians, Bulgarians and Ottomans formed the ‘Quadruple Alliance’ (German: Verbund) commonly known as the ‘Central Powers’. The ‘Axis’ was the term used for the alliance of Germany, Italy and Japa in WWII.
We are often told that WW1 began because of a comparatively trivial assassination - but this is not true. World War One was a horribly sincere war of oppression.
Hope this is helpful.
It's helpful. It's a good start. I'm inclined to call World War I a war of opportunism rather than oppression, but your point is entirely valid: imperialist powers went on a rampage of greed and slaughter without a moment's thought for possible consequences. All of Europe's imperialist powers leapt to join the festivities of destruction and death, and all suffered grievously.
Several curious facts:
1.) America ended the European slaughter.
2.) Post-imperial ideological Europe leapt into renewed mass slaughter in short order, and Japan went on an imperial rampage of theft and mass murder throughout half of Asia.
3.) Again, America ended the European and Asian slaughter.
Oh, by the way, whatever became of that America?
I think your synopsis is a little too simple. I think that Russia deserves a good deal of blame.
Funny I always thought that Russia conspiring to have a beloved ruler and his wife assassinated had more than just a wee tiny bit to do with the starting of that war. But once again instead of believing the oral history of people that lived through it, I suppose I’ll have to defer to book learnin.
Because obviously those that lived through it must have had an agenda.
Brilliantly said, “agere_contra”.
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