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"all you HISTORY GENUSES conveniently completely ignore the basic fact that the heir to the Austrian throne was assassinated by a Serb. No country worth it's salt would not be outraged by that. Austria was well within it's rights to do what ever. Since Germany and Austria were allies, German support was natural."

First, no doubt, you don't understand the rules here -- if you change the subject from an reasoned discussion to a lunatic rant, then YOU LOSE THE ARGUMENT!

Second, I have a half a dozen books here on the subject. So trust me on this: you cannot say anything true about it, which I don't already know or at least can't soon verify. And, contrary to what you now claim, I DID MENTION the Archduke's assassination -- check out post 76.

The Archduke's assassination TRIGGERED Austria to invade Serbia, but it did not CAUSE Germany to invade NEUTRAL BELGIUM or FRANCE.

What caused those invasions was the German war plan -- the so-called Schlieffen Plan. It was the ONLY real plan Germany had for war.

The Kaiser launched his Schlieffen Plan in response to Russia's PARTIAL MOBILIZATION against Austria -- a mobilization which the German Foreign Minister Jagow had PRE-APPROVED, and which the Czar had several times assured the Kaiser was NO THREAT TO GERMANY.

But one key to understanding is this: the historical record shows that Austria did not ON ITS OWN declare war on Serbia. It had to be PUSHED and SHOVED into that by German leaders, including the Kaiser, his army chief Moltke, and the Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg.

So, the WHOLE THING was a German SHOW from Day One -- the June 28, 1914 assassination of Austria's Archduke Ferdinand.

Finally, I've said before: this whole sequence of events is quite complex, with many moving parts, and anyone can cherry-pick a few historical facts to make his argument.

But if you take time to study the WHOLE PICTURE, it's absolutely clear -- that Germany was Europe's most powerful country, and launched the aggressions to which all other powers in Europe necessarily responded.

That's why the Great War was solely Germany's fault, and Germany's punishment after the war was fair, just and relatively minor -- compared to the suffering Germany caused!

.....and Germany's punishment after the war was fair, just and relatively minor -- compared to the suffering Germany caused!

Based upon my readings of the Great War and its aftermath, I agree with your response leading up to the statement above. I don't necessarily disagree with that statement, but am interested in your thoughts on why Germany's punishment was "fair, just and relatively minor". One school of thought that I have read over and over on the war's aftermath is that the crushing reparations imposed on Germany, along with inflation, and depression led to Hitler and all that evil. If the German people had the opportunity to rebuild their country and nurture and refine the Weimar Republic perhaps all that followed might not have been unleashed. I think the Cold War battle with the Soviet Union was inevitable regardless of the real circumstances of the '30s and '40s.