Quote:
Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction
You don't even need to stop at WW1. The conflicts that later became know as WW1 can be traced back hundreds of years. Things like the Ottoman invasions of the Balkans and Russian expansion played big roles. Heck, if you get right down to it, the schism of the Roman Empire has had lasting effects that played into WW1 and WW2. British and French colonialism in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and the Americas also directly led to a rise if imperialism in Germany, Italy, Russia and Japan. Everything for hundreds of years has been an evolution of tit-for-tat conflicts. Where and how it started is completely arbitrary, as is the notion of a "world war". Many parts of the world don't even call the conflicts between 1914 and 1918 or 1938 and 1945 "world wars". They just look at them as a continuation and escalation of ongoing conflicts.
|
Its funny because most of the leadership in Europe especially among the monarchies were all inter related. The wars of the 1800's were as close to those family feuds as it gets.
War was considered a top ranked diplomatic tool up until the start of WW2, which I would argue was the first real war where there was almost an unwillingness to fight it. Up until then, war was seen as glorious.
We had the continuation of gun boat diplomacy.
We had the naval races leading up to WW1 which increased tensions and the concept of colonization vis a violence.