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Originally Posted by longsuffering
Keeping in mind that once one side starts invading other countries whether or not a war should or could have been avoided is moot. Should Britain and its Allies just handed Europe over to the Central Powers?
WWI was a war fought for democracy or the principles of democracy versus autocracy - the Allied countries being democracies (except Russia) and the Central Powers being Autocracies.
You'd better hit the history books again young feller.
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Actually, the fact that in the end the countries in the war were democracies vs. dictorships seems pretty coincidental. Russia was not a democracy at the time, or anything close to it, yet they fought Germany right along with us (until pulling out after the Russian Revolution). WWI was fought because of Bismarck's foreign policy that pitted countries against eachother, such as Russia and Austria over land in the Balkans, and attempted to do it with France and England over land in Africa but ended up having the opposite effect. Things started going sour once Russia wised up that Germany was not supporting Russia's interests in the Balkans, they became extremely suspicious. And once Germany refused Russia a loan to help them industrialize, France rushed in with investors, and bam, you have your 2 different alliances. Britain and France created because of Germany's failed attempts to pit them against eachother in Africa, along with Russia because Germany alienated them, and Germany and Austria Hungary, friends only because everyone else had left them out to dry.
The assassination of Franz Ferdinand is what set it all off, as Austria declared war on Serbia and Russia rushed in to defend the Slavic nation, so Germany declared war on Russia for attacking Austria, so France declared war on Germany, and since Germany attacked France through Belgium England was forced to declare war.
Of course, the causes for WWI are not this simple and reach back as far as the French Revolution in 1792, and the Congress of Vienna after Napolean. But fight for democracy? It certainly doesn't seem like it.
ED: Sorry, I've been studying WWI extensively and have been looking for an excuse to use my new found knowledge.