Who Started World War One?
About this book
World War One was the seminal event of the 20th Century. It brought about the collapse of the Russian Empire and the formation of the Soviet Union; the rise to world power of the United States; the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire, the abolition of the Caliphate, and the foundation of the modern Middle East, whose problems we read about daily; and the formation of five new European nation states one of which collapsed in bloody civil war in 1991.It spawned the League of Nations, the forerunner of the United Nations, and it sowed the seeds of World War Two. We live with all its consequences today.This book investigates exactly what happened in the six fateful weeks in 1914 from the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand to the outbreak of World War One. It describes and explains the events that took place and the decisions that brought about the war, and who took those decisions, and in what circumstances at the time. It concentrates on the immediate causes of the war bringing out clearly the human factors; miscalculation, ignorance, poor information, human temperament and attitudes, and even bad organisation.It is a true guide to what caused that terrible war; the human actions that decided the fate of Europe and much of the wider world.