Winston Churchill was black

JJLehto wrote: Geck0 wrote: Actually, that Prince was Archduke Franz Ferdinand and he was shot by a Serbian man, Gavrilo Princip, in the city of Sarajevo (then in Bosnia).  Princip was a member of Young Bosnia. Now, the shooting of an Austrian Archduke in Sarajevo wouldn't normally start a war, so obviously there was more to it than that.  The Great War is one of those odd wars, whereby it was started over something that seemed to be isolated from most of the world, yet escalated into something much bigger.  There are still debates now as to what exactly the causes were, as the assassination was just the final catalyst.   That definatley was the final straw, but as he said  there was ALOT more to it. Basically, since the 1870s (i believe) Germany was growing, in all ways. WHich was  a threat to the current world leaders (Britian, France). So Allinaces, on both sides were formed. Both sides built up their militaries just incase. The Balkans was a land of strife   as many people were fighting over control of it. The assassination was indeed the final straw, tensions broke. I believe it was Britian hat declared war on Germany...thus France and Russia (obliged due to their alliance) got dragged in. The ottoman empire and austria-hungary went with Germany (although Germany basically fought it all) Causes of WWI: Economic Competition Militarism Nationalism Entangling Alliances

There were treaties as you said, Russia, France and Britain had a mutual protection allance as did Germany, Austro-Hungarian and The Ottoman Empire's. Some "brilliant" German general had this plan that Germany would attack France and then, since it would take so long for the massive Russian army to deploy they (the Germans) would be able to prepare themselfes to counter this attack after finishing off the French. ( I would like to point out that I learnt all this in History 6 years ago, so I may be a little out on some things). I never did learn why the Germans didnt take into account the British, I suspect that they relied on the old animocity between us and the French to prevent us from taking part, which it didnt.

@Darksinger, WWII would have escalated just as fast regadless of certain treaties. The British may have got involved because of Germany's invasion of Poland but by the time the British launched its forces into Europe, they had already attacked France and that would have drawn us into the conflict anyway.

JJLehto wrote: Geck0 wrote: Actually, that Prince was Archduke Franz Ferdinand and he was shot by a Serbian man, Gavrilo Princip, in the city of Sarajevo (then in Bosnia).  Princip was a member of Young Bosnia. Now, the shooting of an Austrian Archduke in Sarajevo wouldn't normally start a war, so obviously there was more to it than that.  The Great War is one of those odd wars, whereby it was started over something that seemed to be isolated from most of the world, yet escalated into something much bigger.  There are still debates now as to what exactly the causes were, as the assassination was just the final catalyst.   That definatley was the final straw, but as he said  there was ALOT more to it. Basically, since the 1870s (i believe) Germany was growing, in all ways. WHich was  a threat to the current world leaders (Britian, France). So Allinaces, on both sides were formed. Both sides built up their militaries just incase. The Balkans was a land of strife   as many people were fighting over control of it. The assassination was indeed the final straw, tensions broke. I believe it was Britian hat declared war on Germany...thus France and Russia (obliged due to their alliance) got dragged in. The ottoman empire and austria-hungary went with Germany (although Germany basically fought it all)

I thought it went like this (you're right up until the order of decalarations of war):

There were two alliances, on one side (The Triple Entente which was formed from the Anglo-Russian Entente and the Entente Cordiale) and on the other (Dual Alliance) were Germany and Austria-Hungary.
After the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Because of a previous arrangement Russia had to intervene to defend Serbia, leading to Germany declaring war on Russia. Germany expects (rightly) that France will mobilize against them so the Sclieffen plan is put into action France then mobilizes against Germany. As part of the Schlieffen plan, Germany invades Belgium, bringing Britain (and her colonies) into the war.

The reason why Germany overlooked Britain was because her army was so small, Germany expected Britain to stay out of the war, or at the least wait a while so that she could gather strength.


Edited by Forgotten Son - September 09 2006 at 12:43

Forgotten Son wrote: JJLehto wrote: Geck0 wrote: Actually, that Prince was Archduke Franz Ferdinand and he was shot by a Serbian man, Gavrilo Princip, in the city of Sarajevo (then in Bosnia).  Princip was a member of Young Bosnia. Now, the shooting of an Austrian Archduke in Sarajevo wouldn't normally start a war, so obviously there was more to it than that.  The Great War is one of those odd wars, whereby it was started over something that seemed to be isolated from most of the world, yet escalated into something much bigger.  There are still debates now as to what exactly the causes were, as the assassination was just the final catalyst.   That definatley was the final straw, but as he said  there was ALOT more to it. Basically, since the 1870s (i believe) Germany was growing, in all ways. WHich was  a threat to the current world leaders (Britian, France). So Allinaces, on both sides were formed. Both sides built up their militaries just incase. The Balkans was a land of strife   as many people were fighting over control of it. The assassination was indeed the final straw, tensions broke. I believe it was Britian hat declared war on Germany...thus France and Russia (obliged due to their alliance) got dragged in. The ottoman empire and austria-hungary went with Germany (although Germany basically fought it all) I thought it went like this (you're right up until the order of decalarations of war): There were two alliances, on one side (The Triple Entente which was formed from the Anglo-Russian Entente and the Entente Cordiale) and on the other (Dual Alliance) were Germany and Austria-Hungary. After the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Because of a previous arrangement Russia had to intervene to defend Serbia, leading to Germany declaring war on Russia. Germany expects (rightly) that France will mobilize against them so the Sclieffen plan is put into action France then mobilizes against Germany. As part of the Schlieffen plan, Germany invades Belgium, bringing Britain (and her colonies) into the war. The reason why Germany overlooked Britain was because her army was so small, Germany expected Britain to stay out of the war, or at the least wait a while so that she could gather strength.