The Outbreak of War in 1914: New Ways to Think About the 'Road to War' - Michael Neiberg

[@jezalb2710]

Interesting indeed.

[@ralphh4131]

In high school in the mid 2000s I was taught that alsace st laurenne was one of the biggest factors that caused ww1, namely french resentment towards the loss of it. Was I lied to?

[@jbigger59]

The loss of the Provinces of Alsace and Lorraine were continuing sources of friction between France and Germany ever since the Germans took those provinces after the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, but that was but one contributing factor that led to hostilities. There were of course other factors at play and how much of a factor it was is still open to debate.

[@trump2016]

No it was not really related. Germany invaded france and belgium in order to quickly neutralize them before defending against or thrusting outward towards the quickly mobilizing russian army in 1914. Alsace lorraine was not relevant to this.

[@Warmaker01]

You were lied to, Ralph H. Young Frenchmen of the time leading into the start of WWI didn't care for it. That was "Revanchism" for the *prior* generation of the mid-late 19th century. The French youth leading into WWI of the early 20th century didn't care about it, much less die for it. That's more for post-war stuff where people are trying to grab reasons to make sense why France gave up millions of men in the prime of their lives. The truth is the youth of France didn't care, yet there they were, dying by the millions. The fun part at 11:39 of the video was both the youth of France and Germany felt the same. It wasn't worth conflict, wasn't worth dying over.

[@andzzz2]

@@Warmaker01 I liked it when he said even Revanchism was mostly about internal politics, i.e. the French right looking for a way to attack the French left.

[@timfrye3586]

based

[@ralphh4131]

It's almost as if a group of people realized there was tons of $$$$ to be made selling bullets and bombs and tinned beer and khakis for millions of soldiers.

[@PMMagro]

There was no such market. It apperaed after crisis became war and then stalled badly into attritrion (soemthing no one expected or initially planned for). Off coutrs eteh US gained a lot, being at peace while other fight each other and buy anyhtning form you is rather advantageous...

[@rosesprog1722]

Maybe not in 1914 but this video here on YT will surprise you, just look for "Dealers In Death The Story Of The War Racket 1935" Fact is Wall Street had lent so much money to Britain and France, a German victory would have been devastating for those investors hence the late involvement of the US in the war which completely messed the balance of forces in Europe and led to the outrageous Versailles treaty, the death of millions of Germans between the two wars and the second world war which destroyed Europe and killed 70 million people and secured a worldwide private financial system to control almost every nation on earth.

[@NDRonin1401]

At a good 12 minutes in, I'm really curious if the speaker is actually going to give any decent argumentation for his categoric statement that imperialism was NOT one of, if not THE main (hehe) reason for WW1. I am however not feeling very confident he will, seeing as he followed that up with the statement that nationalism was not at all a reason for the soldiers to go into war and die for their nation/country. That is just totally irrelevant to the point, namely the causes of WW1. As if however the soldiers felt had any influence on the people making the decision to go to war, the same people who set up the whole tangled web of alliances that made conflict almost impossible to avoid. And also the very same people who created, maintained and benefitted from their respective empires, and who consequently absolutely refused to let go of it, no matter how many millions they had to send to the abattoir. The sentiments, political convictions and willingness of the common man has no place in this discussion, and using it as an argument to support your point is intellectually dishonest, not to say completely ridiculous.

[@stephenhornish2048]

Guess you missed the part of him explaining the Morocco Crisis and Fashoda incident being diplomatically resolved and how Alsasc Lorraine was not worth fighting over according to the French PM