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Maybe you should get your history correct. Before WW1 we were not in a situation where there were constant great power wars. There were limited wars 1860-1870 (

by nickik 10y ago

Maybe you should get your history correct. Before WW1 we were not in a situation where there were constant great power wars. There were limited wars 1860-1870 (Crimea, Franco-Prussian) but thats all , the last large great powers war was Napoleon and that was 120 years before WW1. So from the Numbers one can argue that we are today still in a sitiation of endless struggle and we should expect a major war very soon. I dont think that argument holds much water. Most nations before WW1 did not want war, just as now. Also the idea that Germany is to small for the World is strange, because Britain was smaller, and before WW1 Germany had a huge population and industrial base. Germany had bad strategy, not a bad position.

Animats 10y ago
In the years just before WWI, the Balkan Wars involved the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary, which were great powers in their day. There was also that little problem in the Russian Empire in 1917. The latter part of the 19th century had the unification of Germany, the Austro-Prussian War, and the Franco-Austrian War of 1859. The United Kingdom managed to keep their wars far from home for the latter half of the 19th century, except for a problem with Ireland.
- nickik 10y ago
  Yes the Balkan Wars involved Great Powers, but its not like we have no wars that 'involve' great powers now (looking at you Syria). So again, from 1870 until 1914 there were very few wars, the hole population of europe basically had not experienced war. I would thus argue that the world of 1914 was not more inherently in a great power struggle then we are now.
restalis 10y ago
Crimean War was not limited at all. It was waged in way larger area than just Crimea, and here I mean not only the Black Sea surroundings. It also had a Baltic Sea, a White Sea and even a Pacific theater of war, with close to two million people involved directly. Although not as big as the entire chain of Napoleonic Wars before, it was major and extensive nevertheless.

by nickik 10y ago

Animats 10y ago

In the years just before WWI, the Balkan Wars involved the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary, which were great powers in their day. There was also that little problem in the Russian Empire in 1917. The latter part of the 19th century had the unification of Germany, the Austro-Prussian War, and the Franco-Austrian War of 1859. The United Kingdom managed to keep their wars far from home for the latter half of the 19th century, except for a problem with Ireland.

nickik 10y ago
Yes the Balkan Wars involved Great Powers, but its not like we have no wars that 'involve' great powers now (looking at you Syria). So again, from 1870 until 1914 there were very few wars, the hole population of europe basically had not experienced war. I would thus argue that the world of 1914 was not more inherently in a great power struggle then we are now.

restalis 10y ago

Crimean War was not limited at all. It was waged in way larger area than just Crimea, and here I mean not only the Black Sea surroundings. It also had a Baltic Sea, a White Sea and even a Pacific theater of war, with close to two million people involved directly. Although not as big as the entire chain of Napoleonic Wars before, it was major and extensive nevertheless.