3 ms·

You can use the unstable sand pile analogy to describe the state of Europe at the time. The assassination was the last grain of sand that triggered the collaps

• dragonwriter 8y ago
  > You can use the unstable sand pile analogy to describe the state of Europe at the time. Or, if you want to be direct a d literal, you can note that a key feature of great power relations was belief in (what is now recognized as the myth of) offense dominance—the belief that the technology of the day rendered the power that attacked first an overwhelming military advantage, such that in the face of likely impending war it was critical to attack first. It was literally an inverse of MAD.