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"They're mobilizing their army, they clearly mean to invade us" WW1 is the quintessential example of nation states misunderstanding each other.
by dsfyu404ed 7y ago
"They're mobilizing their army, they clearly mean to invade us"
WW1 is the quintessential example of nation states misunderstanding each other.
- dragonwriter 7y agoNo, its the quintessential example of fail-deadly systems, and nations misunderstanding the strategic and tactical environment. Every major power bought into the myth of offense dominance (which WWI proved fairly decisively was a myth), and so developed mobilization plans that were essentially designed to preempt any enemy attack and put those mobilization plans on hair trigger since being slow to deploy to an offensive posture was viewed as guaranteeing defeat should war erupt. Germany's mobilization plans against France actually involving occupying Belgium are a fairly extreme example, but the trend was universal among the major European powers. It wasn't that they misunderstood each other, it was that they misunderstood the context.