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>Remember, World War 1 was caused by a terrorist attack of a bunch of pretty much irrelevant Serbian nationalists. There are people who don't remember it in th

>Remember, World War 1 was caused by a terrorist attack of a bunch of pretty much irrelevant Serbian nationalists. There are people who don't remember it in that way. World War I was caused by a complex web of alliances and power struggles between major powers in Europe. I guess that a simplified narrative is preferable to some people for various reasons? Perhaps because of some Cold War mentality, where perspectives of the "east" side are commonly brushed aside in contemporary Western history-writing? It is often ignored that Austria was historically a much larger country, and that many of the smaller cultures found it a very negative experience to be subjected to Austrian domination. For example, before Czechoslovakia emerged, there were other parallel society-building movements within Austria such as Sokol, etc. Many of those that wanted to be free from Habsburg didn't think of themselves as "irrelevant", and they didn't have the ambition to create a global war. (and yes, I know it was technically Austria-Hungary, but Austria was the de facto dominant part)

mschuster91 5y ago
> There are people who don't remember it in that way. World War I was caused by a complex web of alliances and power struggles between major powers in Europe. Sure it was, but the actual trigger that caused the house of cards to collapse was said assassination. My point is: we have a lot of high-tension conflicts and issues that can explode openly (all the things I listed up, plus more like unresolved post-colonial ethnic conflicts in Africa). And the amount of potential triggers is just as shockingly large as they are all trivial. Let's say some North Korean hackers manage to deal a devastating cyber attack on Ukraine while successfully masquerading as Russian hackers, some remnant-IS terrorists blowing up a Saudi oil facility while appearing to be Iranian operatives, Taliban acquiring a Pakistani nuclear device and blowing it up on the Indian border, a tired Taiwanese air defense operator mistaking a Chinese provocation flight for an actual invasion, or Trump becoming the next US President and deciding to help out Netanyahu's reelection campaign by droning some Iranian general to pieces again. All of this can very easily and unpredictably happen, and the international attitude for cooperation is at a pretty low point.

mschuster91 5y ago

> There are people who don't remember it in that way. World War I was caused by a complex web of alliances and power struggles between major powers in Europe. Sure it was, but the actual trigger that caused the house of cards to collapse was said assassination. My point is: we have a lot of high-tension conflicts and issues that can explode openly (all the things I listed up, plus more like unresolved post-colonial ethnic conflicts in Africa). And the amount of potential triggers is just as shockingly large as they are all trivial. Let's say some North Korean hackers manage to deal a devastating cyber attack on Ukraine while successfully masquerading as Russian hackers, some remnant-IS terrorists blowing up a Saudi oil facility while appearing to be Iranian operatives, Taliban acquiring a Pakistani nuclear device and blowing it up on the Indian border, a tired Taiwanese air defense operator mistaking a Chinese provocation flight for an actual invasion, or Trump becoming the next US President and deciding to help out Netanyahu's reelection campaign by droning some Iranian general to pieces again. All of this can very easily and unpredictably happen, and the international attitude for cooperation is at a pretty low point.