Who started the First World War? No, it wasn’t Germany.
It was the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They wanted to attack Serbia but they knew that Russia supported Serbia. They needed a powerful ally.
The German Kaiser was a fool and gave the Austro-Hungarians a guarantee of support and the attack on Serbia started.
Unfortunately, a web of public and secret treaties then dragged in Russia and France, then Britain.
Millions died.
What was the end result? Well, not what anyone expected when the war started.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire and the German Empire were destroyed [along with others] and Russia became the Soviet Union. The British Empire survived but was badly weakened.
What is the lesson we can draw from this history. Just that when a war starts it often finishes in an unexpected way.
Punishing the guilty
After the Second World War hundreds of the guilty were hung or committed suicide. It was different after WW1.
The two people most responsible for the mass slaughter were the German Kaiser and Count Berchtold, the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister. The Kaiser went off to comfortable retirement in the Netherlands and Berchtold retired to his estates in Hungary where he lived until 1942.
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