Comments by "Laurence Fraser" (@laurencefraser) on "Henry Stewart History" channel.

@bunkie2100 The circumstances that lead to the war going how it did rather than being a bunch of seperate conflicts spread out over time or superseeded by events falls on all parties. The responsibility for the particular war we Got actually Starting falls very firmly on the heads of a very small number of Austrian officials (and, to some extent, the serbian terrorists who decided the best way to advance their nationalist cause was to assasinate the guy championing a plan to increase serbian autonomy within the empire by eleviating Serbia to the same status as Hungary and Austria. It was the 'Astrohungarian Empire' after all. Said assasination victim also being the primary opponent and voice of reason preventing the warmongers in the Austrian government from actually getting their way prior to that).
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There's a case to be made that you can pin the war going off when and how it did on Austria (and, for that matter, Specific Individuals in the Austrian government actively trying to start a war), But the circumstances of Europe at the time were such a mess that any individual sub part of that conflict could have gone off for one reason or another at around that point (if it failed to for long enough various contributing factors would change for various reasons and who knows what the result of that would have been) and could have caused a similar cascade almost as easily.
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Oh no, you can Very Much pin Most of the blame for the war on a very small number of individuals in a very small number of countries and not be all that wrong at all. Now, for the circumstances that lead to the war going the way it did, and being as much of a disaster for all involved as it was? that's another matter entirely.
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@dexadrinepancake ok, the moment you call the invasion of belgium a 'misunderstanding' you destroy all credibility your argument might have othewise had, regardless of how true it may or may not be, becausee that is just utter Nonsense.
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@DazedandInsane it's more like 'at least back then the problems were more obvious and easier to solve by sticking pointy bits of metal into the appropriate individuals in ways they were decidedly unhappy about'.
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