HISTORY 1DD3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Archduke Franz Ferdinand Of Austria, Reinsurance Treaty, Austria-Hungary

• School: McMaster University
• Department: History
• Course: HISTORY 1DD3
• Professor: Stephen Heathorn

Document Summary

First world was wasn"t an accident or inevitable or the sole result of structural/long-term factors. It"s not the case that the well-established and rampant militarism, rival nationalisms, competing imperialisms or alliances caused the ww1. These factors shaped the conflict developed when the war was declared. Reason it broke out in 1914: far more to do with contingency, the perceptions/misperceptions of statesmen and human agency. Leaders of the great powers of europe chose to go to war in 1914 because (for different reasons) believed that war was the best alternative given the various situations. Europe"s leaders, war was neither unthinkable or a last resort: war was an option, a tool in their diplomatic toolbox. Once the war was decided, its character and course was shaped by long term processed and turned into a far different and more wrenching conflict than what was foreseen. Module outlines the diplomatic environment which decision makers made their fateful decisions and explain the reasoning behind decisions.