World War One Anniversary is a Time to Worry About Today’s World

June 28, 2024, marks the 110th anniversary (my, how time flies) of the spark that lit Europe on fire in 1914; the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. This political murder set in motion what is called the July Crisis, leading to Austria-Hungary declaring war on Serbia exactly one month after the assassination.  World War One had begun.

Europe in World War One

Like most wars, the First World War had, seen especially in hindsight, many preliminary events leading up to the outbreak of war.  From the ongoing hostility between France and Germany following their 1870-1871 war, to the dismantling of Ottoman Turkey’s African and European holdings in the Italo-Turkish War of 1911 and the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913. The death of one man (and his wife) led to the worst, most bloody and destructive war in human history. To that point in history, at least.  

This war, begun by Austria-Hungary to “punish” the Serbs for the assassination, but really to eliminate the independent nation of Serbia, was imagined by the Austrians as a relatively short, victorious war. It was far from that.  As the various allied nations joined into the fray, the history of the world was forever changed.  

In the aftermath of this conflict, empires fell, Communism gained a powerful hold over Russia, Germany began a quick descent into chaos and economic, cultural, and political ruin that led in part to the rise of Hitler and a new world war a generation later.  Also, despite President Woodrow Wilson’s naive claim that this was the “War to end all wars,” the aftermath of World War One spawned over a dozen new (or, sometimes, continuing conflicts), in Eastern Europe and the Middle East that raged on, in some cases, until 1923.  In some sense, World War One continued on for millions, even as American troops sailed home victorious.  

Of course, when the Serbian terrorists killed Franz Ferdinand, and then a month later, the Austro-Serbian war began, no one could imagine what these acts would lead to.  

Today, as we see wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, some historians and analysts see these, and other world conflicts and situations, as precursors to a potentially more global war, a new Third World War.  A critical lesson to be learned from the start of World War One, 110 years on now, is that it is very easy to start a war, but impossible to see how it may grow, and how it could end.  The world is at a precarious point, very similar to the pre-World War One years.  Are we approaching a Third World War? We need to be very thoughtful of what may happen next.