re: The First World War began 112 years ago yesterday...

WWI started because a bungling assassin got all the luck in the world.
—no, the killing of the future king of Austria-Hungary did not start WWI.

The reactions to it by selfish and short-sighted leaders caused WWI. None of them had to take the steps they chose.

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They felt like they deserved a bigger piece of the pie than what they got.

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No. Had nothing to do with it. They attacked China for several reasons with the biggest being resources and empire expansion. Now, the May 4th movement was chinese anger, not Japan's.

Japan hit Pearl for the same basic reasons: the sanctions due to attacking china and they were backed into a corner over resources.

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No. Had nothing to do with it. They attacked China for several reasons with the biggest being resources and empire expansion. Now, the May 4th movement was chinese anger, not Japan's.

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The May Fourth Movement itself was ignited in May 1919 by the decision at the Paris Peace Conference to transfer those German possessions in Shandong to Japan rather than return them to China. Students and intellectuals saw it as a betrayal of Wilson’s self-determination rhetoric and of China’s own contribution to the Allied war effort. Without the Japanese occupation of Tsingtao and the subsequent diplomatic confirmation of Japanese claims, that particular flashpoint would not have existed. So the capture both physically placed Japanese forces deeper into China and generated the concrete grievance that made the mass nationalist outburst possible.

That sequence of events did not make the 1931 Mukden Incident inevitable, but it raised the stakes, hardened Chinese resistance, and left Japanese militarists convinced that only firmer, more direct control (especially in resource-rich Manchuria) could secure Japan’s position against rising Chinese nationalism that the postwar order had inadvertently strengthened.

So yes, Japanese actions in the 1930s were directly fueled by the events of the First World War.

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Paper agreements are on paper.

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Yes, countries still use them today and still abide by their terms today if they want to maintain the trust and backing of their allies.

Your exact words:

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They (Japan) felt like they deserved a bigger piece of the pie than what they got.

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Germany had the largest contingent of elected socialists of any parliament on the continent of Europe. The British government was run by liberals. The Kaiser and Tsar corresponded with each other in English while the ambassadors of the various powers spoke to each other in French.

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Not sure why that would stop a country from going to war. Never has.

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The assault weapon that started it was triggered by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand using a .380 ACP caliber FN Model 1910 semi-automatic pistol.

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... and ppl say the .380 isn't a good defense round....

I have no idea why the military leaders of the major nations in 1914 were all convinced that it would be a short war of less than one-year in duration. A really thorough understanding of all of the dynamics and factors at play in the military science of 1914 should have indicated to them that it would probably not be a war of less than one-year in duration. They should have known that it would probably be a long war.

You'd think that sometime in 1915 the civilian leadership of the warring nations would have strived to make peace before things got really vicious, but, no.

The world should have found a way to make peace in 1915 with an agreement to return to the pre-war borders.

Very sad.

Post reminded me of the WW1 documentary “They Shall Not Grow Old” by Oscar winning producer/director Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings & Hobbit movies) to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the end of WW1. He is a WW1 buff and major collector of WW1 memorabilia (planes, artillery, etc) as his grandfather was a British soldier wounded on the first day of Battle of the Somme. He was asked to do this by the British Imperial War Museum, and given carte blanche as to the film, only being asked to use archival footage and interviews of WW1 veterans recorded in the 1960s. The materials were so vast he decided just to focus on the British experience on the Western Front. He produced this gratis, taking no $.

The making of the documentary and the technology used is very bit as interesting as the documentary itself.

Good watch for those who haven’t seen it.

Russia mobilizing is what really fricked everything up and got the fuse lit.