100 years ago today, July 28th, 1914, Austria-Hungary Declared WAR on Serbia. And so begins "The Great War", World War I:

FirstWorldWar.com

The Timeline


Photographs taken then, superimposed on the same places today:

WWI photographs superimposed into modern times - Telegraph

 

Um i was going to say old news but...

 

Yeah, for a second the first thing that came to mind was. "Again?!"

But yeah, wow, 100 years it's been. It's kind of crazy to think that it's been that long ago.

 

What do you mean Arkduke Ferdinand is dead?!

 

It is history.

 

Look if Serbia didn't want war they just should have acceded to all those ridiculous demands the Austrian-Hungarian Empire made that were clearly a pretext to start a war between Austria-Hungary's allies and Serbia's allies that had been viewed as basically an inevitability for years.

I mean, you don't build up all those arms and then decide to NOT use them, right?

 

I have no clue why but I read this as Austria declared war on Serbia as a modern-day event.

 

So it happened, people died.....a lot.........a looooooooooootttt

 

That War also cause a Famous People to become Legends and Monsters.

 

Because he said "Declares" not "Declared" which doesn't even work with his lead off in the OP. Thread title phishing fail.

 

I don't even know what this means.

When I wrote this and the Franz Ferdinand thread, I wanted to give a sense of what was happening then, as if it were news today since both have their centennial anniversaries this year. I'd think that was obvious, but I'm of the older generation where you don't need to explain these kinds of things. Does that clear things up?

 

 

Good I was not the only one  .

Yup 100 years ago The War to end all Wars began , sadly it proved to be anything but that.

 

Indeed, it borders on click bait. A very important day in history none the less.

Don't forget Wolfguard, with the sadly unstable condition of the world right now, sometimes if you just see the word WAR you just panic a little inside. I appreciate where you are coming from, but it's a touchy subject.

 

It means you made it sound like Austria and Hungary were declaring war right now in the thread title, only to lead into a sentence that is refering to past events. It's present tense becoming past tense. I'm just pullin' your leg, man. Poking fun at the shift in structure.

So you're calling me dumb because I'm younger than you? I guess I'm just of a younger generation that puts proper sentence structure over making it sound like old news is new news.  

 

The alliance system...it will prevent wars they said, it will be fun they said.

Archduke Ferdinand might just be the person whose presence (or death) in the world shaped the entire course of the 20th century.

 

With all due respect to the man, if he hadn't caught a bullet with his neck, some other reason would have sprung up to precipitate the war. The situation was that much of a powder keg, just waiting for any spark to set things off, and the assassination was just the volatile element that managed to pop up first.

Duke had a bitchin 'stache, though.

 

C'mon, the Archduke was totally asking for it! After all, he DID yell "Take Me Out!" to whoever would hear it...

I'll leave now

 

It was absolutely meant to be "bait," but not for myself; for the history that so many people these days don't care about. The story of these men and women who fought and died in this war should never be forgotten, especially on the 100yr anniversary. It's not just a pivotal moment in modern history, but in human history as a whole.

This day is only like any other when we forget...

________

It's absolutely intentional because 1. I want to try and get people today to feel a sense of what it was like for people 100yrs ago finding out the very same "news". It's important to get a sense of and understand how real these people and events were - that they aren't just a movie; they are moments in history which changed the world we live in today. And 2. this history is important to us all. It was war on a most unprecedented scale, and led to an even greater conflict years later.

I don't hold back my opinions. If I was name calling or if I thought you were such, you could quote me word for word because I'd say it. My point was I don't see generations after mine understanding the significance of doing such things, nor being at least a little familiar with the history being referred to. Yes, I'm generalizing. I've seen enough people misquote speeches or not even know dates of recent events, let alone historical ones, and it seems to have gotten worse with my generation onwards...

In either case, this isn't about you or me. It's about people who were in the middle of the crossroads of history and sacrificed more than any of us here can comprehend...

 

Title changed...

"S" becomes a "D".

 

I'd be surprised a nation had the balls to officially go to war nowadays.