Alternate ways to get WWI started?

I am writing a timeline, and Europe is more or less the same in 1913-14. All of the major countries are there and have the same borders, sans colonies, which are changed a bit. What specific event could I use to get WWI going around 1913-14, considering that Franz Ferdinand probably doesn't exist from butterflies?
 
On January 12, 1914, the anniversary of the founding of the German empire, Germany elevates Elsass-Lothringen to the status of Arch-Duchy. France declares war.
 
Work forward from the Italo-Turk War of 1911, then the Balkan Wars and you can find some number of possible POD's. Can't think of any specific ones off the top of my head, I just remember seeing quite a number in the past. Also, if you can find it, an invaluable resource is Luigi Albertini's most excellent "The Origins of the War of 1914". I can't recommend that work highly enough.
 
1.Serbia yoloing it and invading Austria-Hungary

2.France wanting Alsace-Lorene back and invading

3. Ottoman Empire waning seuz canal

4.Poland wanting independence

These are just some options
 
I am writing a timeline, and Europe is more or less the same in 1913-14. All of the major countries are there and have the same borders, sans colonies, which are changed a bit. What specific event could I use to get WWI going around 1913-14, considering that Franz Ferdinand probably doesn't exist from butterflies?

A small part for the reason of WWI was the jealousy concerning the colonies, especially in Africa. Jealousy from Germany towards the UK and France mostly.

But, like already said and i'm gonna use the proper terms; Europe was a powder keg ready to go off. Something as small as a Serbian coughing into Austria-Hungary, or a random European head of state calling some other European head of state a "cheeky fellow" or simply because one nation decides it is the right time to do a "quick war".
 
The Ottoman Empire was falling apart and didnt have long to last. When it breaks up all the Great Powers of Europe plus Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece try to get themselves a piece of the territorial pie. A fight breaks out over who gets to control the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem several shots are fired and the Son of a National Leader is killed and WWI breaks out.
 
The old 18th Century standby of coming to blows over ownership of some colony or other is never a bad way to go. Alternately, something else Balkans, yeah - maybe something weird like a Turkish-Bulgarian alliance moving against Greece and Serbia, causing Russia to intercede against them and things snowball, I dunno.
 
To get a proper war - rather than just some diplomatic squabbling or a localised conflict - you need a chain of events that goes right up to the Great Powers without being able to be defused along the way. Something in the Balkans is good because it can involve Serbia, which brings in Russia and AH, which brings in Germany who has to go west because that's what the plan say, and that means France and possibly Britain come in. And something Balkan is also small enough, at least initially, for people not to fully realise what they're starting - they can hope that, for example, Russia will back down on Serbia.

Another good one would be picking apart the Ottoman Empire. This is probably another Balkans route though, give the potential for squabbling over Constantinople. Ah, there's just too much potential for trouble in the Balkans.

In contrast I find it harder to see a full war developing from some colonial squabbles. There's just more separation between the colonies and Europe, and less of an obvious path for escalation.
 
In the 40th aniversary of the end of the Franco-prussian war, (1911), a previously unknown group, the "Free Alsace Lorraine", bombed a column of german troops and severall barracks, and declared independence. After that, things go downhill fast.
 
To get a proper war - rather than just some diplomatic squabbling or a localised conflict - you need a chain of events that goes right up to the Great Powers without being able to be defused along the way. Something in the Balkans is good because it can involve Serbia, which brings in Russia and AH, which brings in Germany who has to go west because that's what the plan say, and that means France and possibly Britain come in. And something Balkan is also small enough, at least initially, for people not to fully realise what they're starting - they can hope that, for example, Russia will back down on Serbia.
Plus it'd involve Franz Josef, no better man to turn a minor crisis into a major one with stiff necked arrogance.
 
hell you can have the Crimean war, the Russo-Ottoman war, the Fashoda incident, there were so many pre-WWI incidents
 
Historically the Russian Imperial Council favoured a declaration of war on the Ottomans early in 1914 over the appointment of Liman von Sanders. Nicholas II might have been stupid enough to go along with that.
Apparently they hadn't learned from their last try at a "short, victorious war", what Lynd described as that "most ancient and dangerous of human illusions".
 
Historically the Russian Imperial Council favoured a declaration of war on the Ottomans early in 1914 over the appointment of Liman von Sanders. Nicholas II might have been stupid enough to go along with that.
Apparently they hadn't learned from their last try at a "short, victorious war", what Lynd described as that "most ancient and dangerous of human illusions".

No one ever does...

And weren't the russians always looking for an excuse to go at the Ottomans?
 
No one ever does...

And weren't the russians always looking for an excuse to go at the Ottomans?
Yes and yes. The Russians were planning to attempt to take the straits themselves in 1917.

So maybe the German Chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg, doesn't terminate the von Sanders assignment when Kokovtsov speaks to him (18NOV1913) and von Sanders isn't 'kicked upstairs' and heads off to command Turkish First Army Corps protecting Constantinople. Thr Russians are outraged at this apparant German control of the Ottoman capital and the straits. Sazonov's paranoia would help things along, especially if Kokovtsev is ousted as per OTL.

Diplomatic notes are exchanges, ultimatums issued and the Russians attack. IIRR the plan was to mount an invasion of Constantinople with ~130,000 troops around fifteen days after mobilisation, with earlier mining of the Bosporus and then landing an army corps in Constantinople to secure the straits from landward using commandeered civilian transports. How will the various alliances work out?
 
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