In 1904 things were tense.
Japan and Russia were at war, a group of russians mistook a bunch of british fishing boats for a japanese naval task force and fired upon them, killing most of the fishermen, the one surviving boat fled west the task force followed it and by happen stance ran into a british naval vessal and attacked it, sinking it and killing every one on board.
But not before they sent out a message about the attack.
Great britian declared war on Russia, France declared war on Great britian, germany saw an oportunity and declared war on both France and Russia, Serbia declared war on austria hungry who then declared war on russia and France, Italy then declared war on france and Russia, and it seems like every balkan country declared for one side or the other except greece.
The war then spiraled out of control and became a global one, but what if the dodger bank incident didn't happen or was less sever? What if it didn't lead to a world war?