All, We probably have had this before.
What is rather confusing is the war goals of the combatants prior to the outbreak and for the 1914 months.
There are a few explanations to this of course.
The lack of stated war goals could easily be as WWI might have been seen as a continuation of the wars of nobility fighting nobility, using country resources. In essence: a war just for the hell of it.
No national war, no total war, no peoples war. Just the usual wars.
If we look at possible war goals, we might see:
AH:
dismembering Serbia
Knocking Russia back with some decades.
They could not hope to 'conquer' Russia and what would 'conquer mean in this context?
Germany:
Isolate France - but a war should not be needed for that
Knock Russia back ?
Italy:
Grabbing Trentino. That I can understand. that is clearly spelled out
Russia:
Promote slav entity?
It does become a bit fuzzy.
Let us look at the obvious one's:
France:
Take back A-L from Germany
Promote disunity of Germany - back to small city state
AH:
Secure Silicia
Dominate Romania
Make Bulgaria a vassal
Tell Italy to not sob after Trentino and the rest of the Balkans.
Occupy Ukraine (????)
Germany:
Grab Northern France and Belgium - unite the Ruhr
Occupy the channel ports - make UK interference difficult
Settle the Baltic - St. Petersburg, Riga, etc etc
If these were real goals, and were pursued, we could have seen a different WWI - maybe?
In the good tradition of this site, could we list war goals and the consequences of pursuing these?
The above is still fuzzy to me
Ivan
What is rather confusing is the war goals of the combatants prior to the outbreak and for the 1914 months.
There are a few explanations to this of course.
The lack of stated war goals could easily be as WWI might have been seen as a continuation of the wars of nobility fighting nobility, using country resources. In essence: a war just for the hell of it.
No national war, no total war, no peoples war. Just the usual wars.
If we look at possible war goals, we might see:
AH:
dismembering Serbia
Knocking Russia back with some decades.
They could not hope to 'conquer' Russia and what would 'conquer mean in this context?
Germany:
Isolate France - but a war should not be needed for that
Knock Russia back ?
Italy:
Grabbing Trentino. That I can understand. that is clearly spelled out
Russia:
Promote slav entity?
It does become a bit fuzzy.
Let us look at the obvious one's:
France:
Take back A-L from Germany
Promote disunity of Germany - back to small city state
AH:
Secure Silicia
Dominate Romania
Make Bulgaria a vassal
Tell Italy to not sob after Trentino and the rest of the Balkans.
Occupy Ukraine (????)
Germany:
Grab Northern France and Belgium - unite the Ruhr
Occupy the channel ports - make UK interference difficult
Settle the Baltic - St. Petersburg, Riga, etc etc
If these were real goals, and were pursued, we could have seen a different WWI - maybe?
In the good tradition of this site, could we list war goals and the consequences of pursuing these?
The above is still fuzzy to me
Ivan