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