WWI

>pointless war
How? Everyone had a 'point', a reason for being involved in the conflict. From wanting to achieve something through the use of arms to simply defending oneself, neither are pointless.

>"Don't trust the Austrians" - Frederick II
>"Don't trust the Austrians" - Bismarck
>"Dude let's help the Austrians lmao" - Wilhelm II

But why?

Explain the reasons for each player then.

What makes you think Hotzendorf didn't plan the assassination?
The Austrian military was performing drills at the border, on a very provocative day, and the Archduke who was a thorn in pretty much every Austrian politician's side had lackluster security. IIRC one of the assassins came up to him threw a bomb and missed.

I think Austrian brass was pretty much split when it came to the war, but it was the Hungarians who were truly retarded and wanted the war at all costs, when the war started there were mass celebrations held in Budapest. Although some of them managed to wise up obut nly after things went south (Istvan Tisza for example).

Ah yes, its the "it's the fault of one of Serb, and not of the pent-up dissatisfaction of Germany and Austria over the balance of power in Europe and the configuration of colonies in the world, mainly in Africa" reasoning which seems to simply avoid the fact that Germans and Austrians have been pushing for a war since before 1912.

>Ferdinand was the guy who pushed for federalization of the empire and giving equal status to Slavic lands
Almost half a century in due, Pan-Slavic tendencies would've never taken a hold over the Slavic parts of the Monarchy if it weren't for the Austrians and Hungarians constantly undermining their rights.

The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 was probably one of the greatest acts of discrimination in modern European history.

Not him, but.
Austria ran up against a wall, and had nowhere to expand to, whereas other countries had colonies it had just a port in China. Serbia seemed like the easiest choice.
Germany was afraid of how powerful Russia would become if it managed to industrialize and had to prevent that from happening (even tho Bismarck wanted to keep Russia allied). Pretty much throwing Bismarck's plans out the window made the war inevitable here.
France was concerned about Germany because of the defeat in the Franco Prussian war and was looking for a rematch (with Russian help).
Britain only wanted to maintain the status quo, and joined because they didn't want one power to completely dominate Europe, they estimated it was Germany, and were correct in their assumption.
Belgium was a roadblock to France, and Serbia was a prime target, but proved a tougher nut to crack.
Italy wanted to stab Austria in the back, because muh terre irredente

>France was concerned about Germany because of the defeat in the Franco Prussian war and was looking for a rematch (with Russian help).
France was certainly not looking for a rematch in 1914. As in those in power, the government elected by the people. They actively did not want war, telling their ally not to go to war, actively hindering its military preparation, and it took a German ultimatum asking to hand over border defenses, forts and cities for them to refuse - which is already way out there in the unreasonable wacko land.

>Pretty much throwing Bismarck's plans out the window made the war inevitable here.

Yes and no. Bismarck counted on Russia being the natural enemy of Britain, but that factually ceased to be reality once Russia and Britain ended the Great Game and created the Anglo-Russian Entente in 1907. From then on, Russia was a threat to Germany.

I honestly think that if Russia wasn't completely cucked out of Afghanistan and access to India by British shenanigans, they would never focus on Eastern Europe and all that panslavist nonsense.

Austrian Monarchs were famous for having lackluster security. Archie Duke wasn't special
>Empress Ass-Assinated.
>Heir went bonkers and killed himself, admirer.
>Franz Josef himself nearly assassinated.

They didn't want war then and there, but revanchism was on the rise.

>From then on, Russia was a threat to Germany.
Well Willy II not being interested in continuing with the Reinsurance Treaty has a lot to do with that. The Russians wanted to be friends as late as 1890 and although who knows what the end of the Great Game would have brought had the Treaty not been ended, Russia as a threat to Germany is also the Germans' own doing.

>Germany was afraid of how powerful Russia would become if it managed to industrialize and had to prevent that from happening

More the reason to believe in the theory that claims that Germany had financed the rise of Bolshevism in the former Russian Empire.

If it was on the rise (after a couple of decades for some reason), why was an anti-revanchist/anti-war/socialist platform the most successful and in power?

By yes and no I meant it was both Russian and German fault that their alliance prospects went down the shitter, nobody can blame it just on Germany alone.

>telling their ally not to go to war

The French guaranteed assistance to the Russians in a war against Germany and without this guarantee Russia wouldn't have become involved in the Austro-Serbian conflict.

The German ambassador in Paris demanded to occupy the fortresses Verdun and Toul for the time of the war as a pawn for French neutrality but this was already after the French guarantee to Russia and thus had nothing to do with the French involvement.

Not him, but because of the African crises that had occurred a few years prior (Morocco/Tangiers). Mostly due to Wilhelm's incompetence and bluster.

The crazy part is, as recently as like 1905, the French hated the Brits even more than the Germans. Wilhelm II undid centuries of hatred across the English Channel in like a decade.