World War One

There were no good guys in the first world war.

Discuss.

I dunno, on paper Britain is pretty good - Rushing to the aid of Belgium on some 100 year old mostly forgotten treaty and helping France when they themselves weren't attacked.

Of course there were wider political shenanegans afoot, but you get those with all countries.

no good guys in the first world war
More or less true. A larger-than-usual pissing contest, with really nothing at stake other than the egos of (some of) the top players.

Except for the one objective that got just about all the Big Ones ganging up on Germany: Slapping Germany down for being clever.


Thing is, before 1870, there was no Germany, just a bunch of independent German-speaking states bound extremely loosely together in some sort of union. Then they were gradually united under one single government, with the final step being in 1870.

The world's first reaction to that, was France immediately declaring war. Message was clear: A united Germany was an intolerable abomination to the Greater Powers That Be.

And so the first thing the unified Germany had to do, was defend itself against an unprovoked attack. However, the French had underestimated just how modern Germany was: While the French soldiers had to march the whole way to the front, the German troops could just take the train (arriving well rested and fully equipped, as well as battle-hardened from the recent unification war). And keep in touch with their superiors via telegraph. Result: German victory. Battered French ego.

(And, contrary to the pig-ignorant jokes: not one surrender-monkey in sight. The French fought hard, but they were in over their heads.)

And after 1870, Germany grew into an economic powerhouse of (to the Brits&French) unsettling proportions. The Great War of 1914 was a chance-in-a-lifetime to stop this abomination.

And, of course, there had by now been over 40 years of peace (at least as in "no war"), and so the officers Germany now had, licked just as much bag as the Allied ones. Result: stalemate, until the Yanks came and rattled the balance.

Hence this great need to beat the Germans. And, of course, the Versailles Treaty. Result: Germany broken and battered. And wanting revenge, eventually setting the stage for one mr. Hitler...


tl;dr: Closest thing to Good Guys were the Germans. But they lost the war and got all the bad press.

>Britons
>good
The British were a ruthless imperial force who even went against their treaties with allies in order to further their colonial ventures. They were scum.

Those 1917 Russians seemed pretty legit for a couple decades there, wouldn't you agree, comrades?

June 28, 1914

To kick off their long awaited, pre-planned World War, the New World Order gang uses "Serbian Nationalists”. An NWO secret society known as Young Bosnia , possibly working with The Young Turks, plots the murder of an Austrian Royal.

Serbia is an independent, Orthodox Christian nation under the protection of Czarist Russia. Because of Disraeli's past schemes, many Serbians also live under  Austro-Hungarian rule (in Bosnia) instead of under the Serbian or Russian rule. This arrangement has always caused friction, both within A-H, and also between Russia and A-H.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand is heir to the Habsburg Family throne of Austria-Hungary. While traveling through the Bosnian city of Sarajevo  with his wife Sophie, a bomb is thrown at the Archduke's open car. He deflects the bomb with his arm and it explodes behind him.

The royal couple insists on seeing all those injured at the hospital. After traveling there, they decide to go to the palace, but their driver takes a wrong turn onto a side street, where another Serbian assassin named Gavrilo Princip spots them. Princip shoots Sophie in the stomach and Franz in the neck. Franz is still alive when witnesses arrive to give aid. His dying words to Sophie were "Don't die darling. Live for our children."