There is no unanimity among historians - and, in particular, among those who can claim to be experts about the origins of the First World War - about why and how the initial limited conflict, for which the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand served as a pretext, escalated into a war which drew in combatants from more than one continent and led to the deaths and maiming of millions of human beings. There is however a broad consensus about the factors which led to the creation of the League of Nations and which included not only the widespread suffering and devastation brought about by this “war to end war” but also the impossibility of re-establishing the old diplomatic order, which partly resulted from the destruction of many of the old empires.
Even if the United States had not followed a policy of selective isolationism and had become a fully fledged member of the League of Nations, it can be convincingly argued that this institution’s goals were too ambitious and that there was no realistic way, most of the time, of resolving conflicts according to the elevated principles it was supposed to represent. It also happened on...
More >>
