@theSexualHarrassmentPanda:
Desire for empire is not, in itself, evil.
Yes it is! Name one empire that hasn’t been built upon slavery and exploitation. Rome had slaves, the British Empire used slaves, and so forth and so on.
Slavery in and of itself is not wrong. The Bible had strict regulations on slavery but it was still condoned. It was even possible to buy your way out of slavery.
Slavery became wrong when it was based on genetics and not actions. Enslaving an enemy soldier as a servant is not wrong. Enslaving a person because they have more or less melanoma in their skin is wrong.
See the difference?
Germany entered the war, at least publically, to support the Austrian-Hungarian government from falling to terrorism and restore order.
No that isn’t true. Germany never intervened in the Serbian situation nor had any intent to. In fact they used the assassination as a pretext for a much wider conflict. It had been coming for years but they still initiated it.
Hence the term “at least publically” in my sentance. Publically they entered the war to help their ally who had been suffering under terrorism. Privately, I don’t know the reasons. I presume they wanted some of the disputed territories on the french/german border.
Russia was the only nation to figure out they were in the wrong and stop,
Funny how they only realized this after 3 1/2 years of fighting, and in which they were on the losing side. In 1915 when the war on the Eastern front appeared to be going well for Russia they were as gung ho as anybody.
Well, they still admitted they were wrong. Russians have always been a little dense. Heck, the put up with socialism for that long only because they refused to admit that capitalism was better - not because they liked socialism. No one LIKES having snow-mobile engines in their cars or no oil to heat their homes or extensive lines for toilet paper. Why do you think the gov’t had to forbid its citizens from immigrating?
So it took em 3.5 years to realize they were loosing and this was not their war to fight AND that maybe they were on the wrong side. They still realized it.
Now, alterior motives for Britian, France, Russia, Italy, etc were the same as for Germany and the Ottomans. They wanted more land. They all wanted more land.