"Wars are caused by miscalculations of the aggressors, and the failure of politicians and diplomats to exercise crisis management" a statement that with respect to World War I is generally true for many of the European empires including those of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia and other nations throughout Europe. World War I or the Great War as was called by it's contemporaries, had been long in the stockpiling; the spark was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, the series of actions that fueled the war was almost a half of a centuries worth of secret treaties and alliance systems along with power struggles of some empires, such as that of Germany for " a place in the sun."

The roots of the First World War can be traced back to the unification of Germany, concluding in 1871, and was carried out by Prussia, under the oversight...