Talk:World War I/@comment-169.244.225.2-20131216164550/@comment-1509826-20131216165458

Its very complicated, The Austrian hungarians were oppressing the Serbians, so a group of Serbian anarchists killed the heir to the throne, so the archduke declared war on Serbia, the Russians were alied to Serbia so they declared war on Austohungaria. The Germans were allied to the Austrians, so declared war on Russia. But the Russians were also allied to the French, so the Germans declared war on the French. Then they invaded Belgium to have tactically advantage against the French, the British were allied to Belgium so they declare war on Germany. Meanwhile the Germans were allied to the Ottomans, so they also declared war. Then following the Germans attacking American ships, the Americans declared war in late 1917, shortly before the Russians pulled out. I always like to think of it like a school fight. You know, one boy punches another, his friend punches him, the first boys friend punches him, and it escalates like that.