Source Records of the Great War V5 - A.D. 1917 (Paperback)

Source Records of the Great War is a collection of documents by European leaders leading up to what we now call "World War One." The author, editor and compiler of these documents concludes, "The Great War could no more have been avoided than an earthquake or any other cataclysm of Nature's Unknown Forces." This is the first volume in a seven volume work. The author-editor starts with a 47 page summary of the reasons for the war. He to some extent debunks the claims that the war was caused by the June 28, 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, by Gavrilo Princip, who, as he points out, was a mere boy aged 18. How could the actions of such a boy lead to the deaths of 15 million of people. He states that no proof was produced that the boy was part of a larger conspiracy or that he was acting under orders of the Government of Serbia. He concludes that the Assassination of Arch-Duke Ferdinand merely provided the pretext for the war. Austria was already planning to start what they expected to be a brief and successful invasion of Serbia. Austria was later utterly surprised when Russia pledged to come to the aid of Serbia and mobilized. Germany then declared war on Russia and then attacked France through Belgium. It was the attack on innocent Belgium that brought Britain and later America into the war.