> WWI was the stupidest war ever. Politically speaking, I mean. It started because one man was killed, and at some point, peoples decided the Germans had lost. Really, it was pretty pointless.
>
> 'tienne

The assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was only the spark that set off the whole war. Conditions in the Balkans made it pretty certain that a war could have broken out there at any time after about 1905, it was - and is - an unstable region. The reason it got to be more than just a regional war was because most of the European nations had signed treaties with other nations, and had to fulfill their obligations under the treaty. No one country was actually responsible for the war, if I had to blame anyone, I'd blame the Austro-Hungarian empire.

jon