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1. 1. The Long Fuse

   An Interpretation of the Origins of World War I

   

   A concise interpretation of the origins of the 1914–18 conflict that traces the war not to a single incident but to decades-long developments — rival nationalisms, imperial competition, an escalating arms race, entangling alliances, and repeated diplomatic crises — which together created a combustible European political culture; the narrative shows how short-term misperceptions, rigid military plans, and diplomatic blunders during the July Crisis transformed the assassination of an Austro-Hungarian archduke from a spark into a general conflagration, arguing that systemic pressures and human error combined to make a large-scale war increasingly likely if not strictly inevitable.

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