Laurence Lafore World War 1 Summary

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Laurence Lafore’s interpretation of the causes of World War I are quite different than many of the common perspectives that are portrayed in many writings about the Great War. Rather than focusing on the ambitions of Germany, he suggests that Austria-Hungary and the Balkan Peninsula are at the center of the reasons that the war started. In his eyes, the ethnic composition of Austria made it exposed to the events that transpired, and its makeup also weakened the Austrian government in its ability to manage the situation following the assassination in a prompt and resolute manner. The volatile situation in the Balkan Peninsula, especially after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the First Balkan War, only further weakened Austria’s ability to handle the nationalistic problems presented before it. According to Lafore, these problems had been gradually intensifying in the peninsula, and the assassination was the …show more content…

A variety of factors in the Balkans played defining roles in the outbreak of the war, with the ethnic arrangement of the Austro-Hungarian Empire being the foremost Balkan problem. He claims that because its ethnic variety, it was hard for the government to efficiently establish permanent solutions to its problems. Thus, the empire was vulnerable to the actions of unpredictable Serbian nationalists residing within its boundaries. Ethnic tensions also made it difficult for the government to retract or delay its decisions to take action. Lafore considered Austria to be a sick man, just as the Ottoman Empire was often labeled as. He went as far as to suggest that Austria-Hungary would fall to a fate of overwhelming Balkan nationalism, just as the Turks did, who were ultimately ran out of the peninsula, if Austrian leaders made bad judgements in policy. Trouble was also stirred in the Balkans by Russia, who often saw the peninsula as part of its

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