Für Jahrhunderts war Europa das am wichtsten Region in westlich Weltpolitik. In unsere moderne Welt, viel Dinge wäre denn von Europa. Beispiel, in osten Asien, China hatte Tee und Seide und einige Gewürze. Europa wollte Gewürze als sie sind sehr wertvoll für viele Zwecke. Diese Zwecke schließen Medizin, Religion und Reichtum Status ein. Leider konnte der Klima die Europa nicht die Gewürze sie anbauen wollten. China hatte alles es hatten, Leute kam zum Indien und Amerkicas (in die 14. bis 15. Jahrhundert), waren zu frieden mit ihre Leben. Geographie spielte ein sehr wichtige Rolle in ein Reich machen. Es ist stark zum Indien ohne ein Grenze mit der Alantisches Ozean gehen, denn beide die Schwarzes Meer und Ostsee kann Blockade bei andere Landes sein. Man konnte durch die Schwarzes Meer gehen, aber die Osmanisches Reich wurde Steuer dich, welche ist die ganze Grund Europa begann zu die Alantisches Ozean gehen. Deshalb zum Biespiel, in die im 16. Jahrhundert, Polen-Litauen werden nie ein koloniales Reich. In die 14. bis 15. Jahrhundert, Europa war arm welche Gewürze wichtig sollten werden. Das Muster von Erkunden und Suche für Reichtum wurde fortsetzen für Jahrhundert, werdend die Kolonial Reichs und später die Global vernetzt Welt, wissen wir heute.
Why the standard explanation of World War I doesn’t add up
World War I would change the world, but the conflict is often simplified to fit a simple narrative for academic curricula. Some simplifications are detrimental to understanding the conflict; among these simplifications is the question of who started the war. Many students become confused as textbooks start in 1914 with one cause and end in 1918, blaming a country that was not mentioned in the initial event that supposedly led to the war. The question is a complex one and should be given a proper explanation. This is a concise yet accurate explanation, making it easy to read in a few minutes.
For centuries, the German-speaking regions of Europe were loosely united as the Holy Roman Empire. But this loose unification collapsed when Napoleon pressured Austria to dissolve the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. After that point, the two prominent German-speaking countries of Prussia and Austria fought for influence over their smaller, less influential German neighbors. Since the reign of Frederick the Great, the soldier king of Prussia, Prussia had been known for its military prowess, and in 1866, Prussia’s military reputation was solidified as Prussia won a war against Austria to gain influence over the smaller German states. In 1870, the French declared war on Prussia, and the Prussian government made the war about unifying against a common enemy of the German states. Prussia won, and the German Empire was declared in 1871 at Versailles. The German Empire took territorial concessions from France, known as Alsace-Lorraine. European leaders were now concerned about a strong, industrial, high-population Germany in the center of Europe. Ever since Napoleon's defeat, the European states had decided to create the Concert of Europe so that no one state could become more powerful than the others, to keep the peace and the status quo. Germany’s creation already started concerns about the balance of power, and various leaders tried to maintain the system; among these leaders was Germany’s new chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, who wanted to keep peace in Europe. After German unification, Germany sought to integrate into Europe by gaining colonies and forming alliances, which by the 1890s became a “we fear Russian power and
encirclement” alliance.
The Kaiser dismissed Bismarck in 1890 and did not renew the Reinsurance Treaty with Russia, which had committed both states to neutrality if the other entered a war, with limited exceptions. Bismarck’s dismissal was a loss for the emerging situation in Europe, as Bismarck was a very calculated man in an increasingly complicated European situation. The fear of Russia only increased in the years following Bismarck’s absence. The Kaiser wanted to secure Germany’s place on the world stage, which led to a naval arms race with Britain starting in 1896. In the years after 1895, Germany increasingly challenged influence in the British and French colonial territories in Africa. Germany supported Austrian interests diplomatically in the Balkans during the Balkan Wars from 1912 to 1913. Leading up to 1914, Germany caused disruption within the delicate European order by its creation, territorial gain from France, arms race with Britain, and colonial interference with both British and French colonies.
Map of Europe before World War I
When Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by Serbian nationalists, the Austrians wanted to do something about Serbia. Germany issued Austria-Hungary a ‘blank cheque,’ signaling that Berlin would support Vienna’s actions regardless of the consequences. This potential invasion of Serbia concerned the Russians, as the Russians have, historically and to this day, seen themselves as protectors of the South Slavs and Orthodox Christianity. So while it might have taken the Russian military a long time to mobilize, the French army also began mobilizing, as they were Russia's allies. Then the British started mobilizing, following the invasion of Belgium, and before people realized, World War I kicked off in earnest, and unlike what people believed at the time, it would not end by Christmas. It would last four years with numerous deaths, and soon would change the world forever.
World War I has often become a smaller footnote in history, overshadowed by the even more destructive Second World War and the looming fear of nuclear annihilation during the Cold War. Yet it remains one of the most complex and misunderstood conflicts in modern history, both in its scale and in its profound influence on the events that followed. World War I was not caused by a single assassination or a single nation, but by decades of structural change, mounting fear, and repeated miscalculation—none of which can be understood if the story begins in 1914. When responsibility for such a complex system failure was concentrated almost entirely on Germany, the resulting resentment and instability helped create the conditions for an even broader, more devastating conflict to emerge only a generation later.
Map of Ukraine highlighting temporarily occupied territories since 2022.
It’s been four years since the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In those four years, Russia has justified its war with many historical misconceptions.
Among the misconceptions is the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, where the newly independent Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan gave up their Soviet nuclear weapons to Russia. In exchange, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Russia all agreed to respect the territorial sovereignty and security of the newly independent countries. Since its signing, many people have criticized the deal, saying that Ukraine should not have given up its nuclear weapons. Still, the reality is that had Ukraine kept them, they couldn’t have used them because the controls to launch the weapons were in Moscow’s hands, and logistically, Ukraine was in no position to maintain the weapons, even if they had launch controls.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has often said there was an agreement that NATO made with Russia not to accept new members east of Germany. Since then, NATO has expanded east of Germany into former Warsaw Pact and Soviet territory. Putin believes that the agreement has been broken by NATO. In reality, there is a 2014 interview with Mikhail Gorbachev where he clarifies that NATO said that it wouldn’t expand into East Germany during 1990. This was before German unification, before the Soviet collapse, and only a few months after the Berlin Wall fell. The status quo hadn’t changed much to create new agreements on Eastern Europe. Countries in Eastern Europe gained their independence in 1991 and gained the right to have sovereign integrity, and they chose to flock west to the Western alliances of NATO and the European Union.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the collapse of the Soviet Union was “the worst geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century”. This statement glosses over many tragic events, from war to famine to genocide that occurred throughout the century. The Russian narrative often says that Russia has “never invaded other countries”. This is not accurate as powerful states have invaded weaker states throughout the course of history. But few have outright said that they have never invaded anyone. In the 20th century alone, Moscow sent troops into 20 countries, either by retaking former Empire lands like Ukraine, annexation of the Baltics, World War II invasions to push Germany back, or Cold War interventions in the Eastern Bloc. In the Eastern Bloc and former socialist republics, Russia actively Russified the people by doing its best to strip the non-ethnic Russians of their identity. Russia is attacking the nation of Ukraine by stripping the Ukrainian identity of the local people in the temporarily occupied regions of Ukraine. The most notable ways Russia has russified the people include giving Russian passports to the citizens, taking children away from their parents, and having the people of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk vote in the 2024 Russian presidential election.
Another argument that is often brought up is that Ukraine is a very corrupt country. Russia claims there are many corrupt leaders, and so Russia needs to liberate the people from the corrupt government. Russia often says that there are Nazis in the Ukrainian Government, which is not accurate. While some Nazi paramilitary groups formed after the invasion of Crimea, these groups are not in charge of the government. The current Ukrainian president is Jewish, has family ties to Holocaust victims, and ran on an anti-corruption platform in 2019. In reality, since 2013, Ukraine has ranked above Russia in corruption. According to Transparency.org, in 2025, Ukraine ranked 36th out of 100, and in the same statistic, Russia ranked lower at 26th out of 100. Of the 180 countries the organization surveys, Ukraine ranks 104, and Russia ranks 141 as of 2025. In the modern day, it is important that we remember that a war is not just won on strategic decisions on the battlefield. This war has been fought since 2014, and it’s only been a full-scale invasion since 2022, when everyone, from politicians to citizens of western countries started giving Ukraine attention.
Eastern Europe does not have easy-to-understand Western comparisons, as the countries are deeply divided due to Russian influence; this includes elections. Imagine you run on an anti-corruption platform and then your country is in the midst of an active war where ~20% of your internationally recognized land is under foreign occupation. Would you trust the election results when the enemy often puts people at gunpoint to choose the “correct” candidate? Citizens of a country should vote freely, not under pressure. It is against the Ukrainian constitution for the country to hold elections under martial law.
The roots behind the current invasion go very far back. The historical roots have always been there, ever since the Russian Empire. We need to remember that this is not just territory and strategic decisions on the battlefield. This is also an information war, an economic war, a trade war, and a war of national identity. It has escalated so far and has completely upended the status quo that we’ve had since the end of the Cold War, and really since 1945. This war is not just about territory; it is about whether a nation’s identity and sovereignty can be erased, and whether the post–Cold War order still means anything.
