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Counterfactual History and the First World War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2017

R.C. Van Caenegem*
Affiliation:
Instituut voor Rechtsgeschiedenis, Universiteitsstraat 4, 9000 Gent, Belgium.

Abstract

In the current article the author aims to answer four specific questions. (1) What would have happened if Austria and Serbia had not gone to war in July 1914, which implies an exercise in counterfactual history, and the study of the probable outcome if events had taken a different course? (2) What exactly was Austria’s war aim? (3) What precisely was Britain’s war aim? (4) What would have happened if Britain had stayed out of the continental war?

Type
Articles
Copyright
© Academia Europaea 2017 

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References

1. McMeekin, S. (2013) July 1914. Countdown to War (London: Icon Books), p. 31.Google Scholar
2. Ferguson, N. (2009 [1998]) The Pity of War (London: Penguin), p. 163.Google Scholar