RÉCIT – The comparison between the war goals of the belligerents and the outcomes achieved is cruel. It outlines, for Europeans, the contours of a collective suicide. This article is taken from Figaro Histoire “1914: how to trigger a world war“. Find in this issue a dossier to understand everything about the escalation that, from a localized conflict, led to the ignition of the European continent.
“1914, how to trigger a world war” Le Figaro Hors-Série
In his Intelligence de la politique (1977), Jules Monnerot sought to define the concept of “historiographic contradiction,” summarizing it as the contradiction between the action projected and the action completed. History has proven rich in events and situations that escaped the actors who conceived or engaged in them, often resulting in outcomes that were the opposite of what was initially expected.
From this perspective, the First World War constitutes a case study, insofar as, according to historian Christopher Clark, the “sleepwalkers” who triggered it in 1914 had no inkling of the extent it would take or the catastrophic consequences it would have for old Europe.
Read also: Before the First World War, the first French industrial decline
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