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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 11, 2023

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The assassination did kick it off like the first domino falling, though. I agree that political tensions and ambitions amongst the European powers, with their interlocking web of treaties, alliances, secret understandings, and backstabbing had drawn tighter and tighter so that war was on the horizon anyway, and the Balkans were a powderkeg so that once war was declared everyone immediately started trying to make advances into that territory, but the assassination was the spark that lit the conflagration.

The Austro-Hungarian empire was shaky, the dynasty was nowhere near as solid as it looked, and there was plenty of scandal affecting various members of the imperial family. Kill the heir presumptive (who has succeeded to that position after the deaths of other, closer members and who can't have legal heirs of his own due to the morganatic marriage) and you immediately knock away an important support for the entire structure. You can't expect that to have no repercussions, even if the whole of Europe then leaped upon the chance to settle scores, win territory, and advance their own interests.