preventing ww1 is like preventing nuclear armament - you’d have to convince all the major powers to renegotiate all of their treaties and alliances and make them trust each other by being more vulnerable.
You couldn’t do that today, let alone 120 years ago.
Considering that all the major nations upper classes where willing to send their young over the top to get a few inches of french soil I would say it would take a lot of talk to get them to calm down. Some countries where willing to go to war because they didn’t want left out. It was also an age of honour and national glory so people are high off nationalism and the next fix is going out for a good fight.
preventing ww1 is like preventing nuclear armament - you’d have to convince all the major powers to renegotiate all of their treaties and alliances and make them trust each other by being more vulnerable.
You couldn’t do that today, let alone 120 years ago.
Considering that all the major nations upper classes where willing to send their young over the top to get a few inches of french soil I would say it would take a lot of talk to get them to calm down. Some countries where willing to go to war because they didn’t want left out. It was also an age of honour and national glory so people are high off nationalism and the next fix is going out for a good fight.