America enters the War, the controversy

[dead-cat]

Versailles is definetly more relevant to WW2 than say, a sack of rice tumbling in Pommerania (to use a butterfly-theory comparision, not to make fun of your statement of course).
there are indeed a line of more or less relevant events with more or less of an impanct to the start of WW2, whith the most important being those that left post-WW1 problem unsolved in a way that they won't be acceptable on the long run.

of course there are scenarios which, being perfectly reasonable, might have led to something diffrent than WW2 (or the way and degree that it happened). one of them being, for example Hitler not surviving in prison and a NSDAP failure at the '33 elections with a less charismatic leader. or for example the USA not withdrawing politically and together with the UK forcing a lifting of the economical aspects of Versailles which might very well have made a victory at the '33 elections of the NSDAP unlikely.

by the time Germany stopped paying, 1932, eventhough the sactions were not lifted, the damage was allready done. the reparations crippeled the economy in the 20ies and the reaction posibility to the great depression was close to zero.
together with unresolved population issues (placing sudetenland under czech control and various other regios with german majority in Poland, not to speak about austria), french behaviour in saarland and rhineland led to a political and social climate which brought what we know that it brought.

[Imperialist]

Russia saw fit to start the war over Serbia. Russia ordered general mobilisation and refused to stand down despite German calls to do so. Germany could not have stayed out while 93 russian divisions and 11 serb divisions faced 48 austro-hungarian divisions.

[sid guttridge]

Hi Imp,

Russia ordered a general mobilisation nearly four weeks after members of the Austro-Hungarian and German foreign ministries and general staffs began colluding secretly for A-H to go to war with Serbia with German backing. Indeed, they colluded to keep from the German Kaiser the fact that the Serbs had given in on almost every Austro-Hungarian ultimatum demand until it was too late to stop A-H declaring war. When the Kaiser finally saw the Serb concessions, he thought they were acceptable. Too late!

The Russians were certainly part of the chain that turned what might have been the Third Balkan War in three years into a World War, but they weren't the trigger. The responsibility for the outbreak of war lies with a relatively small number of war mongering German and Austro-Hungarian officials.

Cheers,

Sid.