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Appointed Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Prussia by Kaiser Wilhelm I, Bismarck was consumed wiith a desire to acheive the creation of a German Empire out of the collection of smaller German states largly led by Austria influence.
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Almost immediately following her defeat by Prussia in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, together with the humiliating annexation by the newly unified Germany of the coal-rich territories of Alsace and Lorraine, the French government and military alike were united in thirsting for revenge.
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By releasing a doctored version of a telegram from the Kaiser to Bismarck.
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Napoleon III, facing civil revolt at home over quite unrelated matters, and receving encouraging noises from his military commanders responed by declaring war against Prussia five days later.
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Russia, ally of the salvs - and therefore of Serbia - had been struggling to hold back full-scale revolution ever since the revolution in the Japanese military disaster.
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Russia's anxiety tjo restore some semblance of national prestige after almost a decade of civil strife and battering at the hands of the Japanese military.
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Among other set-peices, the Japanese astonished the western powers by destroying the entire Russian fleet at the Battle of Tsushima for the loss of two torpedo boats.
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It's possible to delve deeply into European history in the quest to unearth the roots of the various alliances that were at play.
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The explosive that was World War One had been long in the stockpiling; the spark was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914.
