In 1914 five European Great Powers went to war. How did this escalate into a 'world war' involving nearly all European countries and many internationally?
In 1914 five European Great Powers went to war; as did the smaller states of Serbia, Montenegro, Luxemburg, and Belgium. Because the European empires covered so much of the world, large parts of Africa, Asia, and Australasia also found themselves involved, although at first the non-European Great Powers were not participants, and much of Europe itself stood aloof. By 1917, in contrast, nearly all the European countries had become belligerents, as had Japan, Turkey, the USA, China and Brazil, and the war had impinged radically even on the countries that still remained neutral.
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