Yeah I remember seeing some such stuff Terribulus, on The History Channel.

Although of course it was a programme debunking myths.

All opinions of course, but you and your mate with toy soldiers insist on opinions you like being the truth.

First was that if our attitude, both government and family, towards The Kaiser had been a bit less of humiliating him, the doves in his government may have prevailed.

Second was "poor little Belgium." We were busy negotiating an imperial pact with Belgium to help them out of their empire hole. Our experiences in South Africa and growing discontent in India meant the damned scrap of empire was crumbling. Ulterior motive in our relationship with Belgium, and Germany, not to mention Austro Hungary etc were needing stable trading in far shores.

Any thoughts of western powers showing concern for the citizens of neighbours are rather far fetched to say the least. It was greedy government being assured by incompetent military that "going for gold" will sustain the empire and give German imperialism a bloody nose.

So much for your side show eh?

Al is spot on. I visited some of the Boer War sites the other year and the visitors' centre at Spion Kop, run by us by the way, not South Africa, has a section showing how mistakes in South Africa were merely repeated in Europe and how Kitchener was allowed to carry on bungling till the end of 1915 when the government had had enough of his poor leadership and bad planning.