The gun that started WWI. - eviltoast
  • ComradeSharkfucker@lemmy.ml
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    10 months ago

    Obligatory “the assassination of archduke Ferdinand didn’t start WW1 because the material conditions and economic systems at the time would have eventually demanded it regardless; the assassination only acted as a catalyst” etc etc

    Still very cool though

    • DaCookeyMonsta@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      It still started it. Just because you throw a match onto an expanding pool of gasoline surrounded by candles doesn’t mean you didn’t start the fire.

    • Bondrewd@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      That was never the issue sharkfucker. It was indeed about the fact that it went down exactly like this. Between countries with balanced military might.

    • TWeaK@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      WW1 started because Friedrich Wilhelm wanted to fuck his mum.

      In particular, his left arm was fucked during his birth (and they basically tortured him through his childhood to try and make it right), and he had a strange obsession and wrote many letters to her about dreams where he would caress his mother’s left hand.

      Learning about his life made me realise that calling someone a “mother fucker” is a serious insult because you’re saying they’d fuck their own mother - none of this step-dad bullshit.

    • Diplomjodler@feddit.de
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      10 months ago

      If Willy Zwo hadn’t been such an totally moronic asshole the war likely wouldn’t have happened.

  • owenfromcanada@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Did anyone else think there was a tiny suit of armor with a giant hand holding the gun?

    Just me?

  • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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    10 months ago

    Food for Thought:

    The Black Hand actually achieved their goals with the assassination. They were arguably the only responsible party to benefit from the war.

    They were a Serbian nationalist group hoping to start a war that would result in the creation of a “Greater Serbia,” a state where Serbia dominated the regions around them.

    After the Austro-Hungarian Empire was dissolved, Yugoslavia was created, led by a royal Serbian house, capital in, you guessed it, Serbia, dominating the surrounding regions.

    The moral of the story is assassinate more members of the monarchy, it will be fine in the end, probably.

  • shalafi@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Despite being a 1911 fanatic, and loving John Moses Browning’s designs, somehow I was taken aback by how modern this looks. Maybe I expected a revolver?

    Next time someone says a .380 is underpowered, “Well it was enough to start WWI pal!”

    Joking aside, this pic seems like an anachronism, even though I know for a fact it’s not.

    • HonoraryMancunian@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      From the pic it looks exactly like the royal armouries in Leeds. Maybe all history-of-weapons-based museums look the same

      • MelonYellow@lemmy.ca
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        10 months ago

        Yeah, this pic might be from the Royal Armouries in Leeds actually. The gun in Leeds is the same model and similar serial number, close in production. But the original .380 FN 1910 serial 19074 is supposed to be in the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum in Vienna.

    • 0xD@infosec.pub
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      10 months ago

      I haven’t been there in quite a bit, but that doesn’t look like the museum at all. The museum in Vienna has the car with the bullet hole and clothing of Ferdinand on display, but not the gun.

      • MelonYellow@lemmy.ca
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        10 months ago

        Yeah I just replied to another comment, but the pic might be from the Royal Armouries in Leeds lol. I was just saying that the original gun is supposed to be in the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum in Vienna. Could be they had it out on loan elsewhere the time that you went? Anyway I can’t look it up now; seems like the website is down.

    • bob_lemon@feddit.de
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      10 months ago

      Technically, that weapon is the opposite of forgotten. Being in a museum and all.

      • probablynaked@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Haha, yeah, it’s more a community for historical / vintage / antique weaponry. It would be right at home there!

  • Bone@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Is there a significance to it being in what looks to be a skeleton hand? Would think a simpler display would show off the gun more easily.

      • solrize@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        It’s just symbolic? I thought it looked like a remotely operated gun and I thought TIL.

    • BoxOfFeet@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      This is 100% speculation, but I wonder if it is to deter or protect against theft. It’s a big welded steel hand, with a steel finger through the trigger. The thumb looks like it is riveted on. You smash that window, you’re not just grabbing that and running. You’re going to need an angle grinder.

    • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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      10 months ago

      The Nazis started WW2, the Versailles treaty blame is historical cope. Many nations have had more onerous reparations after losing a war than Germany did.

      The Great Depression was a far bigger factor in the economic struggles of the Weimar Republic, so, honestly, if you want to blame indirect historical circumstances instead of the Nazis it’s America’s fault.

      • Cagi@lemmy.ca
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        10 months ago

        What many nations do doesn’t matter, political movements are made powerful by feelings and there are plenty of primary sources talking about the inevitability of another war largely because of the treaty of Versailles and how the Germans felt about it. The great depression was another factor, certainly, but the German people didn’t consult a chart to see how they ranked in reparation costs before deciding to go Nazi. It was still an unfathomable large number for the time that took them over 90 years to pay. It also had a bunch of other restrictions beyond monetary compensation, like harsh limits on their military. People were angry. German people suffering because of the actions of the Kaiser was a huge sore spot and we musnt ignore it.

        • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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          10 months ago

          You admit it yourself, the terms of the Treaty didn’t matter. The Treaty did not really matter, the Treaty was just an emblem of their loss.

          What mattered was the resentment of losing a war they thought they should have won, sharing a national delusion that it was the fault of anything but gleefully fighting a war against most of the neighbors, and the only way to prevent that would have been to eradicate them as a nation, as some French and British leaders wished, but America refused and counselled against.

  • taanegl@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    I’m about to steal it and find some key person that’s important form world peace and clackalack all of us into world war 3.

    De ting go SKYAT - PAP-PAP-PAP - and a DOOF-DOOF-PAP.