Was WWI a just war?

Question

Excerpt from the Catholic Catechism:

The strict conditions for legitimate defense by military force require rigorous consideration. The gravity such as a desicion makes it subject to rigorous conditions of moral legitimacy. At one and the same time:

- damage inflicted by the agressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave and certain

- all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective

- there must be serious prospects of success

- the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders gravers than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modern means of destrucion weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.

These are the traditional elements enumerated in what is called "just war" doctrine.

The evaluation of these conditions for moral legitimacy belongs to the prudential judgement of those who have reponsibility for the common good.

With this information: Was WWI a just war?

Answer 1

WWI was a stupid war. Not a just war. This was not a war of good versus evil. It was a war of idiots. Each side sure they could win and willing to slaughter a generation to proof it. Over 12 million died with no real winner , just losers. The end of the war planted the seeds for the next war so even the end created more losers. Truly this above all other wars was a war for the idiots.

Answer 2

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the introduction of new, horrible weapons such as poisonous gases, U-Boats, bombs, tanks, trench warfare (with the deadly "no man's land"), and since the war included nearly all of the major countries in the world made the people of that time believe that there was no way future generations could make the same mistake after knowing the horrors of WWI. Basically WWI was the most brutal, horrible war to occur in history at the time that it occurred, so no body thought that there was any way there could be another war to follow it. unfortunately they were wrong, but i hope this answers your question.

Answer 3

Good, thoughtful question. My answer in a word is NO, it was not justified by the criteria you mention.
I thought this sounded like Thomas Aquinas in his "Summa Theologica" (written ~1270 CE), so I checked the text and added a link for you below if interested.
The United States involvement in World War II is thought by some (including me) to be about as "just" as any war can be considering the monstrosity of Hitler and the Nazi's, but it's difficult to find much moral justification for any of the countries in World War I.
Some might say that France and Belgium were attacked and were justified in defending themselves. Britain and the United States were not directly invaded, so they are on shakier ground.
Woodrow Wilson was idealistic and thought it might be "a war to end all war" which was really wishful, naive thinking.
I think U.S. involvement in WWI was more a matter of making sure that New York and Chicago bankers did not lose money since they had loaned heavily to France and Britain. If the Allies lost, these debts would go unpaid. That is not a "just" cause for over 100,000 American young men to die.

Answer 4

Was Ww1 A Just War

Answer 5

All wars are sad, When diplomacy fails or some half crazed lunatic decides to wipe out a race of people, or attack without provication. the world must act, and do whatever is needed to protect the innocent. Because it's just a matter of time until they get around to you or me. And the number was not just 12 million killed in WW2
it was closer to 60 Million. And everyone here has failed to
mention Pearl Harbor, we did not attack first.
Doesn't really matter if it was just or not it became necessary. So all other arguments are pretty lame. Though there will always be people who believe you should bury your head in the sand and ignore other people's plight. One day , most likely not in our lifetimes though man will find a way to co-exist
with his neighbors and stop killing.

Answer 6

WWI was just a continuation of centuries of European power struggles. There was no justification.

Woodrow Wilson 'sold' the idea of a just peace to many Europeans; but Congress did not back him up (our peace treaty with Germany was ratified in 1925), and power politics prevailed (punish Germany, no navy no army).

So even the end of WWI just set up Europe for WWII.

Answer 7

A just war will never happen, in the past, present or future.

Most wars will be fought by soldiers yes, by those that wore uniforms or those that fought without, however, the most casualties sustained will be civilians, no matter what.

Many of the past wars are bloody, *shrugs* but none of them are just, like the Holy Crusade, Mongols invasions, North vs South in continental America.

Answer 8

austria hungry had a responsibility and a right to attack serbia for what it did

members of the serbian government used a civilian to assassinate a member of the austrian royal family who was next in line to rule. the serbia refused to apologize and insulted the entire country.

that back then was more than enough to go to war for and perfectly justified

you have to look at it in context

Answer 9

There's no such thing as a just war. There's just war.