> The First World War did not arise from a vacuum, it was merely the accumulated atrocities of a century of Imperial expansion, turned inward in a final paroxysm of violence as the Great Power system of the 19th century imploded under the weight of its own contradictions.

A stupid and historically ignorant thing to say. The "Great Power system" avoided a general war for 100 years, but every system needs some maintenance when conditions change. "Germany going from a collection of principalities to the most powerful nation in Europe" was one of those conditions. The Ottoman Empire decaying was another.

It was not "the accumulated atrocities of a century of Imperial expansion" that brought on the Great War.