World War I

The year 1914 saw the establishment of God’s kingdom in heaven, as Biblical and historical material combine to show. One evidence of this is the outbreak of World War I in that year, in fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy. (Matt. 24:6, 7) The 1967 book The Origins of World War I​—1871-1914 observed about this war:

“Few events compare, in impact and terror, with World War I. It destroyed two empires, that of the Habsburgs and that of the Ottoman Sultans. It altered two others, that of the Hohenzollerns and that of the Romanovs, beyond recognition. It created a host of new nations in Europe and overseas. It gave birth to Communist rule in Russia and provided the background for Fascism in Italy and elsewhere. In its course, roughly twice as many people were killed as in all the wars of the preceding two centuries added together, the Napoleonic Wars and the American Civil War included. It also maimed, in body or spirit, many of the survivors and laid the ground for an even more destructive World War II.”​—Page v.