>>513479177
France was still seething over losing land in the Franco-Prussian War, so they wanted an excuse to retake Alsace and made noises indicating they'd back the Russians. Germany reacted by pre-emptively declared war on France, and started marching through Belgium to get the initiative
Britain was wary of Germany's expanding navy, and while a very energetic British foreign secretary had tried to facilitate negotiations to avoid a full-blown continental war, once things started going to shit the British government decided to just go for it and join in because the current government was on the verge of collapse and it needed something to divert public attention
After 3 years, Britain and France were absolutely fucked and went to the Americans to beg for help. President Wilson wasn't interested, but a load of his closest advisors were yids, so Britain and France proposed to back a Jewish state in the former Ottoman Empire if the Americans joined the war