In my AP Euro class we've been learning about European history starting from the renaissance up until imperialism (we're still learning stuff) and I started to think about what I've been learning so far. I was thinking like this: Louis XIV racked up lots of debt for France and France rose and fell under him. The debt that France incurred was one of the factors that led to the French revolution right after the American one. The French revolution was a mess of many phases like the great terror and after some time republics and empires came until Napoleon III came to power. Napoleon III was defeated by some Germanic states later on that eventually led to the unification of the German Empire. There were tensions between the Ottomans and Russians due to some reasons I can't remember (wars due to the holy land or something and defending Greece for some reason) and Russians with the Austro-Hungarians for some other reason I can't remember. These tensions between powers were then set free to wreak havoc on Europe with the assasination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Gavrilo Princip. I'm pretty sure I got some facts wrong in my way of thinking, but would it be plausible to argue that Louis XIVs reign as absolute monarch of France led to WW1? Please correct me for whatever I made a mistake on. Thanks!
So you’ve actually hit upon a very complicated problem that faces historians that being determinism. So for us humans we live in a linear timeline meaning past events are set in stone we cannot change them or their outcomes. However future events are not as of yet determined and is open to change. When the past was taking place though their future is are past or present meaning to them the history we record is not happened yet and open to change. It’s easy to draw a neat line from point A to point B on a history timeline and say x event or person caused y event hundreds of years later. However it is usually not guaranteed when x is taking place that it will lead to why. There is other a hundred years beaten Louis and WW1 with literally countless people and decisions taking place beaten them that can alter history. So to sum it all up you should be cautious for looking for the cause of an event the further you go along the more deterministic your point becomes and the more problematic it becomes easier. WW1 happened for a lot bigger reasons close to its start date. For example imperialism, militarism, and the alliance system of Europe all were bigger immediate causes. If we start going further and further back you can literally say well the Fall of Rome set off the chain reaction of events that caused WW1. I know that’s probably a little ridiculous and I’m being hyperbolic but yeah be cautious about deterministic thinking. Hope this helps sorry if I just sorta disregarded your question.