Entangled Alliances

I surprisingly remember when World War I was covered in my junior year in high school clear back in 2003.  The one event that triggered all nations to go to war was the assassination of the heir to Austria's throne along with his wife by a Bosnian youth simply for avenging seizure of his country.

Prior to this time nations had been developing things for war.  Warehouses were turned into factories everywhere.  Countries started to get a little paranoid and made alliances with other countries.  The kind of mentality of, I scratch your back, you scratch mine when it itches applied.  These entangled alliances continued to expand until all the nations as a whole appeared to look like that of a huge bowl of spaghetti or a woman's mind (in the scientific fact that everything relates to something or another).


photo by docman / Ard Hesselink

If these entangled alliances wouldn't have existed, WWI most likely wouldn't have even occurred.  Austria would have duked it out with Servia and that would have most likely been the end of it.
Instead:

• Austria moved to war against Servia, 
• Servia's russian alliance came to the call of action against Austria
• germany promised to aid austria
• french backed up russian allies
• mobilization orders went throughout all of Europe & WWI begins.

One thing I'd be curious to find out if an element of history could be changed, how much different would the war have been if countries wouldn't have even started to make weapons of war prior to the assassination of the  heir to the Austria's throne with his wife?  Would the mentality of the necessity or inevitability of going to war exist or would some sort of peace arrangement get developed in the place of war?