Then they committed suicide

That WWI was waged for motives of prestige, the brittle brand of honor, is only half the story. 

WWI's carnage also wiped out much of Europe's best in a sort of reverse evolution, the survival of the least fit. Europe's elite had degraded. 

First they waged a world war, and then they committed suicide. This time it was not God Who turned His face but those who would best have carried His word to glory.