Out of all of the participants in World War I, the most curious, in my opinion, is Great Britain. With the English Channel guaranteeing a navally superior Britain could guarantee its independence indefinitely, joining a world war does not seem like the obvious move to make. Despite this, on August 4th, 1914 Britain was at war with Germany. In my paper, I will argue that the invasion of Belgium provided the catalyst for a great power conflict due to the institutional, material, and personal realities that set the two nations on a collision course.