World leaders have commemorated the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I by warning of lessons in the face of today's crises, including Ukraine.
"Peace has to be a shared goal," Belgium's King Philippe told leaders gathered in his country's eastern city of Liege. "World War I reminds us to reflect on our responsibility ... to bring people together."
Leaders from across Europe - from Britain and Ireland to Germany, Austria, Bulgaria and Malta - attended the commemoration at the Allied War Memorial of Cointe.
French President Francois Hollande recalled Germany's invasion of neutral Belgium in August 1914 that turned what had been a Balkan war into a global conflagration, raising present-day parallels.
"How can we remain neutral today when a people not far from Europe is fighting for their rights?" Hollande said, clearly referring to the Ukraine crisis.
"How can we remain neutral when a civilian airliner is brought down ... when there is conflict in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Gaza?" he told an audience that included Britain's Prince William and wife Catherine, heads of state and representatives of about 80 countries.
German President Joachim Gauck said Berlin had launched the war based only on "military logic", when Europe "must actively champion freedom, the rule of law, awareness, tolerance, justice and humanity".
The leaders gathered in the industrial town of Liege because fighting there had barred the way to invading German troops in early August 1914.
Liege's fierce resistance derailed Berlin's plans for a quick victory, while Germany's invasion of Belgium formally brought Britain into the war, as interlocking alliances that were meant to preserve the peace plunged Europe into the abyss.
The rest is history: 10 million troops dead, 20 million injured, millions of civilian victims, empires toppled, the world remade.
Early on Monday, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and his New Zealand counterpart, John Key, paid tribute to the thousands of their countries' soldiers who died far from home.
The conflict "was the most cataclysmic event in human history", Abbott said, "and arguably gave rise to communism, to Nazism, to World War II and the Cold War".
After Liege, it was the turn of Mons on the French border to remember a do-or-die rearguard action by the first British troops committed to the war as London and Paris scrambled to prevent a German breakthrough in late August.
Prince William, his wife, brother Prince Harry and British Prime Minister David Cameron attended the ceremony in Mons where the first British soldier died.
Cameron called on the world to "never fail to cherish" peace.
"Here on the continent of Europe we saw not the war to end all wars, but the precursor to another desperate and violent conflict just two decades later," Cameron said.
"We should never fail to cherish the peace between these nations and never underestimate the patient work it has taken to build that peace."
Meanwhile, homes, businesses and landmarks across Britain turned off their lights from 10pm to 11pm (0700 to 0800 AEST on Tuesday), inspired by British foreign secretary Edward Grey's famous remark on the eve of war.
"The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime," he said in despair.
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