How do I get a war to happen in campaign?

[Xygerii]

I started a campaign in 1890 with Italy. I've been playing for a while and had 2 wars with France. I took Corsica after the first of those wars.
It's now November 1918. For the past 5 in-game years I've had my entire navy sitting outside all the French ports to try to generate tension. The French navy consists of one single TB, and they don't seem to be building anything new. I've been choosing all the options on the random events to harm relations with the French. Every time I get the relations down to -99, it just pops back up to -94 or something similar, with no event showing in the bottom left that would indicate that the French chose to defuse tensions.

The AI Germans and Austrians (the British are bankrupt and dissolved) managed to start a war with France. I haven't been able to join the war, despite having -99 relations with France and good relations with the Germans and Austrians.

What do I have to do to get into a war with France? The first two times it happened this campaign it was the French that acted to start it, and now that I'm trying to start a war I can't figure out how to do it. Is there a big red "Declare War" button which I've missed? I wouldn't be surprised tbh, I'm not the brightest bulb.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[william1993]

maybe it;'s just a bug because all the countries are jacked up (britain dissolves, germany/austria constant warring with them).  Maybe it's just done for

[AurumCorvus]

You really can't declare war with a BRB that says "Declare War". It just doesn't make sense from where you are; you're the head of a navy, not the head of state.

Rather, you should focus on the opinion modifying events with France, and eventually lowering opinions to the point that a war is declared. Also, though the game frames it as France starting the war, it's better to say that "War has broken out between France and [your nation]." RTW uses that phrasing and is much more apt for what is happening. Essentially, you've warmongered and created enough tensions that something, somewhere went wrong and your two nations are now at war due to an unspecified incident.

It's kinda like what caused WWI, with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand causing war between Germany and everybody, but abstracted. Or Japan running short of oil and deciding to attack America in WWII (yes, that's a horrible abstraction, but somewhat true). Or the USS Maine sparking the Spanish-American War.

Wars are "started" by some small event, but you can only affect the chance that such an event goes south as possible. In game, you can think of it as the war declaration as to an event as per what you want to think. There's room for roleplaying/imagination in the game.  

[Xygerii]

Thanks for the clarification AurumCorvus! I'm guessing it may be a bug as william1993 said as relations have been at rock bottom for ages. There seems to be other strange behaviour, like the French only having a single TB and not building any new ships despite having plenty of money. Maybe it's because I started the campaign in 1.06 Live and continued it in 1.07 Live? I'll try starting a new campaign. Thanks for the help!