There are a great many historians who discuss the world from 1848 (time of the european revolutions) and 1871 (time of eurpoean nation building) and how those events directly affected world war I. The world was poised for decades for a war to occur. It was anything but a surprise.
That's simple - Satan and his buddies had calculated the 2520 years starting from 607 BCE. They arrived at 1914 and hence the build-up to make grounds for fulfilling the signs of the end.
Actually I think earthquakes are the most stupid part of "the sign of the end". For reasons I mentioned here:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/12/88072/1.ashx
Pole