Was Germany responsible for the outbreak of war in 1914 ?

of the recent changes, had perhaps more effect on the attitudes toward war than the actual trends did. France’s declining population had a tremendous effect on its citizens and policy makers. The French began to develop a sort of inferiority complex. No longer did they make up the lion share of Europe’s inhabitants. Even Italy, it seemed, would soon overtake France. The decline in population meant that France could not compete with the military manpower of Germany, Austria-Hungary or Russia. Any alliances between those three countries would spell doom for France. France was very wary of Germany. Fearing an invasion, France began to forge alliances with Great Britain and Russia. Britain had also grown quite wary of Germany. Although the population of Great Britain had grown steadily, it was eclipsed by the rapid growth of German society. Britain soon found that its dominance as an all-around world power was being challenged. Great Britain viewed a healthy, growing population as key to being a major power. Since Britain’s population had begun to decline slightly, they felt they were losing stature in world politics. Germany was even challenging Britain for colonies. The result was a great animosity between the English and German cultures. The fact that Germany had the fastest rising population in Europe was a source of great pride to the Germans. It gave them status as a legitimate world power, with the rights associated with any great empire. Germany felt they deserved colonies and to be treated as at least an equal in world trading. But, just as Britain and France were warily watching the growth of Germany, the Germans kept a close eye upon their Cossack neighbors to the east. The Russians had always been a concern to Germany. There had been struggles for power and disputes over border territories for centuries. In the early 1900’s, though, Russia was rapidly growing into a superpower. It’s population, like Germany’s, had doubled in sixty years. A population of 111 million meant that Russia could raise a massive army. Some estimates put the number of troops in Russia around 1910 were close to one million. What Germans did not take into account was that, although Russia had a large army, it was spread out too far to be effective. The Russian troops had to be called up from across a huge country and mobilization could take months. The cause of World War I cannot be primarily attributed to any single act of any one nation. To arrive at a reasonable conclusion one must consider all the underlying factors, weighting each one's liability to the cause. I can't understand why the blame would fall exclusively on Germany as the fundamental instigator. This War was caused by the incitement of the Euro arms race, nationalism, antagonisms, and secret alliance systems. With Europe just ending their industrial revolution, all nations were increasing their standard of living and military power. This economic growth, combined with the ability to engage in mechanized war, gave industrialized nations an advantage over others, thus establishing them as super-powers. Each one was expanding their military powers and putting their militant plans into action, thus causing tension between the great nations. A fundamental development to the cause of the War was the Euro-alliances: the Triple Entente (Great Britain, Russia and France) and the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy). These great nation rivalries, as tremendous as they were before, became one major conflict with 'ColdWar-like' arms races and antagonisms, and nationalistic pride among their politics and citizens. Germany's own folly was with her Austria-Hungary alliance. Austrian nationalists were inarguably a major instigator to the War. Austria-Hungary was Germany's most trusted ally and Germany would not let harm come to her. Germany had no choice but defend Austria-Hungary against their Serbian rivals. Germany was unaware about Serbia's alliance with Russia and soon found themselves at war with the other super-powers of Europe. As the past records, Germany and her allies were the primary instigators to the War. This conclusion cannot truly serve a just ending to this chapter in history, as it would be a wrongful ruling against Germany. Without blame there is no cause for this situation to have happened. In the final analysis Germany was not the only one who was expanding her empire. The varying demographic changes that were taking place all across Europe effected the war climate in many ways. The rapidly growing German population created a rise in German nationalism. The Germans felt, and rightly so, that with the largest and fastest growing population in western Europe, they were a major world power. The Germans demanded colonies and actively sought them. To compete with England, they increased spending in the navy greatly. To compete with Russia and France they also increased military spending intensely. The result was an arms build up in Europe. Each country was trying to compete with the rapidly growing Germans. Great Britain felt that the majesty of the British Empire was going to be eclipsed by the Germans. No longer did Britain have a growing population, as a great nation must have. Britain grew wary of the Germans and began to increase naval and military spending. During this time the French were the hardest hit, though. France’s population had barley grown four million people in sixty years. France believed they could no longer compete with the nations that surrounded her militarily. France became fearful of another German invasion and sought refuge with the British and Russians. The Germans also sought alliances to defend against a combined Russian-French campaign into Germany. Germany signed treaties with Austria-Hungary and Italy. Europe was completely divided along two lines, the Alliance and the Entente .From that I would say that Germany is the responsible country for war but in an explicit way because they gave the ultimatums the countries in the Triple Entente.