To What Extent Can It Be Said That 20th Century Wars Are Not Caused By One Country Only?

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To What Extent Can It Be Said That 20th Century Wars Are Not Caused By One Country Only?

        In 1919, the Treaty of Versailles placed all war guilt for the First World War upon Germany and no other countries were found to be even partially responsible for it. It stated that Germany was the only country to have triggered it by encouraging Austria to attack Serbia and had to accept full responsibility for the damages of war. However, as well as it can be argued that such was the right decision, it is also discussed that other countries, or even all countries involved share the blame.

A German historian, Fischer, studied German archives, focusing on important figures. He concluded that Germany was prepared for the war in order to become a greater power and encouraged Austria-Hungary to go to war with Serbia, even though it was known that other countries other than the two would be involved. Also, the German aim to gain Lebensraum in central and Eastern Europe motivated it into war. Fischer even accuses the German government of planning the outbreak of the First World War. His view was that Germany was solely responsible for the war.

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        However, most factors that are said to have provoked war or at least facilitated it have more than one country concerned. For example, the Alliance system, that started as far back as 1881 between Austria-Hungary and Serbia against Russia and later on encircled Germany, who felt threatened by three countries Britain, France and Russia and seeked further alliances with Austria-Hungary to protect from Russia. These alliances also caused and aggressive environment between countries who were clearly taking sides against each other and making agreements for the events of a war before it even began.

        Militarism was also a factor that ...

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