To what extent was Germany responsible for the outbreak of World War One?
To what extent was Germany responsible for the outbreak of World War One? On the 1st of August 1914 World War One, also known as the Great War, started. The main countries involved were: Germany, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Britain, France and Russia. World War One ended at 11am on 11th November 1918. In 1919, Lloyd George of England, Orlando of Italy, Clemenceau of France and Woodrow Wilson from the US met to discuss how Germany was to be made to pay for the damage World War One had caused. They decided to create the Treaty of Versailles. In this there were a total of 440 clauses. The first 26 clauses dealt with the establishment of the League of Nations. The remaining 414 clauses spelled out Germany's punishment. This makes it seem that Germany was 100% to blame for the war. – But was this really the case? This is what I am going to explain in my essay.Their are many reasons that suggest that Germany was responsible for World War One. The tension in Europe, caused by Germany, really started after The Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), when the German army attacked France. The Germans won this short war. As a ‘prize’ they took the regions of Alsace and Lorraine from France. Alsace Lorraine was a province near the border of Germany and there wasn’t much point of them taking it, only for Germany to have more land. The Germans claimed that the land was rightfully German; the majority of people living here were French however. The French were very upset by this and wanted the land back. This made the French not trust Germany and tension started between the two countries. Another contributing factor to the war was the build-up of tension between Britain and Germany
as a result of Germany's desire to become a naval power. The British believed that the only thing holding their vast empire together was their naval power, and felt threatened by Germany's aggressive naval policy. This caused tension between Britain and Germany. The war should just of been between Germany and France because of Alsace Lorraine but Germany got other countries involved. Germany was worried that France and Russia would become Allies and attack Germany. As a result Germany and Russia became Allies first. But Germany insulted Russia and Russia became Allies with France. If this hadn’t of happened there ...
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as a result of Germany's desire to become a naval power. The British believed that the only thing holding their vast empire together was their naval power, and felt threatened by Germany's aggressive naval policy. This caused tension between Britain and Germany. The war should just of been between Germany and France because of Alsace Lorraine but Germany got other countries involved. Germany was worried that France and Russia would become Allies and attack Germany. As a result Germany and Russia became Allies first. But Germany insulted Russia and Russia became Allies with France. If this hadn’t of happened there would be no chance of Russia and France even thinking about attacking Germany. Germany got very paranoid and therefore created the “Schlieffen Plan” which takes its name from its author, Alfred Graf von Schlieffen (1833 – 1913). Schlieffen argued that if war took place it was vital that France was defeated and as quickly as possible. If this happened, Britain and Russia would be unwilling to carry on fighting. Schlieffen calculated that it would take Russia six weeks to organize its large army for an attack on Germany. Therefore, it was vitally important to force France to surrender before Russia was ready to use all its forces. Schlieffen's plan involved using 90% of Germany's armed forces to attack France. Fearing the French army on the border with Germany, Schlieffen suggested a quicker attack through Belgium. The rest of the German Army would be sent to defensive positions in the east to stop the expected Russian advance.There was one problem in the plan. One major problem that they obviously didn’t think about greatly. Belgium was a neutral country and they were not too happy about Germany’s Army storming through their country. Both Germany and Britain were among the signers of the 1839 treaty ensuring this neutrality. Bismarck warned that this violation would be folly in that it would drag Britain into the conflict. Germany decided to ignore Bismarck and carry on. This suggests that Germany almost wanted Britain involved. When the Germans went through Belgium the Belgium Army was there. They put up quite a fight and this delayed procedures. This meant the Germans would have to work even quicker to get back to Russia before they attack. On the other hand many people argue that it is not Germany’s responsibility for the outbreak of World War One. One of these reasons is because of Nationalism. People across the world were very eager to let the rest of the world see how strong and important their country was. Many people thought that their country was better than others: and thought that they'd be able to win a war very easily if there was one. This means that other people wanted to go to war, for example the British and French were celebrating in the streets when World War One started. Some people argue that World War One was because of forcibly taking control of a small country, also known as imperialism. By 1900 the British Empire extended over five continents and France had control of large areas of Africa. The amount of lands 'owned' by Britain and France increased the rivalry with Germany who only had some small areas of Africa.It could not of been Germany’s responsibility for World War One also because of crisis’s beforehand. These include The Moroccan Crisis and The Bosnian Crisis .In 1904 Morocco had been given to France by Britain, but the Moroccans wanted independence and were supported by Germany. War was avoided, but in 1911, the Germans were again protesting against French possession of Morocco. Britain supported France and Germany was persuaded to back down. In the Bosnian Crisis of 1908, Austria-Hungary took over Bosnia. This angered Serbians who felt the province should be theirs. Serbia threatened Austria-Hungary with war, Russia, allied to Serbia, mobilised its forces. Germany, allied to Austria-Hungary mobilised its forces and prepared to threaten Russia. War was avoided when Russia backed down. These two crisis’s must of cause tension even before World War One and proves that there was a war just waiting to happen. It can be said that war was the logical outcome of tensions leading up to 1914 and no individual country should be held responsible. Germany’s main aim was to retain Austria-Hungary as an ally and that Germany’s actions could be interpreted as defensive, not aggressive.It is also believed that The Great War started in 1914 due to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, by the "Black Hand", a Serbian nationalist secret society. Gavrilo Prencip assassinated Francis Ferdinand, while travelling through Sarajevo, on June 28th 1914. Although this didn't happen in Serbia the Austrian Hungarians blamed them. Austrian foreign minister Lepold Berchtold sent an envoy on July 5th to Germany emperor William 2nd to ask for his support. He was going on a cruise and told him go ahead he had full support of whatever he wanted to do. Austria- Hungary thought this meant war. Therefore Austria- Hungary gave Serbia an ultimatum; Let us find people of this gang or war. This ultimatum was impossible to accept. This angered Austria Hungary and they declared war on July 28th 1914. Both countries began to mobilize. News of this spread throughout Europe and the allies of the countries also prepared for war. The central powers were Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire. The Allied powers were Ireland, Great Britain France, Italy, Greece, Albania, Serbia, Romania, and Russia. This made the two main groups that went against each other in the war. This also made the whole of Europe become part of World War One. From this it could be blamed on Austria-Hungary getting Germany to support them in there own problems, therefore the rest of Europe. The whole issue is extremely complicated however. A lot of information was destroyed because of bombings and the set of 1912 minutes declaring that Germany wanted to go to war could be fake. The Germans could have also changed their mind afterwards and decide that they didn’t want to go to war. A lot of views therefore could be created from incorrect information: stories can always be exaggerated.The question “To what extent was Germany responsible for World War One?” is difficult to answer. It is widely believed that this war was caused by Germany. Germany was accountable for many previous causes but there are many other reasons that led to this war, some occurring as far back to the late 1800’s. The main factors were nationalism, militarism, colonialism and the system of alliances. The alliance system was one of the important factors, which contributed to the war. It arose only because of several other factors, and did not cause the war single headedly. Therefore I think Germany was not solely responsible for World War One, there were many other factors. I also think that the war happened because many countries felt the need to expand therefore causing a major struggle for power. A war cannot be created out of nothing.
