Was the Kaiser the main influence to start World War1?

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Was the Kaiser the main influence to start World War 1?

On the 4th of August 1914, Great Britain declared war on Germany. The Great War lasted 4 years, and its causes date back to 19th century, but was the German leader, Kaiser Wilhelm II the main source in bringing war about.

One major cause of the First World War the alliance system. The alliance system first came into being in 1879, when Germany allied with the Austrian Hungarian empire, and in 1882, with Italy, this alliance was called the triple alliance. The triple alliance worried both France and Russia, who were suddenly surrounded by the members of it. The French made an agreement to assist one another if they were attacked; Britain also joined this alliance system. By the beginning of the twentieth century, Europe was split between these alliances.

Kaiser Wilhelm II influenced the war directly in many ways. In the years leading up to the outbreak of war, Kaiser Wilhelm, who as the British Empire and its navy fascinated a child, started the build up of the German army and navy, this arm build up resulted in a massive arms race between Britain and Germany. The British Navy, and many British leaders questioned the German navy; the British navy was far larger than the German navy, but was spread across the empire, the German navy was heaped up in the North Sea, and as Germany didn’t have an empire to defend, the Navy use was questionable. The German navy was a threat to the British Empire and its trade, so the British built new ships, and the Germans responded by building new ships of their own. This arms race led to massive navies and armies building up.

The aging emperor Franz Joseph ruled Austria Hungary; the country was divided into many different nationalities, and was becoming increasingly difficult to govern. Each nationality had its own culture and language, and many wanted to form their own states. Many Austrian Hungarian Slavs were breaking away to Serbia, and the Austro Hungarians were afraid of this splitting up the empire, Austria Hungary needed to control the Balkans, but the Austrian Hungarians were afraid that if they attempted to invade the Balkans, the Russians would declare war on the weaker Austrian Hungarians, leaving Austria to fight a war on the Russian and Serbian flanks. So Austria Hungary did not at first invade Serbia. On the 28th June, 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a member of the Black Hand Gang, a nationalist Slav terrorist group shot the heir to the throne of Austria Hungary, Franz Ferdinand, twice with a pistol. The emperor, Franz Joseph was furious, and declared war on Serbia, but Austria Hungary wasn’t going to risk a war with the Russians and asked the Germans for help should the Russians invade. When Austria invaded Serbia, the Serbs asked the Russians for help, and the Germans declared war on the Russians. In turn this led to France mobilising for war.

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Germany didn’t want to face a war on two fronts, so it devised the schifflen plan. The schlifflen plan was to invade France through undefended Belgium and attack Paris before the French army moved out from the Franco Germanic border. The Germans could then concentrate on the slower Russian army to the north, and win the war. The British had a treaty with Belgium, but the Germans didn’t expect Britain to oblige it, as it dated back around eighty years, the Germans didn’t want war with Britain because Britain had the largest empire in the world and much wider ...

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