The Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles, signed at the Paris Peace Conference by the victorious nations, stated that Germany and its allies were primarily responsible for the initiation of World War I. In light of their decision, I believe that the major representatives made a fair and just verdict. Germany seemed to continually push the buttons of the other countries. I feel that Germany’s hostility and disrespect of the other countries is one of the major reasons that the war was actually started. I also feel that the treaty’s decision to make Germany responsible for the reparations of the other countries was very suitable. Germany and its allies displayed quite a bit of hostility right from the beginning. A particular German ally, Austria-Hungary, was technically the first country who declared war. Austria-Hungary had been involved in a disagreement with Serbia over the annexation of two smaller countries. One of these smaller countries, Bosnia, happened to be mostly populated by ethnic Serbs. The Serbs wanted to be united as one nation, much like other ethnic groups in Europe. Serbia challenged this annexation, and called upon Russia for support. Germany decided to get involved, and basically told Russia to recognize the annexation and turn the other way. (The Twentieth Century: A Brief Global History, p.99) I believe this is a prime example of how forcefully aggressive Germany was. Germany’s involvement might have been expected due to their alliance with Austria-Hungary. However, it had to be their hostility and thirst for control that drove them to persuade Russia so much in their favor. Another good example of Germany’s aggression that points to their responsibility for causing WWI, is their war plans. Germany had developed a plan of how to be victorious against Russia and France if they should ever be at war with each other. Germany’s disrespect for other countries, and especially their disregard of a neutral country, was adequately shown in this plan. Germany declared war on Russia, and later France. Germany had to invade neutral Belgium to get to France. When Great Britain heard of the invasion of Belgium, they decided to take action against Germany. (The Twentieth Century, p. 102) Germany’s actions to this point pulled in countries that were more, or less uninvolved. Thus the alliance system started to play its role. Germany’s continual encouragement of hostility fueled the war. In addition, I believe that the fragile economic state of the world after the war can be directly blamed on Germany and its allies.
...w by pursuing what they believed to be the “best-case scenario.” Hitler probably could have been stopped if the British had stood up to him in the Rhineland Crisis. Because it was so early in his pursuit for continental domination, he did not yet have the mainstream support that he would by the actual beginning of the war. If he had failed Germany early, perhaps he might have been overthrown. However, all of the agreements and dilemmas described were much too overwhelming for the British government to handle alone, and the optimistic results that the British hoped for would never transpire. After Hitler was able to manipulate the British into signing the Anglo-German Naval Pact, he knew that each nation and League could be dealt with separately in order to achieve his goals. It was during the Rhineland Crisis that the precedence for World War II was set.
To analyse in depth Germany's guilt for the war we must first look at the most distant events and work our way up to the July crisis. To understand Germany's actions that lead to war we shall look first at its foreign policy, specifically from the point were Bismarck's policy ended in 1890.
3. Once the war began, Germany developed a clear set of aims, already discussed before the war, to gain large territorial gains in central and eastern Europe, very similar to Hitler’s later craving for Lebensraum (‘living space’) in eastern Europe
and Serbia in 1914. It was transformed into a general European struggle by declaration of
view was that as the Germans had less men it did not matter if the
these countries. The final cause was The aggression of Hitler, and the increasing in his army and
With nationalistic ideals, countries involved in the war went full force with weapons and men. According to document 6, “In the coming century, the German nation will either be the hammer or the anvil.” The Germans need to have a strong military with warfare to prevent them from loosing to keep their nation alive. Document 12 is a graph that shows the amount of money spent during the war. Germany had the highest increase in expenses from 1890 – 1914, as they were going full force in the war. “I believe that a war is unavoidable, and the sooner the better.” (doc. 15) Germany was a very patriotic country; as the war was not avoidable for them. Militarism helped cause World War I because each country with nationalism in its core was heavily devoted to the
I don’t believe I would agree with having Germans work their own mines to make another country take all of their profits, forcing Germany to be unable to pay its workers, which in turn would starve its people. This would be less harsh on the Germans which I strongly believe would have helped to discourage the second world war. Germany would have been much less humiliated if the other factors were also sharing the blame and received their penalties. Ive heard it said that a generation that receives a beating, is usually followed by one that deals a beating. Germany received a beating, which in turn led to them seeking revenge.
The Second World War began in September of 1939 and was between the Allies and the Axis. It began with Germany’s unprovoked attack and conquest of Poland, and involved Britain and France from the beginning. Its origins lay in German resentment at the terms of the Treaty of Versailles (1919), the economic crisis of 1929-30, which favored the rise to power of Fascist dictators, the failure of the League of Nations to gain international acceptance for disarmament, and the policy of imperialism adopted by Germany, Italy and Japan as a means of acquiring raw materials and markets. As a part of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany had to accept full responsibility for the First World War, which then led up to the outbreak of the Second. The reparations chapter of the Treaty of Versailles was universally condemned in Germany. Article 231, a proclamation of German guilt, had been inserted to establish Germany’s moral responsibility for the war and, therefore, her legal responsibility for all damage to property and persons and was disliked because of the War Guilt clause it contained. Germany, prepared for military conquest by Hitler, remilitarized the Rhineland in violation of the Locarno Pact. The League of Nations failed to react firmly either to this or to the conquest of Ethiopia by Italy under Mussolini. The Second World War was indeed one of the greatest conflicts in history. What started out as a European struggle, soon emerged to the level of worldwide warfare. The Prime Minister of England, Winston Churchill, American President, Franklin Roosevelt and Russian leader, Joseph Stalin were just a few of the leaderships that tried to bring their nations to victory. Although they all could not have “won” the war, these particular three men worked together to form an outstanding alliance system.
of troops both from England and Canada, along with France, originally declared war on Germany. Germany
The first global world war that led to the death of millions of people and the use of excessive chemical weapons, tanks, and machine guns that the world has ever witnessed is accused by Germany’s violent actions and their extreme ideologies, but some others argue Germany was not the sole cause of the war. In an attempt to dominate the world, Germany enforced their extreme ideologies to the rest of Europe. Many scholars believe that Germany fueled World War 1 because Germany believed that they should conquer the weak. Some people believe that Germany was the sole cause of World War because their extreme ideologies led them to declare war on other countries. Although Germany deliberately supported Austria to go to war with Serbia, supported the idea of Nationalism, and signed secret treaties, Russia also supported Serbia and signed secret treaties. Thus, Germany wasn’t the sole motive of World War 1.
Germany also held a window belief. That is, Germany was convinced that its power was declining, and Russia’s was increasing. The two states shared a border in 1914, and Germany thought that if they didn't attack now, they certainly stood no chance in the future. Germany’s plan was an aggressive one (lining up with the cult of the offensive), dubbed the Schlieffen Plan, named after its creator. The plan consisted of Germany invading France through Belgium and conquering France as fast as possible, thus eliminating a two front war with France and Russia on either side. One of the appealing factors of this plan to the Germans was that they believed that they could run through France so fast it would stall a British intervention. Because of the Cult of the Offensive, Germany believed this was very feasible and British wouldn't engage in war with Germany without France. The Germans even welcomed the British, saying they would “take care of it.” (92) Of the four reasons Ereva cited for the adoption of the Schlieffen Plan was that it was to be too quick for Britain to react, thus keeping them out of the war. However, when the plan failed and Germany found itself bogged down fighting the British, French, and Russians at the same time, its leaders called out the British, saying that the blame for the war was on Britain, because the Germans wouldn't have invaded because they knew Britain was going to
action to prove to the rest of the world that Germany was more powerful than all. In
The Sarajevo assignation of Austria-Hungarian archduke Franz Ferdinand was all that was needed to plunge the European nations in to war. The assassination lead to powerful nations drawing lines in the sand and provide unwavering support of their allies in the event of conflict. German support if Austria-Hungary provides a strong example of offensive minded states that is using the situation to instigate a clash between its enemies. The evidence that no nation made significant attempts to diplomatically solve the problem and that militaries were mobilizing before war had even been declared, proves that offensive minded strategy was being implemented.
...race. Germany had known that it was losing so it decided the best way to combat losing the arms race was to declare war.