Throughout time wars have ended with the defeat of one force and the victory of another, those on the side of defeat almost always being held accountable for the destruction these wars produce. This is undoubtedly the case with post WWI Germany, burdened with defeat and forced to sign the treaty of Versailles, thus taking responsibility for the war. Although blamed for the war, it is still a highly controversial question between historians if the Germans were truly responsible for WWI. However when studying the actions of Germany as a nation and its leaders in the years leading up to the war, one can see it is quite accurate to say Germany was responsible for the outbreak of World War One. Germany had been creating tensions since the days of Bismarck's alliances, and so when Kaiser Wilhelm ascended to the throne in 1888 and wanted to make Germany a great world power and have “a place in the sun” adopting a policy of ‘weltpolitik’1, German creation of pre-war tensions and advocacy of a war drove the rest of Europe into WWI with them in 1914.
The nation of Germany can be held largely accountable for the outbreak of WWI solely because they laid the foundation for this war long before a world war was in view. Throughout the years leading up to the war, Germany's actions contributed to the tensions that would eventually erupt in war. By the year 1914, the countries of Europe had established such alliances with each other so that to ensure any conflict between two countries would result in a collective conflict involving all the great powers of Europe. This extensive alliance system would not have even been conceived if Germany had not initiated it; “The division of Europe into two armed camps took place by slow stages over a perio...
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...: Britain, Germany, and the coming of the Great War. New York: Random House, 1991.226
10Morrow, John Howard. The Great War an imperial history. London: Routledge, 2004. 27.
11"First World War.com - Primary Documents - Germany's 'Blank Cheque' to Austria-Hungary, 6 July 1914." First World War.com - A Multimedia History of World War One. 19 Nov. 2010 .
12Marshall, S. L. A. World War I. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. 35.
13Tucker, Spencer, and Priscilla Mary. Roberts. World War I: encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2005. 15.
14Morrow, John Howard. The Great War an imperial history. London: Routledge, 2004. 27
15"First World War.com - Feature Articles - The Causes of World War One." First World War.com - A Multimedia History of World War One. 19 Nov. 2010 .
Zieger, Robert H. (2000). America’s Great War: World War I and the American Experience. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc.
In the words of John Green, “The truth resists simplicity”. Assigning the blame of WWII to the Treaty of Versailles is far too simple of an explanation. The Treaty of Versailles, which ended WWI while sanctioning and punishing Germany, forced Germany to pay reparations. These reparations are said to have caused economic challenges in Germany, which allowed Hitler to take control on nationalist fervor. Thus, the story goes, that the Treaty of Versailles made Hitler’s rise to power, and his starting of WWII, inevitable. However, this mode of explanation is a deeply flawed oversimplification. The Treaty of Versailles did not make WWII inevitable because the independent forces of the Great Depression and Japanese expansion also played key roles, and because nationalism was most likely to arise in Germany even if there were less harsh terms to the treaty.
Bard, Mitchell G. The Complete Idiot's Guide to world War II, Macmillan Publishing, New York, New York, 1999
There are four factors which could be held accountable for World War I; militarism, alliances, imperialism and nationalism. Militarism is the expansion of armies and navies, alliances refer to the webs of pacts and agreements that countries made with each other, imperialism is the taking over of other countries, and nationalism is the promoting of one’s own country and propaganda against either other countries or countries which were opposition of your allies. All of these four factors were partially responsible for causing the war. Militarism could be blamed for causing the war, because the growing competition between the European powers meant that countries were desperate to show their dominance, and this was best done through military investing. Furthermore, increasing military spending meant that countries wanted to use their armies, and this idea is backed up by the ”use it or lose it” mindset. Alliances were formed to protect one another against possible future attacks, but ended up further increasing the tensions between the European powers as alliances were formed against other alliances. Imperialism meant that countries were already fighting over territory, and though it was far away from where these countries actually were, it severely increased the risk of war as the tensions between countries increased. Nationalism increased hostility as the propaganda war began and continued. Each country was frantically trying to prove that they were superior to all other countries, and in this process they often ended up making negative propaganda slandering other countries and their leaders. Nonetheless, it was the Triple Alliance of 1882 that started the string of events that would inevitably lead to war. Even though none of the f...
Hamilton John. Events Leading to World War I. United States: ABDO Publishing Company, 2004. Print.
O'Neill, William L. World War II: A Student Companion. New York: Oxford UP, 1999. Print.
Berghahn, Volker R.. Germany and the approach of war in 1914. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1973.
In conclusion, there were many factors involved in the casing of World War One, but there were 3 very influential causes. Nationalism, which was extreme if not borderline insane pride in your country. Alliances that had stirred up countries into thinking they were not safe. being that this was 1914 and countries were still developing and some were weaker than others, it was very likely you could be invaded which is why alliances scared some countries into a hostile state. And the final cause was militarism, a kind of dictatorial state where you were ready to go to war at any minute and there were guns everywhere and children were not safe. World War One was caused by a lot of things but Nationalism, Alliances, And Militarism were the root causes.
World War II was not only started by Adolf Hitler and Germany, but had a lot to do with the humiliation that Germany felt when the terms of the Treaty of Versailles were laid down. The harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles may be indirectly related to the cause of World War II, but nonetheless was a huge factor in starting the war.
World War I was a fascinating, yet dramatic war for which there are a lot of different points of view. Some people argue that it was only Germanys fault, where-as others think that it had to do with the pressure put upon them by the other leading powers. Some of the things which triggered the war were the enormous rise in population, which happened very rapidly, caused by the Industrial Revolution. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the population of Europe was roughly 50 million; by 1820 it was about 100 million, and by 1870 it had reached the 200-million mark. By 1914 it had topped 300 million. (Stokesbury 11-12). With all the leading powers focused on the Balkans, war, to many, seemed inevitable. The new countries abused their power which was given to them by their major allies, causing enormous problems, and unnecessary tension to be built up. Alliances also caused a lot of problems like the one between Japan and England, where-after the Russians suffered a humiliating defeat against the Japanese in the East. This did not exactly improve the chances for England to ally with Russia, but luckily did not interfere too much in their relationships, and after some time they even turned out becoming allies, together with France, at the end even making military plans together. They also shared the responsibilities of protecting areas, just like England and France who protected both the Mediterranean as well as the Channel separately, making it easier for each country to focus on one area.
O’Neill, William L. World War II A Student Companion. 1 ed. William H. Chafe. New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Grayzel, Susan R. The First World War: A Brief History with Documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2013. Print.
Stroebel, Jeffrey T. World War II. Part I: Between the Wars. The Sycamore School, 1995. Revised 1998.
Campbell, John, ed. The Experience of World War II. New York: Oxford UP, 1989. Print.
in this day and age who is to blame for the First World War is still a