Why did Germany start WW1?

Question

I was told to write an essay on this topic. So could you please give me some viewpoints with arguments?

Answer 1

First and foremost, The War Guilt clause of article 231 in the Versailles Treaty states that, "Germany is to be blamed for all the damages and losses Germany and all her allies caused following the antagonism of Germany and all her allies.

So, no one forced Germany to take responsibilities of what happened in WW1, the blame was shared between Germany and all her allies.

But as the main instigators, Germany should take the major part of the blame for starting WW1. Kaiser gave Austria the unconditional support in opposition to Serbia, in the heat of the July crisis, even with his knowledge of the fact that it would certainly lead to war with countries like Russia and her ally, France.

Moreover, Germany was the only country who had the capacity to turn a local misunderstanding into a global crisis that will begin with sweeping across the entire European nations. According to the Schlieffen plan, the announcement on August 1 as regards the German Army mobilization in line with the railway plan of the German Army meant war within 2 days against Belgium and France. Both the German high Army Authority and Kaiser were well informed of this plan. On the same August 1, Germany declared full war on Russia.

Lastly, the Germans needed a total European war which they were sure of winning quickly to start. This is obvious from the interactions that had gone on between Kaiser, his high army commanders, as well as his chancellor, which were all recorded and documented in the prestigious imperial archives.

So the blame of starting the First World War goes to Germany because they started it actually.

Answer 2

Why did Germany start WW1? Actually, there is no single straight answer to this question.

It is a general belief that the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand which took place June 1914 in Sarajevo was the very incident that fueled the culminated crises into WW1. Events spiraled out of control so very fast after this incident. By August 1914, all European countries were fully involved.

Now, if what you need is the first nation to make declaration concerning WW1, it is simple: the Austria-Hungary coalition. But this may not be the most satisfying answer due to these two reasons: The war was declared on the very small Balkan nation in Serbia, and they never bargained for a world war.

1. The people who killed Franz Ferdinand had some connections to the intelligence service of Serbia. Franz Ferdinand was the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian. As a matter of fact, they were searching for a way to beat what they saw as a rascal state into submitting to them. Just imagine that the United States Inversion of the Afghanistan nation in 2001 blew into a global crisis, and you have a considerably analogous situation. So, of a truth, the hostilities were started by the Austro-Hungarians formally, but the blowback they got from their actions surpassed whatever they had bargained for.
2. Now, as a way of responding to the declaration of war by Austria-Hungary on Serbia, Russia made a declaration of war against Austria-Hungary. This is where things began to get out of control, because it has grown from a great power's hostility against a small nation to a great power's hostility against an equal great power. But, at this stage, it wasn't a real world war yet, it was only a rumble in the Galicia and Balkans. Yet, it wasn't really all that bad. But, the country that was really blamed for starting the war was not any of these mentioned nations as contained in the Versailles Treaty – Germany was blamed instead. Just like Russia, getting into the war wasn't something Germany could not stay away from, despite their alliance with Austria-Hungary for several decades, a war on Austria-Hungary couldn't have gotten them involved. In like manner, France could have avoided jumping into the world war following Germany's involvement, but they just chose to do so.