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Among the participants in the First World War, should Germany bear the sole responsibility for the outbreak of the war?

The First World War was a large-scale war fought between two opposing camps: the Central Powers and the Allies. It ended with the victory of the latter. The Paris Peace Conference was then held with a major aim of signing a peace treaty (i.e. Treaty of Versailles) with Germany. Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles states that "the Allied and Association Governments affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility of war and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nations have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies". In other words, Germany had to accept full responsibility for starting the war. The main reason of this war-guilt clause applied to Germany may be due to the immediate event (i.e. July Crisis), which Germany gave a hand to Austria-Hungary. This action was said to be revealed the premeditation of Germany for planning the war, and thus, Germany had to accept the clause. Nevertheless, there was no doubt that Germany supported Austria- Hungary, Germany’s only firm ally. The following are the reasons which show that Germany should not solely bear the obligation for waging the war among the participants of the First World War.

Some historians such as A.J.P. Taylor (1966) and D. Thomson (1966) regarded Germany as chiefly responsible for the war because Germany had devised political policies that made the international situation tense. For instance, the idea of Pan-Germanism threatened many European countries such as Britain, Russia and Serbia. They were afraid of being invaded by Germany and there would be the violation of the balance of power. Germany was then brought into conflicts with these countries between 1908 and 1914. A.J. P. Taylor (1966) points out that Germany upset the balance of power in Europe which finally contributed to the disaster in 1914, that is, the outbreak of the First World War.

However, in the 19th century, nationalism had developed into a more aggressive force among the European powers which intensified their rivalries. In addition to Pan-Germanism adopted by Germany, French revenge movement was carried out by France while Pan-Slavism was adopted by Serbia. They also wanted to seek revenge or to regain lost prestige by annexing areas where there were people of the same race. S.B. Fay (1929) argues that Serbian nationalism was a primary reason for the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and this finally drove other powers into a general war. If Germany was responsible for starting the First World War because of the idea of Pan-Germanism, other powers such as France, Serbia and Russia also had to share the responsibility. As these were actually the two-way confrontations which gradually drew the powers to the war, it would be unfair to require Germany to accept the war- guilt clause alone.

However, Germany did have real intention to start an offensive war. Germany was well-prepared for the war. For instance, in 1905, the Schlieffen Plan which was an operational plan for war against France was worked out. W. Carr (1991) points out that the leaders of Germany rather than those in other countries were more inclined to warlike solutions and this explained why Germans resolved wars as the final solution.

In order to judge whether Germany should bear the sole responsibility for the outbreak of the war or not, we need to revolve around whether Germany intended an offensive war or a defensive war. By 1915, she was confronted by several dangers and most of the time she was 2 trapped between two great powers, Britain and France. For instance, she was afraid that France would take revenge on her by getting back the Alsace-Lorraine. Britain was always clashed with Germany because of economic interests. In this case, all she could do was to prevent her from others’ invasions by raising the military strength. Her original aim of armament build-up was not aggressive but to protect national security. If Germany really wanted to start a war, then it was said to be a defensive war instead of an offensive war towards other powers. She did not need to feel guilty in this regard. On the contrary, Britain mostly concentrated on naval expansion so as to stand against Germany, and this would definitely lead to an escalation of crisis. The successful “blood and iron” policy in unifying Germany did speed up the armament race which might intensify the situation between the powers, but she did not aim at invading others as to achieve world power status, this act was naturally to secure herself. Thus, speeding up the armament race could not be one of the reasons that Germany should bear the sole responsibility. In fact, she nearly did not need to bear any obligations as she did nothing wrong in protecting her own territories.

The alliance system would be another reason that Germany was required to bear the sole responsibility for the outbreak of the war as this alliance system devised by Bismarck complicated European affairs. The treaty terms were secret and made other powers feel insecure. All these intensified the alliance system. It turned a local conflict between two states into a general war among all major powers.

Indeed, Bismarck’s main goal was merely to maintain peace so as to maintain the status quo of Germany in Europe. Thus, in 1873, Germany together with Austria-Hungary and Russia, signed the Dreikaiserbund which Germany wanted a peaceful international environment. The objective of Germany was not harmful to any states. Besides, the alliance system was actually welcomed by other powers as well. Some of their objectives might not be simply desired to have a peaceful environment, but to have encroachment on others. If the original objectives of signing the alliance were inoffensive, there would not be any problems as interests of any states would not be infringed. Unfortunately, as some powers got different objectives, the alliance system would be harmful to the world as mutual distrust would be created easily. With the mutual distrust created, the alliance system was totally helpless in all aspects. It even worsened the relationship among powers. If Germany had to be responsible for the outbreak of the war because of proposing the idea of alliance system, the powers that formed allies should also be responsible for that.

G. P. Gooch (1923) puts the blame on Germany for she did not restrain overambitious Austria’s aggressions on Serbia. Being the most prevalent military power, Germany was the only power competent enough to restrain Austria-Hungary’s expansion on Balkans, such as in the Bosnian Crisis of 1908 and the Balkans Wars of 1912-13. She eventually gave the ‘blank cheque’ to Austria-Hungary. This certainly ensured German unconditional support to Austria- Hungary which made the latter dare to challenge Serbia by sending her an ultimatum. This finally provoked the war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia and finally made the First World War inevitable.

However, is it appropriate to claim that Germany did all wrong in this regard? She did nothing wrong by giving support to her ally. If Germany had the responsibility for starting the war because of giving a free hand to her ally, then Russia had to share part of the responsibility too as Russia had also given frequent encouragement to Serbia to expand into the Balkans, which was the same thing done by Germany. Moreover, if the supporter of Austria-Hungary had to bear the war-guilt clause, the one who originally intended to annex other states, i.e. 3

Austria-Hungary, should bear most of the responsibility. Austria-Hungary was indeed expansionist in nature. If she did not have an ambition of annexing Balkans, she would not be brought into conflicts with Serbia; even though Germany did not offer any help, war would still break out in the end because the international situation grew tenser and tenser.

The support given by Germany to Austria-Hungary in expanding into the Balkans could also be explained in economic aspect. Germany faced economic problem at that time. In order to solve the economic difficulties, Germany wanted to expand into the Balkans with a view to satisfying economic needs. This was a typical example of imperialism. Imperialism is the policy of gaining political and economic control over other countries. Economic rivalries could be found easily among the great powers. For example, after 1870, the rapid economic development convinced many Germans to demand for overseas expansion. There were the economic rivalries between France and Germany as Germany’s economic interests over Morocco enabled her to have conflicts with France. These rivalries did worsen the relations among the powers. A war seemed to be inevitable as each of them want to protect their own interests. As the rivalries grew with the existence of more than one power, i.e. more than one power emphasized the imperialism, Germany should not be the only one to be responsible for the outbreak of the war. On the contrary, every power who had put effort to expand economically on other states should share the responsibility with Germany, since they did contribute to the outbreak of the war.

Germany was in fact trying her best to maintain her status quo peacefully in all aspects. First of all, she secured herself by united all Germans all over the world. Furthermore, she tried to preserve the prestige of the country; otherwise discontent of people and the socialists would be aroused easily. If Germany were no longer powerful in political, economic, military or diplomatic aspects, Germany would be easily isolated or even encroached by other powers. The livelihood of the Germans would then be harsher. In order to fulfil the want, Germany had to expand herself in some aspects without the aim of initiating a large-scale war. Although Germany did expand herself by trying to unite all Germans in Germany, Austria-Hungary and other parts of Europe, this was not the major factor to explain the outbreak of the war. Without the acts of Germany, other countries such as France, Russia, and Britain also got similar idea to maintain their superior status in the world by different means. Mutual jealousy was directly or indirectly created and relationships between them were getting worse gradually. On the one hand, Germany was not the initiator of the First World War. On the other hand, other countries also contributed to the war. Was it fair to ask Germany to bear the sole responsibility for the outbreak of the war?

To some extent, Germany did do something to intensify the situation of the powers inadvertently. For instance, Germany built up the dreadnoughts to challenge the position of Britain which quickened the armament race. The emergence of Germany as a naval power aroused the suspicion of Britain and intensified Anglo-German hostility. G.M. Trevelyan (1937) states that the violation of Belgian neutrality and independence by Germany silenced the British neutralists and this provided Britain with an excuse to declare war on Germany. The responsibility should be on Germany.

However, some states even contributed more than that of Germany for the outbreak of the war. For instance, Germany was actually not the first power to mobilize her troops even though she did speed up the armament race. Once the power had mobilized her troops, war was inevitable because this act was so provocative. In July 1914, Russia finished mobilizing her troops after the sending of an ultimatum by Germany. S.B. Fay (1929) states that Germany was 4 trying her very best to bring Austria to accept mediation proposals. That means that Germany was not deliberately planning for a war. On the contrary, France gave continued support to Russia during the Austro-Serbia dispute. She knew about the Russia mobilization but did nothing to restrain Russia from action; this act might merely due to the humiliation of the Franco-Prussian War and she always desired to take revenge on Germany. In this regard, it seemed that Russia, the provocateur and France, the supporter of Russia were more responsible for the war rather than Germany.

As mentioned above, the First World War broke out with many states including the great powers. However, it seemed that none of them did something to stop the development of the war except Germany. Germany, on the one hand, tried to be a reliable ally with Austria- Hungary by giving unconditional support. Meanwhile, she considered about the international condition and she tried to act as a mediator to bring Austria to a settlement over the Austro- Serbian rivalries in order to maintain peaceful environment in Europe. Unfortunately, other great powers did opposite thing towards the rivalries. They are obsessed with short-term decisions together with some deep-rooted hatred. With no evidence, could we conclude that Germany was prepared to launch the First World War for world domination? It was really difficult to imagine a mediator of the dispute to bear the sole responsibility for the outbreak of the war.

After the analysis of every type of long-term cause, including the growth of nationalism, imperialism, militarism, the alliance system as well as the short-term cause which German actions could be seen during the July Crisis, there is no evidence of a German plan for initiating an offensive war. In some regards, Germany did nothing wrong while other powers contributed more than that of Germany to start a horrendous war. If Germany had to be responsible for the outbreak of the war, other powers were also required to share part of it. Thus, Germany should not be the only one to bear the obligation.

References Carr, W. (1991) A History of Germany, 1815-1990. London: E. Arnold. Fay, S.B. (1929) The Origins of World War. New York: Macmillan. Gooch, G.P. (1923) History of Modern Europe. London: Cassell & Co. Taylor, A.J.P. (1966) A History of the First World War. New York: Berkley Pub. Corp. Thomson, D. (1966) Europe since Napoleon. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. Trevelyan, G.M. (1937) British History in the Nineteenth Century and after 1782-1919. London: Longmans, Green.

Comment: The report represented a good attempt to shape the controversy, followed by valid quotes and evidence from both sides. Equal attention was given to the opposing views.

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