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nation of Serbia, even though there was no proof that the
Serbian government was responsible
-On July 5th, Germany gave Austria-Hungary what became known as
the Blank Cheque, which declared that Germany wouldsupport
Austria-Hungary, her ally, no matter what happened in the Balkans;
in this sense, Germany is not completely free ofblame because she
publicly declared her support for Austria-Hungary, even though she
knew this could lead to war
-Austria-Hungary consequently sent an arguably unfeasible
ultimatum to Serbia; there is debate as to whether this was
donedeliberately to provoke Serbia, but it was without doubt an
action influenced by nationalism, and Austria-Hungary declared
war
on Serbia on July 28th
-As a result, nations had no choice but to their armies and
declare war on each other in order to support those countries that
theywere allied with because of the complicated network of
alliances such as the Dual and Triple Ententes
-Before long a war, which grew quickly from a European war to a
global one, had begun; these events leading up to the war wereknown
as the July Crisis
-Serbian nationalism, therefore, was the underlying movement
that had triggered the Balkan Wars, which in turn led to
theassassination of Franz Ferdinand, which in turn led to the July
Crisis and full-out war
-Therefore, pan-Slavism as well as Austro-Hungarian nationalism
was more influential than German nationalismPOV #3: England was
responsible for the First World War because its alliances were
ambiguous therefore Britain sposition in the Triple and Dual
Alliances was unclear and led to misunderstandings as other nations
were unsure of what
actions Britain would make if there was to be a war.
Source #1: Martel, Gordon. The Origins of the First World War.
2nd ed. New York: Longman Publishing, 1996. Print.-By the beginning
of the 20th century, England was the only great power that had not
joined either of the two main alliances-Although Germany had
offered her alliance to Britain, Britain consistently refused,
partly because Britain did not want to
become involved in a war for Germanys sake, and partly because
Britain had never thought of Germany as a threat
-At one point, however, Britain was interested in cooperating
with Germany in order to stop Russia from gaining control
overManchuria; thus, Britains unclear stance in her relationship
with Germany was confusing to the latter nation
-Further ambiguity on Britains part is shown in the actions of
the British foreign minister Sir Edward Grey, who could not
decidewhether to stop Russia or to warn Germany that England would
fight with France and Russia in the case of a war
-England is also to blame since Germany would not have gone to
war if she knew England would become involved because shewould not
have been able to defeat England
Source #4: Ferguson, Niall. The Pity of War. New York: Basic
Books, 1998. Print.-Sir Edward Grey kept an ambiguous attitude
regarding entering the war; Germany was confused therefore over
Britain s
position on the war
-Germanys expanding her navy was not intended to be a challenge
against Britains navy; rather, the Kaiser only wanted a largernavy
to satisfy his own pleasures
-England was fully aware of the Kaiser s such intentions and did
not look upon Germanys naval expansion as a threat; thesupposed
Anglo-German naval race, therefore, did not really ever exist, and
so there was never tension created between the two
nations from this
-Because Germany did not pose a true threat to Britain and
because none of Germanys colonies interfered with those of
Britain,Britain did not have a legitimate reason to form alliances
against Germany; however this is exactly what she did, not
becauseGermany was truly threatening her, but only because this was
in Britains own interests
-Thus, Germany is not to blame for the First World War; Germany
had no choice but to declare war on Russia before Russia hadtime to
mobilize in order to prevent fighting a war on multiple sides
simultaneously, an event that seemed very likely especially
since Britain had formed powerful alliances against Germany
POV #4: Russia was responsible for the First World War; although
Germany was blamed for having ignored Britain,
France, and Russias attempts to negotiate, in reality it was
Germany who made efforts in negotiation and it was Russia
sdecisions that led to war.
Source #5: Montgelas, Max. The Case for the Central Powers.
London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1925. Print.-Germany was
accused of forcing Austria-Hungary to war and ignoring all attempts
at negotiation by declaring war on Russia
and France; however, this was not true: Germany did not want to
have a war, but was just supportive of her ally Austria-Hungary
-In fact, when Serbia replied to Austria-Hungarys ultimatum,
Germany told Austria-Hungary to avoid a full-out war, suggestingto
her ally to carry out smaller military actions that England was not
against
-Although Germany failed to stop her ally from declaring war on
Serbia, she did lead the attempts at negotiation between
St.Petersburg and Vienna, which were the most hostile parties; this
would have led to an agreement if Russia had not mobilized her
army
-Also, while France encouraged Russia to go to war, Britain made
no attempts to stop war and realized too late the significance
ofthe mobilization of Russias army
-Britain, France, and Russia advocated and made mistakes that
led to war; Germany, on the other hand, tried to prevent warbecause
she realized how dangerous it could become if she were to have a
war on two fronts
Source #6: Fay, Sidney B. Origins of the First World War. 2d ed.
New York: The Macmillan, 1930. Print.-Germany supported
Austria-Hungary because the latter country was the only ally she
had-When Germany realized that Russia was becoming involved, she
told her ally to negotiate-When Germany told Russia to demobilize,
Russia did not concede-Austria-Hungary ignored her allys advice and
declared war on Serbia; this led to a domino effect, in which
Germany, Russia,
France, and Britain were forced to go to war in order to support
each of their allies-In a sense, therefore, Austria-Hungary also
deserves some blame because she gave Germany no choice but to go to
war, even
though she could not prove that the nation of Serbia was
responsible for the murder of her late Archduke
POV #5: Germany was responsible for the First World War because
she decided to go on the offensive thus creating the
Schlieffen Plan and consequently declaring war on France in
order to initiate it even though she was not really
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threatened by the armies of France and Russia.
Source #3: Evans, David. The First World War. London: Hodder
Headline, 2004. Print.-Kaiser Wilhelm II formed multiple alliances,
which he claimed were for defensive purposes-In reality, however,
Germany was not in any real danger; even though the alliances that
had been formed against her had created
the possibility of Germany having to fight a war on two fronts
(against France and Russia), the armies of France and Russia,
even combined, were not strong enough to be able to fight
against that of Germany
-If Germany had realized the actual abilities of the French and
Russian armies, she would not have come up with the SchlieffenPlan,
which was an offensive move in all prospects
-Germany declared war on France with no other reason than to
carry out the Schlieffen PlanConclusion: The complicated alliance
system was most responsible for the First World War because it
created hostilitybetween the two sides France, Britain, and Russia
and Germany and Austria-Hungary , thus creating a rivalry that
consequently led to war. It is insufficient to claim that
Germany was solely responsible for the First World War because
multiple nations were involved; Germany only formed alliances to
try and avoid fighting a war on multiple fronts and to
protect herself from nations that were forming alliances against
her. Although she deserves some blame because she
declared war on France, in reality Germany did not want war; she
did this only to avoid being attacked first and not out
ofexpansionist desires, as the Treaty of Versailles wrongfully
claimed in 1919.
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