Friday, March 6, 2015

Germany Deserves some Blame for the Cause World War I?


I'm not going to go as far as to say that Germany deserved most of the blame for WWI. I'm not a historian with decades of in-depth research sufficient enough to know all knowledge required for determining the cause of WWI, and the historians themselves don't stand confirmed either. My opinion won't be an opinion- it would be an assumption based on what I can find out, meaning that I can't ally myself with any interpretations by any historians' logic.
 
World War I was obviously the first world war, a major type of war that involves the most influential and powerful nations within multiple continents. I'm going to place a little more blame on Germany, solely based on my knowledge of prior events. Germany's creation was a glorious one involving military strength and skillful alliances maintained by Otto von Bismarck. With Germany as a fairly young state, the national pride (nationalism) became a driving force and a result of its increase in military strength, imperialistic endeavors, and industrialization. Such sudden increase in strength and position gave it enemies, such as France after the Franco-Prussian War. Its self-sense of duty to compete in imperialistic endeavors also made it rivals with other nations, and Bismarck created quite a few alliances to ensure the balance of power in Europe largely in fear of a two front war encircling Germany. Of course, Wilhelm II removed Bismarck and drastically changed the policies. Germany was soon to be an aggressive imperialist nation in the spotlight, which would potentially be a drive for their paranoia. And by paranoia, it should be noted that Germany even had plans to defeat France and Russia right at the beginning of war. Why would one be so agressive in subduing mere "potential" enemies if it was only about an assassination while knowing that it would escalate fast? Bismarck isn't entirely without fault either, as the Triple Alliance was truly unnecessary. It has to be noted how Italy joined the alliance in anger at the French and for competition to seize foreign colonies. This ambition can sum up the motives of Bismarck, fueled by a salvageable conceived rivalry in Europe. It was because of this alliance that the Triple Entente was created, and the absence of Bismarck's policies left high tensions inevitable.

The beginning of conflict itself would still be manageable if Germany wasn't so aggressive in supporting its ally. To allow Austria-Hungary to start the conflict while knowing very well Russia's alliances was difficult for me to understand, but Germany's declaration of war against both France and Russia was no longer surprising. Even if Germany miscalculated Russia's reaction, the absence of Bismarck made WWI inevitable at this point. With whatever glory or national pride the Germans had, they definitely triggered the patriotism of other nations. As I stated before, a world war also involves other continents. If the European war wasn't to be considered a world war yet, Germany certainly did drag Britain in with the blatant attack on the neutral country Belgium. With Britain being the most important overseas colonizer, the conflict amongst German and British/French colonies would make the war multi-continental. Another blatant plan to attack the USA with Mexico dragged the major power from another continent into war. Even Japan entered to oppose Germany's colonies. Without Germany, the war wouldn't have escalated to the entire Europe, and again without Germany, the entire world.

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