While Austria Hungary wanted to crush Serbia, Germany wanted to crush Russia. Two countries, during the July Crises, wanted war. Due to the fact that there were two proponents of war it is to little extent that WWI was an accident. On the one hand one might possibly contend that WWI was an accident. Some may argue that no one wanted war.
Wilson believed the treaty of Versailles should punish Germany but not so harshly that it would someday recover and seek revenge. However Wilson’s main aims were portrayed> through his fourteen points. But perhaps his main goal for post war Europe was to strengthen democracy in Germany so the citizens would not let its leaders cause another war. France suffered enormous damage in WW1. When the war ended the general population of France wanted revenge on Germany.
Although German signed the Treaty of Versailles, much to the disgrace of many Germans, admitting they were to blame it is undeniable that aggressive German foreign policy had a lot to do with the outbreak of war in Europe in 1914, but this neglects other factors that may have additionally added to the tensions leading up to the war. Many historians debate whether it was mainly Germany to blame or whether other dominant powers led them into a no-win situation. Source V, ‘Modern Germany’ by Volker Berghahn suggests that the Kaiser no longer saw foreign policy and civil war as separate issues and that they were now seen to entwine together. The mention of the 1913 Army bill that had aggravated many within the German society due to the growing distress over money and the status quo within the German political establishment, the argument over the tax burdens grew with every bill passed. These tensions started to disrupt their dual alliance with Austria-Hungary, even with a ‘Blank Cheque’ being given to them.
Bismarck’s desire was to alienate France from European affairs, a France which had become resurgent and powerful after the Franco-Prussian war. In order to achieve this, he needed to remain on good terms with both Russia and Austria-Hungary, thus he formed the Dreikaiserbund (1873-1878). However, the significance of this alliance was not so great, as Austria refused to agree to any military help. Furthermore, both Russia and Austria-Hungary were rivals in the Balkans, thus making the relations between them and Germany volatile. A few years later, a crisis arose in the Balkans, as a result of which, the Dreikaiserbund was terminated.
Russia also feared the growing German threat and sought to ally itself with Great Britain, France, and even Germany itself for protection. The British, for their part, tried hard to remain out of the conflict, but found that having the world's most powerful navy made that impossible. Rebellious provinces within the Austro-Hungarian Empire made central Europe extremely unstable, and the leaders of the Ottoman Empire in the Near East sought to expand their power. Historians have generally noted that the European powers had managed to avoid war for so long, that when it did
It also wanted to expand its influence and create a great empire, Kaiser ( the emperor at the time) also had a paranoia about Germany’s place in the world, he wanted it to become the strongest empire in the world. He started by taking two crucial pieces of land from France; Alsace and Lorraine. Hence where another reason for the war comes in, The Alliance System. An Alliance System is when countries sign an agreement to protect each other which is another reason that gave a spark to the start of the War. In 1870 Germany started getting paranoid over the thought that France might attack them seeing as they had taken over Alsace and Lorraine , two important pieces of land.
Contrastingly, James Joll suggests that Germany’s defensive offensive war rooted from a fear of encirclement from the countries that it borders, and so presents the opinion most opposing to that of the question. L.F.C Turner’s opinion arises somewhere between the two other historians’ arguments, and states that Germany was aggressive during Europe’s last month of peace before war, but there were other factors that should be considered equally. On the one hand, it was German aggression that was responsible for the outbreak of a general European war in August 1914. One example of suggested German aggression can be seen in their long term foreign policy, ‘weltpolitik’ (world politics), which had been implemented in 1897. The aim of this foreign policy was to spread German influence throughout the world, the meaning of which is interpreted differently by different people.
The Germans started having second thoughts about the war and urged their ally to negotiate with Russia. Russia realized that an agreement would hurt their position in the Balkans. This basically created a stand still and the countries involved could no longer back out, The Germans started their plan to gain European dominance on July 31st. The Germans sent ultimatums to St. Petersburg and Paris telling them that the Russians need to stop mobilizing their troops and demanded a pledge of neutrality from France. They did not receive a satisfactory reply and they declared war on Russia and France.
If any of the triple alliance attacks either Russia or France, the other will send aid. Russia and France made this treaty because the triple alliance was too powerful to take them on individually. The whole thing went downhill when Russia not France began mobilizing their troops. When Russia began mobilizing, the Germans Callics of the Austro-Hungarian empire decided to declare war on both Russia and its ally France. Even after the Germans declared war, France did not wish to engage in war.
In the era of the World War I, for the deemed aggressor to take responsibility was not an unfair or preposterous idea. The “loser(s)” of a war had to admit full responsibility for their actions, and accept harsh reparations. Just a year ago, in 1918, Germany itself had imposed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk upon the new Bolshevik government of Russia. It is arguable that the Brest-Litovsk Treaty contained much harsher terms than those of the Treaty of Versailles; Russia was forced to give up Estonia, Riga, Lithuania, Livonia, and some of White Russia. The loss of these lands was particularly daunting for Russia since they were of great economic importance.