Was World War 1 the fault of the Germans?

Answer 1

The starting of the war was not the German's fault. Neither was the initial widening of the war to include other nations the German's fault.

The start was a war between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Serbia. Serbia was a tiny neighboring country to Austria-Hungary, and there were ethnic Serbs in the Empire next door. The Serbs had dreams of a glorious greater Pan Serbia and wanted the ethnic Serbs, and the land they lived on, from the Empire. A group of Serbian nationalists, backed by the Serbian Intelligence Service, assassinated the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary. They actually did this because the heir showed signs of being a reformer. They were afraid that once the old Emperor died (which he did two years later) the heir, upon taking the throne, would be so accommodating to the ethnic Serbs in his Empire that they would not care about being out of the Empire and becoming part of Serbia.

The murder of the heir naturally infuriated the Austrians, and after some wrangling back and forth the Austrians went to war with their tiny little murderous neighbors.

Germany and Austria-Hungary were allies, both because they were Germanic people and neighbors, and in response to an earlier alliance between France and Russia.

Russia was NOT allied with Serbia. There was no treaty which obligated the Russians to help the Serbs in the war they started with the murder of the heir of their massive neighboring Empire. Nevertheless the Russians had historically considered themselves the "Mother of the Slavs". So, though NOT OBLIGATED, the Russians took the Serbians side.

Meanwhile the German leader, the Kaiser, without giving it very much thought (he gave few things much thought), had given his Ally, the Austrians, a "blank check", promising his support. When the Russians decided to involve themselves, this changed things dramatically.

The Russians and the French were allies. This came about at French instigation, after France, worried over the effect on her prominence in Europe of German unification into a single German nation in the 1860s, had picked a fight with the newly united Germans, started a war, and promptly lost it. France was humiliated and had to give up Alsace and Lorraine to Germany, and burned for revenge for the next forty years. As part of their anti-German stance France sought and obtained an alliance with Russia. After this in any future war with Germany, Germany would have a two-front war to fight, with France's Russian allies to the east as well. Similarly, if Germany went to war with Russia, Germany would also have to fight France. This was the situation that now suddenly confronted the thoughtless Kaiser and Germany in 1914.

Here is where German fault begins. The German army had planned for a generation what to do in case of a war with either France or Russia, because war with either meant war with both at the same time. What the German General Staff arrived at was a plan to quickly defeat France, while the massive but ponderous Russians were still mobilizing their army and moving it to the front. In order to beat France quickly, the German officers decided to go around (outflank) the French frontier forts and defenses by going through "neutral Belgium" and then on into northern France.

The only problem with this plan was an 1839 Treaty guaranteeing the "perpetual neutrality" of Belgium, signed by four European "Great Powers", including Great Britain and Prussia. Germany was a successor state to Prussia. The former Prussian Dynasty was now the German Dynasty, and this Treaty was binding on Germany - they were obligated to comply with the Treaty. So making the decision to disregard this Treaty was a cynical abrogation of their solemnly pledged promises and responsibilities, and invading Belgium on the way to France WAS the cause of Great Britain entering the war.

Once the war was begun the Germans pursued an official policy within their army of "schrecklicheit" - "frightfulness". This involved shooting large numbers of civilians whenever they took a town, invariably including the village priest and anybody else likely to make trouble, natural leaders, to hold down on resistance to the German army. The Germans did kill large numbers of Belgian and French civilians and burn ancient towns, and British Propaganda made sure this became known worldwide.

Further atrocious German conduct brought the US into the war. Specifically, the resumption of "unrestricted submarine warfare" by the Germans, in a desperate gamble to starve the British out of the war with a submarine blockade, before the US could involve itself and build an army and move it to France, and the "Zimmerman Telegram". This was an intercepted diplomatic telegram which disclosed a plot by the Germans to get Mexico to go to war with the US, on promise that Mexico could recover territory lost to the US in the Mexican-American War of 1846-48. The Germans schemed that war with Mexico would keep the US too busy to intervene in Europe.

So, the Germans did not start the war, nor were they entirely responsible for its expansion. The Serbs, Russians and French were as guilty as the Germans - but - they all wound up on the winning side, and Germany was the loser, and if the winners wanted to lay all the blame on Germany, in their outrage over the previous four years of rivers of blood and treasure lost, there was nothing the Germans could do about it.