Should Germany shoulder the solely responsibility of WWI?
Vandesar Leung 7A (9)
Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles, which had been imposed by the victorious
powers on Germany after the war, stated that the First World War had been started by
Germany. In pother words, Germany was to hold the full responsibility for the
outbreak of the war. However, this was the view of the victorious powers, which may
not have been a fair judgement. In actuality, Germany was to a certain extent more
responsible for the war than the other powers but they were not as all as innocent as
they declared. Because of the underlying causes of the WWI, it was very difficult to
prescribe war guilt because all the European countries competed in building more
military forces. Also, in the formation of the alliance system, they competed in
finding allies. Secret terms in those alliances increased the international tension and
suspicion. Although it is true that Germany was more aggressive and uncompromising
when compared with the other powers, it was the contribution of all to bring about the
war and it was then very unfair to put all the blame on Germany.
Considering the role played by Germany, she had given a “blank cheque”,
unconditional and unlimited support, to Austria because of the long-standing
friendship between the tow and because of the Dual Alliance of 1879. If Germany had
refused to support Austria militarily, Austria would not have been so bold as to go to
the extent to force Serbia to war. Austria alone was not strong enough to defeat Serbia
plus Russia and, therefore, would not gamble on a local war which might turn into a
general war in Europe. At that crucial moment, even though the dead archduke had
been his good friend, Kaiser William II of Germany was not eager to go to war
because the Germany navy was still inferior to Britain’s and because there was always
a threat of a two-fronts war from Russian and French sides. However, Kaiser William
II then was put under pressure in the parliament. To silent the internal opposition and
driven by the belief that war would cause no harm to a Germany, William II
supported Austria.
Other than her support to Austria in the Austro-Serbian rivalry, it was also Germany
which declared war on both Russian and France. Yet, Germany was only acting in
order to prevent a two-fronts war. Alarmed by the Russian general mobilization and
confused by the strange and indifferent attitude of France, war seemed highly possible
and Germany had no choice but act first. The Germany invasion of Belgium was also
aimed at shortening the war with France and to buy time to prepare for another war
with Russia. The intervention of Britain in that case was totally unexpected by
Germany. In spite of all these, it was Germany which declared war on Russia and
France and which brought Britain into the war by the invation of Belgium. Definitely,
Germany had made many mistakes. If she had not stepped into the Austro-Serbian
War, the war would have only been a local war between two countries. Instead,
Germany’s involvement upgraded the war to the international level. As a result,
Germany had to bear a greater responsibility in causing the war. Article 231 of the
Versailles Treaty’s declaration that all the war guilt belonged to Germany, however,
was an exaggeration as other countries had key roles in beginning the war.
The WWI was indeed started by the Austro-Serbian War, and it was Austria which
declared this war. After the Sarajevo assassination, most European countries adopted
a conciliatory policy and tried to refer the matter to an international conference
hoping to settle the incident peacefully instead of resorting to war. However, Austria’s
demands in the ultimatum clearly illustrated that she was provoking Serbia to war as
her third request, that Austrian observers were to be sent to Serbia to make sure that
the first two demands were fulfilled, violated the sovereignty of Serbia. When Serbia
then tried to pacify Austria’s anger by accepting the first two demands, to suppress
the anti-Austrian secret society in Bosnia-Herzegovina and to dismiss the officials to
whom Austria objected, Austria used the excuse that “Serbia refused to accept the
ultimatum” to declare war on Serbia.
Nevertheless, the Austrian heir-apparent had been killed by an anti-Austrian secret
society in Bosnia, which had been financed by the Serbian government. Though the
Serbian government might not have been directly involved in the assassination, she
was still responsible. In the other way round, if the murdered one was not Archduke
Ferdinand but the king of Serbia, Serbia might also do the same on Austria. Thus,
though the Austro-Serbian War might have been prevented by an international
arbitration as suggested by Britain, who was going to sacrifice Serbia to satisfy
Austria, Austria still could have turned down any decision. At the same time, Austria
wanted to use this chance to defeat Serbia once and for all because Serbia’s ambition
to unify with Bosnia-Herzegovina and those Serbs in Austria-Hungary posed a great
threat to the multi-racial empire of Austria. So, in order to eliminate the enemy and to
ensure internal stability, war was a must to Austria. In this sense, Austria should bear
part of the war guilt.
In effect, the Sarajevo assassination was the immediate cause of the First World War
and the result of the long-standing hostility between Austria and Serbia. They had
been bitter enemies since the Congress of Berlin of 1878, which had put BosniaHerzegovina under the indirect administration of Austria. Their rivalry was
strengthened when openly annexed the two places in 1908. Afterwards, Serbia often
looked for chances to fight back. It was this revenge psychology that drove Serbia to
sponsor the anti-Austrian movement in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which, in turn, led to the
murder of Archduke Ferdinand on 28th June 1914. From this point of view, Serbia
was also responsible for the outbreak of the First World War. Notwithstanding, Serbia
had hated Austria deeply for a long time, but was not prepared to go to war with
Austria. Even after the Sarajevo assassination, she no intention of going to war with
Austria because she was not ready for it. Serbia had taken part in both the First (1912)
and Second Balkan Wars (1913), which had drained many of her resources and much
of her manpower, and needed time to recover and to consolidate her control over the
newly territories during the two wars. As a result, she was not in a good position to go
to war so soon in 1914, but she was still partly responsible for the war.
Russia also bears the responsibility of the war because the general mobilization of her
armies aroused German suspicions and provided Germany with an excuse to declare
war. In this sense, the Austro-Serbian War was widened by the Russian mobilization.
Furthermore, Serbia had been under her support to organize the anti-Austrian
activities in the Balkan Peninsula, which led to the Sarajevo assassination in 1914. So,
she had to bear the responsibility of the murder of the murder of the Austrian
archduke, too. Moreover, the Pan-Slavism of Russia also inspired the Greater Serbian
Movement in the Balkans and encouraged the ambition of Serbia. Without the support
of Russia, Serbia might have been satisfied with the territories that she had earned in
the two Balkan wars of 1912 and 1913 and might not have dared to challenge Austria
in Bosnia-Herzegovina so shortly after the two wars. To Russia, Serbia was only a
stepping-stone to extend herself to Western Europe. In addition, Serbia was Russia’s
only ally in the area. As a result, Russia had to support Serbia at all costs and it was
this role that Russia played in the Balkans together with her mobilization on 30th July
1914 that “earned” she part of the guilt of causing the war.
France’s attitude towards war was very unclear throughout the whole development
(between the Sarajevo assassination and the outbreak of the First World War) because
she refused to clarify her position to Russia and Germany after the Sarajevo
assassination. The president of France’s promise to support Russia during his visit to
Russia was seemingly an unwilling decision because he had refused to declare his
support to Russia openly when Russia had asked for it earlier. And when Germany
sent France an ultimatum asking she to clarify her position in case of a war between
Russia and Germany, again the French government announced no response. French
was also the last one, besides Britain, to mobilize her troops. Despite all this, France
was still unable to escape to escape from any war guilt. She had signed the FrancoRussian Alliance in 1894 in which she had promised to aid Russia militarily in case of
any attack from Germany and again promised to keep this previous pledge shortly
before the outbreak of the First World War. French support to Russia caused the latter
to openly support Serbia and more welcome to come to a showdown with Germany.
Lastly, Britain attempted to put pressure on the other powers to settle the AustroSerbian dispute by holding an international conference. But although she had made
efforts towards finding a peaceful solution to the Sarajevo assassination, she never
insisted. If she had seriously insisted on this point, the First World War might have
been prevented or at least confined to the level of a local war between Austria and
Serbia. Instead of pressing others to give up the idea of war or remaining neutral all
along the way, however, Britain declared war on Germany immediately after the
German invasion of Belgium. Her reaction was so fast and so ready-made that it
seemed Britain had been well prepared to fight Germany even before Belgium was
invaded by Germany. From this point of view, Britain might have entered the war
even without the intrusion of Belgium in order to destroy the German navy and to
uphold the balance of power in the Balkans and in Europe. As a result, Britain was not
totally innocent as well.
In reality, all of the powers had to share responsibility for the war with Germany and
were equally blamed for the outbreak of the WWI. Though it was obvious that none
of the powers involved had planned for such a large scale European war, all of them
welcomed the war when it came. None of the powers tired hard to prevent this final
showdown because they had been subjected to international tension, suspicion and
rivalry for a long time. Everyone expected war and both the rulers and their people
had prepared for it. Viewing the war from this angle, though Germany played the
biggest role in causing the WWI, all the participants had a part in it.