The World War The Schliefflen Plan, The Arms Race, Alliances, Or Germany 's Blank Check

In the year 1961, Fritz Fischer had presented his book, which was known as Germany's Aims in First World War and it had been successful in launching a debate among German historians and scholars as older historians severely criticized and opposed Fischer and his book. However, his contemporaries and younger historians supported his book. The book draws a detailed and comprehensive picture of Germany and its aims during the World War I.

H&H reject the cliché thesis of a “slide into war” as elites had the agency to declare war. War does not simply happen; there is a strict procedure of declarations that cannot materialize out of nowhere. Because people have agency they have the authority to decide on their future. In the sense of war, this means they have the choice to either participate or not. H&H argue that there was no inevitability of war since formal declarations would need to be drawn up by some individuals. For example, “Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on 28 July 1914.” Commonly believed to have been inspired by the recent assassination H&H contend that the declaration of war was nevertheless “the end result of a careful, well thought out, and rational process.” Moreover, the assassination was not the only reason for war but rather an interest in a fragmentation of the Balkans. Whatever the case, this rational process dismisses a fatalism of war in Europe as Austria-Hungary ultimately chose to go to war. This process is mirrored in the other four major powers; Germany, Russia, France, and Great Britain demonstrating that they too had agency when declaring war.

Through the book ‘Europe’s Last Summer’ David Fromkin tackles the issues of pre WWI Europe, and the surrounding political, economic, social, debacles that led paranoid countries to go to arms after nearly a full century of relative peace within the European continent. While Fromkin certainly points his fingers to all the nations of Europe his primary focus lies with Germany and Austria-Hungary. Though he continues to stress throughout much of the book that Kaiser Wilhelm II and Archduke Ferdinand were fervent keepers of the peace within their nations, the fault of the war ultimately could be laid at the feet of their two nations and their constant attempts at war-mongering. He claims the war could have been avoided for the moment, had all the nations of Europe wanted peace, but the two bad eggs of Europe drew them all into an unavoidable general war.

In this essay I will be outlining the key points in why the First World War broke out in 19 14. Many people tend to say "Because Archduke Ferdinand got shot." Still others have blamed it on the increased independence and Imperialism in Hungary to Russia’s growing military. If I had to answer the question myself, the answer would be all of the above, and more. The events from June of 1914 through August of 1914 can be described as one thing leading to another.

World War II plays a very important part in the history of the world. It still has effects that we deal with today. So, what events could have possibly started such a monumental world war? Well, the events are: World War I, Great Depression, expansion of imperialism, Versailles Treaty, and the rise of Germany. This was a dangerous chain reaction of events that lead to the devastating effects of the war.

In the summer of 1914 World War I began in Europe between the Allied and Central powers. Although the war was seen as unavoidable in Europe it came as a surprise to the American people. When word reached America of the outbreak of war, President Wilson urged the United States government and the American people to hold a neutral attitude on the war in Europe(1). For the most part President Wilson’s initial stance on neutrality was strongly supported by the majority of the country. In the early stages of World War I President Wilson approached both the Central and Allied leaders and offered to be a mediator between the two sides. “The Central Powers replied that victory was certain, and the Allies required the dismemberment of their enemies' empires. No desire for

Between the years of 1914 to 1918, the whole of Europe was locked in arms, not only for pride but mostly for survival. The years of war brought devastation upon all societies. Men were massacred in droves, food stuff dwindled, and at times an end seemed non-existent. The foundation of the first Great War, one can muse, began as a nationalistic race between rival nations. By the onset of 1914, once the Archduke Frendinad had been assassinated in Saravejo, the march for war became not just a nationalistic opinion, but now a frenzy to fight. In battle, unlike previous wars, new weaponry caused drastic alterations in strategy. No longer will armies stand to face their rivals on the plains. Now the war will be fought in trenches, hidden

The most anticipated war in history, World War One, started off with the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Franz Ferdinand. As a result, Austria-Hungary gave the killer’s country, Serbia, an opportunity to take ownership and apologize to A/H’s government. Without a response from Serbia, A/H declares war, launching the July Crisis- one of many of Europe’s fighting frenzies. Countries were declaring war on each other, gathering secret alliances, and building their armies. The Crisis continuously built its longevity until declared as a Great War, a nickname for World War One. Knowing which event pushed the world to arm themselves, historians had asked what the underlying causes for the war were. Causes for the war were alliances, imperialism, nationalism, and most destructive, militarism.

Nowadays, most of the countries on this world is trying to make peace and gain alliances with each other. However, the situation was a little different than this in the 1900s. Chaos was everywhere in Europe in the 1900s due to various reasons. After a long time of chaos, people decided they had enough of it so they asked for war. Eventually, after Serbia secret society “Union or Death” (called “The Black Hand” by its opponents) assassinated the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie, World War I began.

On June 28, 1914, the Archduke of Austria-Hungary, Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated. That event marked the first phase of World War I (Grayzel 10). Soon afterward nations throughout Europe announced declarations of war. By the end of October countries as far away as Japan, China and Brazil had become involved (Grayzel 11).  Susan R. Grayzel in the “Introduction: The First World War and the Making of a Modern, Global Conflict” from The First World War: A Brief History with Documents”, explores a variety of contributing reasons for the Great War (Grayzel 9). The causes most

In Van Evera definition, the “cult of the offensive” is militarized tendency to glorify the offensive and adopt the military strategies and accompanied the assumption of the elite civilians that have the advantage of warfare. The primary argument that Van Evera has to declare about “cult of the offensive” was the main principal cause of World War I. Van Evera states that because world power government made a wrong choice in foreign policy, it is the reason why World War I happened. He also concluded that the "cult of the offensive” played a huge role in tension buildup between the international power prior to the War. Van Evera also listed five things that relevant in the 1914 crisis: 1) State adopt more aggressive foreign policies both to abuse any of the new opportunities and created any new danger appears when any offense is getting stronger. 2) The size of the advantage accruing to the side mobilizing or striking first increases. 3) When there are any windows opportunities, it forces the diplomacy faster to risk any prevention from war. 4) States adopt competitive styles of diplomacy since the gains promised by such tactics can easily justify the risks they entail. 5) States enforce political and military secrecy stricter since the national security is threatened if the enemies get the information (Van Evera, 1984).

While there is never just a single event that has led to the start of a world war, or any other serious war, there is often one thing that triggers long lived tensions and thus war ensues. Such was the case in WWI with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. There were many tensions that existed prior to his assassination, but it was his assassination which triggered the war, his assassination that served as an excuse, and perhaps the last straw, so to speak, which led to the First World War. The following paper examines the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and its relationship to the start of WWI.

To maintain the balance of powers between countries requires a strict effort to openly communicate and work in unison between nations as opposed to independently. This did not occur in the events leading up to 1914.

The first source that is undergoing evaluation is a secondary source, written by Samuel R Williamson, Jr. It is titled: “The Way to War”, and was published by the Freie Universität of Berlin on October 8th, 2014. Samuel R. Williamson, Jr. taught at West Point, Harvard, and the University of the South, and frequents the topic of World War One. As a teacher, Mr. Williamson, Jr.’s reason for the research and articles is to spread awareness and knowledge about the First World War. This source is valuable because it provides an in-depth analysis of how international politics changed with the differing factors preceding World War One, like the Bosnian conflict and how it change European politics. However, it limited the detail it was able to provide

The war that broke out in 1914 was one of the worst, if not the worst, wars in human history. It had left millions dead and a scar burned into European history forever. However, if we do not identify why war broke out in 1914, stopping others wars will be impossible. Clearly, we may never know the answer to this, but many sources give many interpretations. In this essay, I will try to recognise the key factors that led the outbreak of the Great War in 1914 and try to identify the most significant of these causes.