What Are The Differences Between Germany And France's Perspectives About WWI

The unconditional support from alliances can be blamed to cause World War I. The nature of the alliances is laid out in the alliance document. The alliances stipulated assistance and contribution of the signing parties in the event of conflict. It can extend from money or logistic sponsorship, similar to the supply of materials or weapons, to military activation and a statement about war. Partnerships might likewise contain currency components, for example, trade agreements, investment or loans. It is best known to cause World War I. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, European nations formed, abolished, or restructured their own alliances. By 1914, the Great Powers of Europe split into two opposing alliance blocs. For quite a long time Europe had been a mixture of ethnic and regional competitions, political interests, contending desires, military dangers, suspicions and disorder. France and England were antiquated foes whose competition ejected into open fighting a few times between the fourteenth and mid nineteenth hundreds of years.

“ War is the school of discipline, sacrifice, and courage” (DBQ Project Doc 1). Some troops would not want to go to war because they do not want to leave their families, so they tell each other, “You will be home before the leaves have fallen from the tree” (DBQ Project Doc 2). On December eleventh 1899 Prince Bernhard von Bulow gave a speech about Germany is going to war. He discussed with the people about how war is the most important thing at hand. That if you did not have power, a strong army, and powerful navy you can not have warfare. Meaning that the “German nation will be either the hammer or the anvil” (DBQ Project Doc

However, Ludendorff’s plan backfired when Wilson’s Points insisted that Germany lay down all arms and dissolved its army to no more than 100,000 troops, as well as all parties responsible resign (Peukert, 1987; 46). If Wilson’s constitutional reforms were to be implemented a democratic parliament could have been formed (Peukert, 1987; 24). Obviously Germany was reluctant, at first, to accept all of the responsibility of the war. To add to the attempt of keeping Germany a War state and its reluctant surrender, Keiser Wilhelm II ordered a last attempt by the German Naval Fleet to attack. This created a mutiny in Wilhelmshaven on October 28, 1918 and a sailor’s resurrection in Kiel on November 3rd and 4th (Peukert, 1987; 27). The peaceful revolutionary movement has begun in Germany and the citizens began expressing they wanted a new government. During the revolution the Weimar Republic was forming and it seemed to be doing so with little compromise from polar parties. Somehow, the Weimar Constitution was written and the new government began to practice democracy. Most of Germany, by now, wants to be a viable part of the world and achieve a better standard of living, the newly formed Weimar Republic and fragile economy will be tested with the Versailles Treaty.

France had a general distrust of Germany. There was a great fear that if more serious measures to stop Germany were not made then the next generation would be seeking a war of revenge. The French public opinion earnestly desired a just peace, and would not take up arms again until compelled by a clear threat.3 This pacifism played an extremely important role in French policy. "Whether from ignorance or misunderstanding, many of the French people were apathetic, or just did not care enough to want action."4 The people were divided into two forces, the Left and Right, the Right favoring

Firstly, Kaiser Wilhelm II played a very large role and was extremely important to starting the war. Yet, he did not play too much of a role once the war had began. Wilhelm had pushed hard to make Germany more powerful since he felt that his country deserved to have it’s, as he says, “place in the sun”. His intense and assertive actions had caused Britain and France to become worried and to believe that Germany might be trying to take power in Europe at their expense, which had forced the two countries to form allies. This had made the war much more likely. But without these two countries, Wilhelm knew he could not be the most powerful. His actions also caused conflict and his behavior eventually led to the start-up of the war. During the war however, Wilhelm did not do much other than give orders to the military, which they had ignored anyhow. Germany had come to be run by the military and Kaiser Wilhelm had just been a public figurehead until he was forced out of

Bismarck’s alliance system brought peace between the European countries. (Stewart, Fitzgerald, Pickard 12) His alliance system starts with a treaty with Austria-Hungary who was one of the 5 powers in Europe. In 1879, Germany and Austria-Hungary signed the Dual Alliance, which was planned as a merely defensive arrangement or military alliance. Both governments promised that they should help or remain neutral when other powerful countries such as Russia or France attack. (Stewart, Fitzgerald, Pickard 13) The second allied country was with Italy. In 1882, Bismarck turns Dual Alliance into Triple Alliance by making Italy to join in his alliance system. Since Italy had close friendship with Great Britain, although Italy was not a strong military nation, it was an influential part of the Alliance. And at the same time, Great Britain and Germany had conflict in North Africa on colonial aspiration. Therefore, it was the perfect time to be an ally with her to isolate France. (Stewart, Fitzgerald, Pickard 14) Making Great Britain as a close friend was a benefit for Germany. Bismarck’s next target to isolate France was Russia. In 1881, the Dreikaiserbund was made a treaty, which was the agreement between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia promising not to help the fourth power, France. However in 1884, this treaty had renewed and Russia refused to renew her membership in Dreikaiserbund. Then Bismarck discussed the Reinsurance Treaty with

President Woodrow Wilson had secured the political clout to establish foreign policy after World War I. However, the Europeans, especially the two major powers in Europe, England and France had the right to be circumspect of several aspects of Wilson’s plan. The German Delegation utilized President Wilson’s analogy that, “no single fact caused the war, but that in last analysis the whole European system is in a deeper sense responsible for the war…” (Comments of the German Delegation, 1919). European leaders could have taken offense to Wilson’s plan. President Wilson’s represented a nation that was protected by thousands of miles of oceans, and during the war the United States suffered no loss of infrastructure and economically their markets made money during the war. However, that was not the case for the European political leaders. They truly had an ax to grind against Germany. France with closer proximity to Germany than England elected to be protective and leery of Germany’s intentions after the war. Germany on the other hand was distraught over the terms laid before them by the Europeans at the Paris Peace Conference. The Germans believed they were being singled out, and that through the attrition of their sovereign territory they were losing vast economic resources and their ability to establish self-determination and self-preservation.

Russia also made an alliance with France against Germany and Austria-Hungary. There was another alliance between Russia, France and Britain to counter the threats from

Although more countries than Germany itself is responsible for starting the first World War, Germany in its history to become a nation performed certain actions that helped guide the world toward war. War after war was fought in order to solidify Germany as a nation both politically and morally. These wars gave the German people a sense of unity but also fueled rage, hatred, and fear by those that Germany defeated along its path to become a nation. These feelings are not easily forgotten. These feelings could be seen rising up during World War I by the nation of France, who was defeated earlier by the Germans over land disputes as part of Germany’s quest to become a nation, one of the allied powers in the war. As another result of these wars and the quest to build Germany into a nation, Bismark put together a web of complex treaties with varies nations in Europe. These same treaties where then unraveled by William so that Germany could advance as a civilization. Through the actions that the Germans took in order to become a nation did not see them making too many friends as it made them enemies. It is these actions that lead the nations of France, England, and Russia to go on edge and distrust Germany and build an arsenal to defend themselves. When a nation displays the actions that Germany displayed it leads people, and nations alike, to believe that they are aggressive and that they plan to take military action against them in order to expand. This then causes distrust and fear that lead people to take certain measures so when the time comes for war they can defend themselves. As those nations build their arsenals tensions grow even higher. As these tensions grow high, countries form allies with other countries which

xviii. Aggressive foreign policy - Germany marched into the Rhineland (1936) and many other things like Austria and the Sudetenland (1938)

Bismarck’s decisions and policy effected the first World War when he used a series of conflicts to bring Germany together but also create several enemies. One of these enemies being France played a big part in World War I later because Germany took the former French territory of Alsace- Lorraine. This conflict that took place during the time of Bismarck’s reign gave France a motive to fight against Germany. Wilhelm on the other hand played a far bigger role in the war. Because of a quarrel amongst Serbia and Germany, he asked Austria- Hungary to attack Serbia and thus pulling Britain, France, and Russia into the war (“Firstworldwar”). his aggressive tactics and need for power created many enemies and caused the German Empire to lose a lot of power leading up to the war.

The groundwork for World War I was laid down far before the July Crisis could have any effect on the start of the war. The ticking time bomb that was Europe contained countries bent on imperialism and maintaining the best situation for themselves, causing great tensions to form between nations. One such rivalry developed between Germany, known as Prussia at the time, and France. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1871, Prussia managed to capture Alsace-Lorraine, a part of France. The French were unsettled by their defeat and loss of land, determined to reclaim Alsace-Lorraine as a representation of their power and authority in Europe. This goal led to revanchism in France, where they would “suddenly one day rise [to] regain Lorraine [and] recapture Alsace.” A

Georges Clemenceau says “ Germany should be brought to its knees so she can never start war again.” The is his only view according to Chris Truman. Woodrow Wilson had been shocked by the devastation from the Great War. Wilson wanted to leave Europe to its on and to concentrate on U.S. instead of worrying about everyone else. He wanted to keep all input in and out of Russia to a minimum.

23 July 1905, Tsar Nicholas of Russia had come close to forming an alliance with Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, but a prior agreement with France and Russian desire to avoid upsetting their ally led to denial of the treaty by officials in St. Petersburg. Convinced that Germany could drive a wedge between the Entente powers, Berlin demanded an international conference in Algeciras, as promised by the treaty of 1881. Initially, the Germans were sure that Britain would not intervene in a dispute regarding Morocco, but France gave compensation deals to Britain, Italy, and Spain, and promised more money to Russia for support in the Algeciras conference held January 1906. Not only was the Entente proven stronger than Germany had initially thought, historian Christopher Clark also argues that ‘the uselessness of the Triple Alliance [between Austria, Italy, and Germany] was revealed for all to see.’ Not only did actions taken by Kaiser Wilhelm II in the First Moroccan Crisis of 1905 not have the desired effect of pushing apart the Entente powers, they led to a stronger connection between France and Britain, Italy, Spain, and Russia, impacted the European view of Germany negatively, and isolated Germany and Austria

Kaiser Wilhelm’s foreign policy differed from Bismarck’s in many ways. Whereas Bismarck did things based on logic Kaiser Wilhelm did things more based on emotion. This resulted in incoherence and inconsistency in the German relations with other nations. He wanted an empire that could rival the size of the british. He also managed to alienate the English by aggressively expanding the navy. He was more aggressive and wanted Germany to be the best.