We are going to have this thread eventually, who is to blame for WWI?

[pieGEEK]

My answer is everyone. The Great War was going to happen at some point. Too many things made it so.
But if I have to blame people-
Serbia, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Germany, France as the five.
Why-
Serbia- With its overt support of covert means at undermining A-H , and wanting Yugoslavia
A-H- For using the crisis to destroy or subjugate Serbia
Germany- For antagonizing the French with Alsace-Lorraine, a reckless foreign policy by the Kaiser himself (in regard to diplomacy such as the Tangier crisis, naval racing Britain, and letting secret treaties with Russia expire)
France- For wanting A-L back and wanting to avenge itself, and wanting to scheme with
Russia- Who seeks fundamentally more power to itself and wants Eastern Thrace as well as the Balkans under its alliance.

But should we blame anyone, so many people will read articles about blame from some journalists and some punks who are historians.
So let's discuss.

 

[Herbert West]

Britain, for once in its life actually sticking by a treaty.

Just to round out the barfight.

 

[Kovax]

I'd say this one calls for an industrial size manure spreader, since so many different countries and individuals need to take some share of the blame. Ultimately, I think it comes down to human nature, and the fact that mankind never could and probably never will "all just get along".

Of course, I'm sure there's some little country in some remote corner of the world which can literally say "we had nothing to do with it"; although I can't think of one, offhand.

 

[Kyriakos]

Germany.

Just break that collection of fiefs up already

 

[DoomBunny]

Britain, for once in its life actually sticking by a treaty.

Just to round out the barfight.

By that point, the war had already begun. If you want to pick out something that Britain can perhaps be blamed for, it's the failure of negotiations before the conflict. Some have argued that the British position was not made clear enough, and that this encouraged Germany into going to war. By the time Britain actually acts on the Treaty of London, the war has already begun.

 

[StephenT]

The United States. If they'd stepped in and told the Europeans to demobilise their armies and go to the negotiating table, perhaps the whole war would have been avoided.

Also, the gun Gavrilo Princip used in the assassination was a Browning FN 1910, a gun designed by an American. What more evidence do you need?

 

[Lord Finnish]

I think all the major players share equal guilt.

 

[StephenT]

Repost.

 

[PEP]

We are going to have this thread eventually, who is to blame for WWI?

We had this thread about half a dozen time in the past year... You forgot the British in your little list by the way.

The United States. If they'd stepped in and told the Europeans to demobilise their armies and go to the negotiating table, perhaps the whole war would have been avoided.

Also, the gun Gavrilo Princip used in the assassination was a Browning FN 1910, a gun designed by an American. What more evidence do you need?

Fair enough. The Americans too.

 

[pieGEEK]

The comic above is inaccurate. Belgium was innocent as the stains of Kongo can leave. But their neutrality would have been violated eventually. France might have blitzed through instead to sieze Rhineland. Without the Ruhr well Germany is done.

The German decision to enact the Schlieffen Plan was risky and very belligerent, I view Belgium as the greatest military mistake that sealed the war for the Germans beyond unrestricted submarine warfare and the Zimmerman telegram. which gave the US enough causis belli for its goals. Germany was fighting a war that it never had to fight before and as badly, hell only Fredrick the Great had come close to a moment like that.

The British could have, but did't fundamentally out of rivalry of Germany and seeking to knock them from their grabbing at their place in the sun. Britain was put off without cordial diplomacy a la Bismark, and with Germany wanting a real rival more than backward bear in the waiting Russia, and those revanche Frenchmen. It settled with the biggest gang around. Germany made moves of aggression to other powers before notably Tangier crisis. This was a challenge not only to France but to Britain, who intervened and kept order.

I call the state of world affairs at the time between Martin Luther to Armistice of 1918, the Great Power Era, Europe was home to several great powers in various eras, who fought each other and competed to carve the world, some rose and some fell but the system of alliances and diplomacy brought many wars and tensions. This model for world order was challenged in the 19th century, Napoleon who nearly made a 1 power dominating Europe, Nationalism, imperialism (in its heyday where a gunboat of European power was bossing someone around the world), and the emergence of Non-European Powers (Japs and 'Mericans).

The system was built innately to have shifting alliances and dynamic fighting between nations. The result was simple, Europe had many wars between the same powers of centuries. These conflicts were not constant but happened with enough frequency all the wars in EUIV are quite accurate in number. However powers were destroyed or defeated, the worst was Poland which would cause much of Europe's tension on its corpse alone. Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden all being relegated to odd speaking folksy Euro countries. The 19th centrury more importantly saw a rise in technology that was not fully understood until a real war between Europeans broke out in 1914.

War doesn't start with gunshots, it starts in backrooms where country's leaders plot and enact every action that is not bloodshed first. WWI started with French and Russian secret treaties, Yugoslavian nationalism, and German exceptionalism.

Only one country won, the USA. See here http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-06-28/sarajevo-fulcrum-modern-history-great-war-and-its-terrible-aftermath

 

[Mathrim]

Germany of course. It's written in the Versailles treaty.

 

[Graf Zeppelin]

The lack of brain is to blame.

 

[StephenT]

The comic above is inaccurate. Belgium was innocent as the stains of Kongo can leave.

??? Belgium isn't in the comic until the very last panel, and it's hardly being aggressive there.

 

[Rey]

Austria-Hungary.

They knew about the chain of alliances; They knew Serbia had accepted the ultimatum except for one point; They knew Russia refused to support Serbia diplomatically. By that point they could have turned Serbia into something similar to a puppet on the diplomatic table alone, even being able to 'pull a Bosnia' some years later, yet they chose war. It doesn't matter if Germany put pressure on them, in the end it was still their decision.

 

[Nick Giordano]

I read an Austrian historian's POV and he said the Jews caused the war and the defeat of the Central Powers.

 

[StephenT]

I read an Austrian historian's POV and he said the Jews caused the war and the defeat of the Central Powers.

Was this "Austrian historian" born in Linz, and rejected by the Vienna art school?

 

[DarthJF]

Switzerland!

 

[pieGEEK]

??? Belgium isn't in the comic until the very last panel, and it's hardly being aggressive there.

Yes, but that was a reminder of the Heart of Darkness. Belgium didn't do anything beyond neutrality. I was talking about France.

 

[unmerged(31881)]

Germany of course. It's written in the Versailles treaty.

The same indemnity clause was applied to both the Austrian and Ottoman empires. Moreover, they were dismantled.

The lack of brain is to blame.

The greatest lack of brains to be found first and foremost in the person of the Kaiser.

 

[Mathrim]

Prussian militarism is to blame. Only legit cause.