Who is primarily responsible for WW I?

see what you mean, knight. That's called listening to one lecture which confirms your own point of view, and ignoring the rest which don't!
Regards,
gordon

 

Well, to pose the question also in here:

Is there any good reason for germany to declare war on Russia on August 1st, 1914? They didn't intend to attack them yet... they attacked France. What was this declaration of war good for?

 

Knight... I really couldn't keep reading that thread in the Third Reich Forum... Bunch of ignorants!

Though everyone had reasons to go to war, it was Germany the one which, with awful diplomacy made the others go to war.

First, an imbecile in that forum says that Serbia is to blame because she didn't accept the ultimatum! I would like to know which sovereign nation would accept such an ultimatum!

Russia, in all its right to defend little Serbia and stand before an agressive country like Austria menaced with mobilisation. Germany, instead of mediating, encouraged Austria to insist on pressuring Serbia and menaced Russia to stop its mobilisation. And then menaced France to stay neutral. And there was of course, another menacing face towards Britain...

No, there wasn't. But Germany encouraged Austria's agressive position and practically told Russia to stay out of it, treathening her. Why? Because the German strategy included that Germany should defeat Russia and acquire some WWI version of Lebensraum... What was it good for? To assure Germany's defeat and the upsurging of the USSR... (if that can be considered as a good thing...)

[ 15. December 2003, 10:19 AM: Message edited by: General der Infanterie Friedrich H ]

 

Now I have given up, too. I have repeated the same statement and question four times in different words, if they don't understand, they don't understand.

 

I think the blame lays primarily on Austria as well as Germany. After all, once Serbia turned down Austria's ultimatum, Germany had given Austria the fammed "Blank Cheque" stating that Austria would have Germany's utmost support in the mattter.

Along the same lines, had Germany chosen to stay out of the whole conflict, the outcomes would have been very different. For example, would it have gotten to such a huge conflict had Germany stayed out of it? (Thus making it that the other countries possibly would have stayed out of it as well...the exception of Russia) Even so, back to the root of this thread. I say that Germany and Austria are to blame.

DUCE

 

Good post, Ducetta!

If Germany had stayed out of it, Austria-Hungary would have thought it twice before invading Serbia with Russia standing in the way.

 

Russia is to blame. With the Archduke killed by a terrorist group controlled by Serbian military intelligencee, the Austrian reaction was reasonable.

 

Hold on; the Austrians waited three weeks before serving the Serbs with a list of demands (which the Serbs mostly agreed to), and then declared war anyway.
First World War.com - Primary Documents - Austrian Ultimatum to Serbia, 23 July 1914
What sovereign country was going to accept being told how to conduct its own affairs?
Russia agreed to attend a conference organised by Britain aimed at mediation, whereas Germany refused. As the crisis deepened, the Russians urged Germany to show restraint, but partially mobilized as a (sensible) precaution. Germany reacts to this by warning them to stop (which they had no authority to do), then mobilizes her own army. Bound by treaty to aid Serbia in the event of an Austrian attack, Russia mobilizes her armed forces after the Austrians attack Belgrade, Germany demands they stop and then declares war on Russia.
The History Place - World War I Timeline - 1914 - War Erupts
I'm not seeing how it's all Russia's fault.

 

The Austrian "casus belli" looks pretty valid by modern standards, but I think the biggest cause was the inertia built into the mobilization systems of the time, once that got into motion it was hard to stop as the war plans were based on "mobilization + x" timetables and the temptation to catch the enemy still not fully prepared was irresistible to the military. Neighbouring countries coul not risk NOT to mobilize in reaction and unless the diplomats managed an exploit nobody was then going to demobilize first leaving himself exposed .
IMO they were sitting on a powder keg, the real responsible were the politicians who "rode the tiger" of nationalism bringing them there, who actually threw the fateful match matters little though I would point the finger at the Serbs is I had to choose somebody.

 

Just one question: How would any nation react if their head of State was to be killed by an identified killer? I think Austria's reaction was legitimate. What could have been a local war became a world war because of respective treaties that led one nation in the war after another.
This being said, the Sarajevo event, was just a pretext, another excuse would have done the job just as well.

 

Franz Ferdinand wasn't actually head of state; he was heir presumptive. His father (Archduke Karl Ludwig) had been first in line to the throne after Crown Prince Rudolph's suicide in 1889, but renounced this right. When Emperor Franz Josef died in 1916 he was succeeded by his grand-Nephew Charles I, son of Archduke Otto Franz, who happened to be Franz Ferdinand's nephew.
Franz Ferdinand was chosen for assassination as a symbolic gesture to shock the Austrians into conceding control of their South-Slav provinces and facilitate the creation of a Greater Serbia. As usual the Law of Unintended Consequences got in the way.

 

What sovereign country was going to accept being told how to conduct its own affairs?

Sovereignty has responsibilities as well as privileges. A sovereign country cannot let its territory be used as a base for terrorist operations - let alone support such operations through its own intelligence service. If it claims that criminal acts were committed without government sanction, it has to back that up with investigation and action.

The key question is how did a terrorist act evolve into a world war? The underlying cause was Russia's determination to expand her influence into the Balkans, a region in which she no historical role or presence.

However Russia's actions only contributed to an escalating eastern European crisis. The almost overnight transformation to a world war came from Germany, who after a couple of decades of considering the problem had only one idea for any crisis involving the great powers - launch the attack on France through Belgium, the consequences of which were well known.

 

My two cents:

A statement that Gavrilo Princip has caused the Great War equals to the claim that Herschel Grynszpan is responsible for the Holocaust.

 

Answer to the OP:no one:after Sarajevo,WWI was inevitable .

 

Many thought a nuclear exchange between the US and USSR was also inevitable.

 

Not entirely; Germany had tried to urge Austria to attack the Serbs as early as December 1912-
German Imperial War Council of 8 December 1912 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Austrian Chief of Staff Count Franz Conrad was a known advocate of using force to settle disputes, especially where Serbia was concerned-
Austria in 1914
After doubling its population following the Second Balkan War, Serbia became the Austrian bogeyman with many in Vienna fearing the loss of Bosnia-Herzegovina to the Serbs.
Second Balkan War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Russia's strategic position was threatened by the German-trained Ottoman forces, and she urgently needed to modernize her forces and railway network after defeat in the Russo-Japanese War.

 

Im going lateral on this and say the Eurpoean countries were responsible... for not strengthening and updating their forces...then as today, a weak defence force is asking for it.

 

There was some work done back in the 80's I beleive which characterized arms races as either stable or unstable. The former seldom or never lead to wars while the latter invariably did. When the work was done there was either one or two arms races that were characterized as unstable. One was between Iraq and Iran and within a year or two of the work being publilshed they were at war. The US Soviet arms race was stable.

 

The European train timetables...Once they were changed to enable the callups....There was no going back...
Which is why we got rid of most of our track in the UK...Simple..

 

Oh bugger....we are giving our boys and girls an extra week off at Xmas...And asking them to turn lights off when they leave the barracks...Oh bugger...