World War

DBQ ESSAY

World War I has a debatable issue about how the war was started. Some believe that each nation started it equally but I believe it was from a different cause. Austria-Hungary's harsh act against Serbia and Germany's unneeded declaration of war against Russia and France actually cause World War I. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia to quickly and then Germany declared wars on nations because it was "defending itself" even though it just wanted to gain more territories and use its large military. These rash acts caused the whole world to plummet into the largest war man had ever seen.

Evidence of Austria-Hungary's viciousness against Serbia is seen in the Austro-Hungarian Red Book No. 7 sent to Serbia on July 23, 1914. It says that the Royal Serbian Government must not allow any propaganda against Austria-Hungary and "to accept the collaboration in Serbia of representatives of the Austro-Hungarian Government for the suppression of the subversive movement." The Austro-Hungarians were demanding too much from the Serbians. They were saying that they could not allow freedom of speech in their country and that those organizations against Austria-Hungary had to be suppressed. This was too much to ask from the Austro-Hungarians and when the Serbians didn't accept it, they went to war.

That war caused Russia to start mobilizing its troops and Germany saw that as a threat. They decided that they would use their Schlieffen plan and would attack first France and then Russia. This then caused all of the other nations to go to war and start the World War. In The Century of Total War by Raymond Aron tells of how Germany was the main source of starting the war. "The rise of Germany, whose supremacy France dreaded and whose navy menaced England" had become the cause of the war. This explains why Germany and their army and supremacy helped to start tensions and the war.

Finally, at the end of World War I, in Article 231 of the Versailles Treaty, Germany accepted "the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing the loss and damage." Germany even admitted in the end that they and their allies had started the war and were responsible for the loss and damage caused during the war. That piece of evidence truly justifies Germany and Austria-Hungary to be the causes behind World War I.

Although it appears that other factors started the war, Austria-Hungary and Germany were the two countries that truly started it because of their rash and destructive movements against the other European nations. Austria-Hungary attacked Serbia and then Germany set the Schlieffen plan into motion against France and Russia and cause great loss. Germany and Austria-Hungary took the blame for the start of the war, and they in fact, truly did start it.