World War I, causes and responsability

World War I : Causes and Responsibility

The old changeth , yielding place to new

--Alfred Lord Tennyson , Idylls of the King , 1869 No war has produced so long and heated a debate about its causes as the First World War .Today there are few reputable scholars who would deny that Germany and Austria , but primarily Germany , bear the chief responsibility for the war

--Donald Kagan , On the Origins of War and the Preservation of Peace 1995

Prologue

We seek to understand the causes of war , and attach responsibility to those

whose mistakes and policies enabled the war . We want to understand how such a terrible thing could have happened , and see if we can apply those lessons to our own circumstances . The war has been thoroughly analyzed yet , there is still disagreement on the share of responsibility and guilt . Not only are we looking back nearly a century but the experience is confused by the presence of so many participants some of whom are very difficult to understand . As we learn from our own experiences , and as history becomes a finer art , we make new interpretations of the past . There is no better example than the almost inexplicable First World War

Imagine a five-sided chessboard with five players . This was Europe in the 50 years prior to World War I . Pieces move , creating small losses and victories power shifts , strategies change , alliances are temporarily formed in self-interest . Finally , having made wrong moves in the confusing mixture and sacrificed strength in fruitless attack stalemate is the result and the weakest surrender or collapse . All of Europe , other lands to the east , and eventually the United States , were affected . The consequences linger today , but we may safely say that Europe has finally emerged with systems in place to prevent intra-European war from occurring again . Even the Balkans , after one final war one hopes , are joining the economic and political structure that guards the peace . Yet , there are always dangers to the institutions and thinking that must forever be addressed

When we look back at the long history of warfare , World War I , The Great War , seems to occupy a separate category of its own . It is a tragedy different both in degree and in kind . It seems so needless in the way it started and so senseless in the millions it destroyed

The sequence of causes is well known : The initial trigger was an assassination and a declaration of war , followed by the rest of the powers meeting their treaty obligations to support allies . Common sense and a vision of the consequences were absent . Then , millions upon millions of young men were thrown against each other on a fixed line of battle until Germany was the first to become exhausted and surrender The politicians and generals who had no more imagination or strategy to do otherwise are a symbol of the stupidity of war

Consider the following casualty statistics (Evans , 2004 ,

. 188

Dead Wounded Missing

Allies 5 ,520 ,000 12 ,831...