Was Germany Responsible For World War 1 Essay

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Germany is completely responsible for World War One because militarism builds armies and stockpiles weapons which leads to heightened tensions, alliance systems turn small conflicts into worldwide wars, and nationalism unifies countries but can cause adverse effects. Germany is to be completely blamed for World War One because militarism creates an arms race where nations expand their armies and accumulate weapons to feel safe while at the same time, intimidate their neighbors. Militarism is the policy of glorifying military power and is considered an arms race, where nations gather weapons and soldiers (The Causes of World War One Lecture, 11/30/15). To draft soldiers, nations used conscription which forces men to serve in the army (The Cause of WWI Lecture, 11/30/15). …show more content…
722). With help from Great Britain, France was able push Germany into a stalemate or a stand-off where no moves could be made (WWI: Key Fronts and the Home Fronts Lecture, 12/3/15). Furthermore, in January 1917, Germany uses unrestricted submarine warfare, where they would sink any ship around Great Britain without warning (Textbook, p. 418). However, Germany had used unrestricted submarine warfare before because on May 17, 1915, they sunk the British passenger ship Lusitania which killed 1,198 people (Textbook, p. 418). Of those passengers, 128 were American so as a result, the United States joins the war with the Allied Powers (WWI: Key Fronts and the Home Front Lecture, 12/3/15). This proves Germany is to blame for WWI because they devised a plan before the war broke out to defeat their neighboring countries. They came up with the Schlieffen Plan because they assumed that they would probably go to war with their bordering countries. In addition, Germany was so desperate to win the war that they started to attack passengers ships which held civilians, not soldiers. They were willing to kill civilians,

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