Who Was To Blame For First World War Essay

World War I, commonly called the Great War, ended in the loss of around nine million lives and cost roughly 300 billion dollars all together. So who is to blame for starting this “war to end all wars” as it was once called? While many factors, including miscommunications between foreign offices and stubbornness by the leaders of these various countries was what would result in the war coming to fruition, the blame for there being a war lies ultimately with the Prime Minister of Serbia, Nikola Pasic. For he allowed the match that would lite the powder keg that was Europe in 1914 to be sparked.
It has long been accepted that the killing of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the catalyst that lead to war breaking out and while strictly speaking the Black Hand is responsible for the killing, they were backed, and assisted by members of the Serbian …show more content…
Once the Austrians began to mobilize their troops it lead to a chain reaction of countries preparing their own armies for war. Plans that, as Meyer’s points out multiple times in the book were basically unstoppable once put into motion. So while trying to cover his own ass and save his government from a possible scandal, Pasic succeeded in giving the war eager radicals in Austria their excuse for a war with Serbia and started the chain of events that would move policy making away from the diplomats to the hands of the generals who were far less interested in peace and wanted a war, all looking to seek glory. To conclude if Pasic had been less concerned with political blowback in two separate instances where he was in position to alter important events, saving the archduke, allowing Austrian officials to work the assassination with Serbian officials, the war that came to be known as the Great War, that changed the course of world history forever could have been stopped before it ever