On June 28, 1919, the allied powers and Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles following WWI which required Germany to “accept the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage” and making them pay the equivalent of $442 billion USD today. Germany’s economy plummeted putting them in a great depression. So what did Germany do to have to accept responsibility for WWI? Compared to the other world powers involved, nothing. Although Germany diplomacy ultimately sparked the war between the world powers it wasn’t solely their fault that world powers decided to go to war. In the years building up to the war there were tensions there were tensions created by Britain’s navy, alliances made by world powers, and multiple
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When you look at all the events that took place in the years leading up to the war it becomes harder and harder to think that “Germany and her allies caused all the loss and damage”. While they did bulk up their navy to compete with Britain they did it out of fear that Britain was becoming too powerful. And while Germany did start increase their spending on their military, France was spending hundreds of thousands more than they were and Russia was spending more than double what Germany was. But Germany had to have been responsible because they knew what they were getting into when they declared war on Russia, right? Well Germany did help Austria fight Serbia and saw that Russia was mobilizing their army, so when they declared war on Russia they were really just honoring their alliance with Austria-Hungary, which is similar to what Britain did when Germany sent troops through Belgium. So when looking at all everything that unfolded in the years preceding the war it’s hard to point the finger at one side and say it was all their fault and then the question isn’t who was responsible for the war, it’s who wasn’t responsible for the war? And when you start to look into that question you realize that almost every side had some responsibility in causing a world war. So rather than pointing the finger maybe we should look at this as from all perspectives and try to prevent something like this from happening again so we aren’t forced to hold a country or a group of people responsible for such a terrible
When you look at all the events that took place in the years leading up to the war it becomes harder and harder to think that “Germany and her allies caused all the loss and damage”. While they did bulk up their navy to compete with Britain they did it out of fear that Britain was becoming too powerful. And while Germany did start increase their spending on their military, France was spending hundreds of thousands more than they were and Russia was spending more than double what Germany was. But Germany had to have been responsible because they knew what they were getting into when they declared war on Russia, right? Well Germany did help Austria fight Serbia and saw that Russia was mobilizing their army, so when they declared war on Russia they were really just honoring their alliance with Austria-Hungary, which is similar to what Britain did when Germany sent troops through Belgium. So when looking at all everything that unfolded in the years preceding the war it’s hard to point the finger at one side and say it was all their fault and then the question isn’t who was responsible for the war, it’s who wasn’t responsible for the war? And when you start to look into that question you realize that almost every side had some responsibility in causing a world war. So rather than pointing the finger maybe we should look at this as from all perspectives and try to prevent something like this from happening again so we aren’t forced to hold a country or a group of people responsible for such a terrible