Who is there to really blame for the Great War? The question is not who but rather what caused the war. The Preliminary Peace conference’s decision on the responsibility of the authors of the war establishes a broad view of who and how initiated the war. The decision to blame only a couple of super powers is absurd considering that more than two participated in the war. According to Hunt Tooley’s more narrow explanation the blame does not lay solely on Germany and Austria- Hungary, because there are various political, economic, military, and social events that revolve around different countries throughout Europe which influence the initiation of the Great War. Responsibility for beginning a war cannot be distributed through a bias document,
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The two foremost issues before the war began are the sense of nationalism and the romanticism established by ware fare. Nationalism is an idea incurred by Europe’s class conflicts and the movement itself held a need for reform rather than revolution. Hence, after the ideas of reforms favor the government to push unity of the people through the idea of a “national state” (Tooley 2016, 14). Tooley further writes, “The Romantic myth of the mystical ties of linguistics and “blood” relations was borrowed” (Tooley 2016 14). This idea of unity centralized and gave glamour to each of the major governments, and civic ties were …show more content…
Whereas Germany and Austria were not the only powers that were ready to go to war. All of Europe was expecting war and even the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, thought of as the principle trigger of the war was not caused by Austria or Germany. Austria was in the end backed up by Germany, but Serbia was backed up by Russia. Further Tooley describes, “As a result both of long-standing Austro-Serbian animosities and of the German Backing (the “blank check”), on July 23, the Austrians issued an ultimatum to the Serbians, and ultimatum designed perhaps to be turned down” (Tooley 2016, 37). Austria- Hungary declared war on July 28 and there were no “violation of French or Serbian frontiers before the declaration of war” as is written in the document of responsibility of the authors of the war (“Commission on the Responsibility of the Authors [...] 1920, 98).
In conclusion, the war whether premeditated or not was inevitable. The claims made by Responsibility of the Authors of the War are therefore not completely coherent, because all the factors before war are not taken into consideration. Therefore as Tooley, explains there are various factors such as political, economic, military and social
The two foremost issues before the war began are the sense of nationalism and the romanticism established by ware fare. Nationalism is an idea incurred by Europe’s class conflicts and the movement itself held a need for reform rather than revolution. Hence, after the ideas of reforms favor the government to push unity of the people through the idea of a “national state” (Tooley 2016, 14). Tooley further writes, “The Romantic myth of the mystical ties of linguistics and “blood” relations was borrowed” (Tooley 2016 14). This idea of unity centralized and gave glamour to each of the major governments, and civic ties were …show more content…
Whereas Germany and Austria were not the only powers that were ready to go to war. All of Europe was expecting war and even the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, thought of as the principle trigger of the war was not caused by Austria or Germany. Austria was in the end backed up by Germany, but Serbia was backed up by Russia. Further Tooley describes, “As a result both of long-standing Austro-Serbian animosities and of the German Backing (the “blank check”), on July 23, the Austrians issued an ultimatum to the Serbians, and ultimatum designed perhaps to be turned down” (Tooley 2016, 37). Austria- Hungary declared war on July 28 and there were no “violation of French or Serbian frontiers before the declaration of war” as is written in the document of responsibility of the authors of the war (“Commission on the Responsibility of the Authors [...] 1920, 98).
In conclusion, the war whether premeditated or not was inevitable. The claims made by Responsibility of the Authors of the War are therefore not completely coherent, because all the factors before war are not taken into consideration. Therefore as Tooley, explains there are various factors such as political, economic, military and social