4 Oct

This week, I wanted to discuss WWI. It is the consensus that Germany should be blamed for the outbreak of the Great War, however, I believe Germany is not deserved the full brunt of it. Even though the policies that Germany took before 1914 were definitely building up military and antagonistic towards the other European powers, Germany was not unique. The other imperial European powers took the same type of policies. All the major powers were building up in proportion to the others. Where the Allied side deserves partial blame is how they were not willing to let another power center develop in Central Europe. They wanted to hold on to everything they had and were not willing to let another competitor enter the scene, and especially not let them join the imperial court as well. This type of behavior only agitated Germany even more and emboldened them to rise up and join the ranks of imperial nations. Germany was ready to move its power outside of its borders. Where Germany deserves blame is their annexationist plans, especially on the territories it wished to add to the Reich. There was no need to take pieces of territory from other established nations, that was their main fault. At the same time there is no military advantage by instigating a two front war when you are the meat in the sandwich, this is guaranteed failure. This may be going beyond my point, but still largely a blunder to underestimate your enemies, hubris. But it understandable that Germany should desire to be a first-class imperial nation surrounded by the powers it was near. The Allies made the mistake by making war the only option for the German-dominated alliance to accomplish the goals that their people wanted.
It has been also said in class that society should be blamed for the war, and this rings true to myself as well. It has always been in modern government that the societal climate can determine government policy. I think that European society as a whole was just itching for a war even though they had no idea really what modern combat was like. The type of combat experienced in WWI was like nothing else experienced in human history between brutality and unequaled casualty rates. It seemed to not matter if combat for the youth was one of the most grotesque episodes imaginable, society wanted to see it. Plus the war was sold throughout Europe as the war to end all wars and great societal cleansing, and other slogans that came along with that. In all though society made the atmosphere that the only option in 1914 was to engage in war, fingers had been on triggers for too long, all it took was a small incident for everyone to let their hammers fall...