Dbq The Causes Of The First World War Analysis

The origins of WWI are very debatable because so many different events led up to the declaration of war. Perhaps the most well known debated reason for the war is the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife. The archduke was not considered particularly pro-German, and probably had more sympathy for the problems of the South Slavs than any member of the royal family. [Merriman pg. 882] The Archduke and his wife were visiting Sarajevo in Bosnia, when they were shot by a lone assassin who was believed to be a Serbian nationalist. This caused Austrians to target their anger toward Serbia. “Even Count Berchtold agreed that the moment had come to solve the Serbian question and that he would discuss the matter with His Majesty. Above

They wanted war and with the urging of Germany they were going for it. “Thereafter, Dr. Naumann discussed the general political situation, dwelling on the great uneasiness felt in Berlin over Russian armaments and the test mobilization, recently fixed for the autumn, of considerable Russian forces.” [Doc 3: Hoyos’ Conversation with Victor Naumann, Vienna, 1 July, 1914] Germany had their own goals and reasoning behind a war with Serbia, Russia’s ally. Germany and Serbia had looked at all it options and felt it was a prime time to initiate a war. The powers of Europe were poised for conflict; Europe was divided into two armed camps by two rival alliances. While the outbreak of war was probably not inevitable- although many nationalist and military planners believed it to be- it was likely. [Merriman, pg 881] Once two powers seemed on the verge of war, the entangling alliances that pitted the Triple Alliance against the Triple Entente seemed likely to bring all of the European powers into the

The German Government has advised the Serbian Government to afford the maximum cooperation in this matter in which it finds all Europe against Serbia, and the Russian Ambassador to Berlin has also been approached and has given assurances that he will urge his Government to influence Serbia accordingly. [Doc. 4 Lichtenau to Vitzthum 2, July, 1914.] The actual assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand did not cause the War it simple gave a great excuse to start the war. Germany used it to trick Serbia into declaring war to allow them a chance at war with Russia. While Germany understood that France would back Russia they had the Schlieffen plan which called for a lighting attack by Germany in order to knock the French out of the War early even before Russia could mobilize its troops to help. [Merriman pg 884] This plan would call for Germany to violate Belgian neutrality which had been in place since the Franco-Prussian war of 1870- 1871. Schlieffen and his troops knew this plan would probably bring Great Britain into the war because that nation would never accept the violation of Belgian neutrality and the possible presence of an enemy power just across the Channel. [Merriman pg. 885] Britain asked both Germany and France for a guarantee that Belgian neutrality (which had been accepted by Britain, France, Austria, Prussia, and Russia in 1839) would not be