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Was Germany Responsible For World War I

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Thesis statement: Germany should not be alone blamed for the World War I, because the major cause of World War I is imperialism and nationalism. Also Austro-Hungary physically started the war, while other leaders of major power knew the war would break out, but nobody did anything to stop it. The World War I was one of the most horrific event in the world history. It led to the fallen of four great imperialist empires such as Germany, Russia, Austro-Hungary, and Turkey. In four years, “the war costed over 15 million people dead” (White 1). It also planted the seed of the World War II. Even though the World War I was ended about a century ago, but it is still a fascinating subject for modern historians to debate. Especially, the question that …show more content…
On June 23, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir of Austro-Hungary empire, and his wife, Sophie, visited Sarajevo, Bosnia. According to Jesse Greenspan, the couple received multiple warnings to cancel the trip. They knew the visit would be dangerous, “Our journey starts with an extremely promising omen. Here our car burns, and down there they will throw bombs at us” (Jesse 1), but they believed the trip was unavoidable. They wanted to show the world the power of Austro-Hungary. Unfortunately, they were shot to death by the Bosnian Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip, who was trained by a member of the Black Hand group. On July 23, 1914, Austria-Hungary sent an ultimatum, a series of demands, to Serbia with 48 hour of the deadline. “Its demands included the denunciation of separatist activities, the banning of publications and organisations hostile to Austria-Hungary and co-operation with Habsburg officials in suppressing subversion and a judicial inquiry”, according to Saul David, “Serbia accepted all of them except one term, which was that the joint Austro- Serbian judicial inquiry would have to be subject to Serbia’s law” (David 1). Austria rejected Serbia’s propose, and accused the Serbian government for being a complicity in the assassination. On July 28, Emperor Franz Joseph I and his government took the opportunity to …show more content…
It created the most competitive arms race between the major powers. Imperialism is a policy of extending power in economic, political through military force. Nationalism is a belief or ideology policy that one country is superior than other countries. While the imperialists want to colonized other countries as much as they can, nationalists thought their country should and need to better than others. “These issues, imperialist and nationalist, resulted in a hardening of alliance systems in the Triple Alliance and Triple Entente and in a general armaments race” ("World War I” 1). Before the World War I, Britain had dominated the world in imperial power with the famous phrase “the sun never sets on Britain”. In one hand, Germany and Austria-Hungary wanted to show their power and have more source to support their military by gaining their territory of the colony. In the other hand, Britain and France were worrying about the rapid growing strength of German and Austrian. For example, in late 1800s, the British controlled “Canada, India, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Burma, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, several Pacific and Caribbean Islands, South Africa, Rhodesia, Egypt and other parts of Africa”, according to Llewellyn, while “France maintained colonies in modern-day Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, areas of West Africa and India, small possessions in South America, and islands in the Pacific and Caribbean”

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