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Who Started World War One
There is a reason for every war being fought. There is always a guilty party behind occurrence of the war. If that party had not done something to make another mad, the war would have never started. Sometimes it is hard to find the group responsible for this action. Sometimes it is very obvious who is to blame. Germany’s offensives started World War I and made more countries join as the war went on.
“On June 28, 1914, a Serbian student named Gavrilo Princep, who was part of the militant group called the “Black Hand”, assassinated Austrian archduke Frances Ferdinand and his wife” (Germany 1). This was an important event because Germany had initially given Austria their support in case of a war. Russia, likewise, had given Yugoslavia their support. If Austria retaliated against Yugoslavia, Russia would attack Austria, and Germany would then attack Russia. This involves four countries already. When they begin fighting, more countries will help to support and World War I starts. If Germany had not been on Austria’s side, they would have not attacked because they would have been against a larger and much stronger Russia.
Germany was trying to get Austria to attack Yugoslavia. “According to one historian ‘in the seventeen months from January 1, 1913 to June 1, 1914 Conrad, by his own statements, urged war on Serbia no less than 25 times” (Dedijer 3). The Austrians would not have started the war if they did not know that Germany would definitely defend them against Russia. Starting a war was very inviting to Germany. If Austria were to be taken, all of Germany’s neighbors would be its enemies. If Germany could take Yugoslavia, it would hurt Russia. It would also make Greece and Bulgaria vulnerable. These reasons give Germany the view that they would win the war easy.
Germany also had much confidence because a treat they had made with Turkey. “Germany had recently made an alliance with Turkey, and that gave them confident that they could defeat any European country” (Germany 2). This gave Germany more support. This support not only made them more confidence but it also gave the countries on their side more support. The increase in support gave them more reason to attack.
England had not come into the picture yet. They were not to enter the war if Russia made the offensive moves. Russia would be the aggressor because they would be attacking Germany for backing Austria against Yugoslavia. This was another reason Germany wanted to get the war started. “Little did Germany know that the general consensus around Europe was that even if Serbia had been involved in the
assassination it was not grounds to conquer it” (Germany 2). This was one thing that made it become a World War. Even though Russia [next page]