World War One or the Great War began with the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand who was heir to the throne of the mighty empire of Austria-Hungary.

In the summer of 1914, he and his wife, Sophie, made a visit to the troubled province of Bosnia, where on June 28, Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip fatally shot them. This event triggered the World War I and plunged the world into a chaos that lasted for four years and cost millions of lives.

The assassination of archduke is well known episode and for many of us it is all we need to know when people talk about causes of this war. Although, the World War I was triggered by assassination, the war’s origins lay further back, in the complex web of alliances and counterbalances that developed between the various European powers over the course of the nineteen-century. And if we attempt to look at the causes of this war from different historical perspectives, we will see that there are many explanations yet until this day no one has been able to provide us with one crystal-clear answer. In general, there are the few most popular attempts to explain the war during and after it.

The Allies designated Germany as the only culprit responsible for all what happened. Even some German historians such as Fritz Fisher in 1960s, leaned toward such explanation. In 1961, Fritz Fisher, a well known left-wing German historian published his first post-war book, Griff nach der Weltmacht: Die Kriegzielpolitik des kaiserlichen Deutschland 1914-1918 (Loosely translated as Grasping at Power: Germany’s Aims in the First World War), in which he argued that Germany deliberately sought to bring about World War I in its quest for world power. He attempted to prove that back in 1914, German chancellor Dr. Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg already had plans to annex all of the Belgium, much of France and most of Russia. He developed this theory in conjunction with another historian, Immanuel Geise, who shared Fishers views. In 2004, one more historian, David Fromkin, in his published work,Europe’s Last Summer, also blames Germany and Austria-Hungary entirely saying “Austria-Hungary started its local war with Serbia, while Germany’s military leaders started the worldwide war against France and Russia.”

On the other side, Germany said that before 1914 they had been encircled by hostile powers and they had no choice but to declare the war in order to avoid any further pressure. It was visible that Germans had a lot of ambitions and desired a “Place in the sun”. However, as Sir Edward Grey (1862-1933) a British politician, who attempted to be a mediator in Austria-Hungarian and Serbian dispute, said

“What Germany really wanted was a place in a temperate climate and fertile land which could be peopled by her white population…under the German flag. We had no such place to offer.”

Another explanation was offered by Russian communists, led by Vladimir Lenin. According to their theory that borrowed a lot from Marxism the cause of the war would be dependency of advanced European nations on imperialism. Communists argued that the only way for these countries to keep their economies rolling was through expansion and exploitation of foreign resources, markets and territories. As the late arrival, they argued, the Germany was not allowed to take advantageous positions, thus the inevitable result of such competition led the world into the war or “imperialistic struggle”.

These were and to some extent still remain as such, major explanation aimed to define the exact causes of the World War I. Which side is right? Which theory provides us with an answer? Is there an answer?
These are just the few questions many people ask when they read about the World War I. What is really amazing is that most historians can’t agree on exact causes and the whole situation still remains complicated. The only solution in this case is to draw your own opinion based on information derived from historical accounts.

Although, Germany might have forced European powers to mobilize their population and dive head first into the trenches, we can’t make Germany as the sole reason of the war. It would be too simple and in my opinion, many other events greatly contributed to it.

I will not agree with “Marxist theory” that claims that “Imperialism” is what must be blamed for the war. Imperial and commercial rivalries and competitions were important factors but not causes. Commercialism did cause the tensions between great powers, however the World War One was not a commercial war. It was initiated by Austria-Hungary and Serbia and their dispute had little if any commercial background. Furthermore, it is believed that overwhelmed majority of bankers and businessmen did not want any major European war because it would threaten to international trade. Let’s take the heavy industrialist Hugo Stains, who was so against the war that he established the Union Mining Company in Doncaster with idea of bringing German technology to the British coalfields. In another example, Max Warburg, the German banker opposed to the war and advised Kaiser “not to strike and wait a little bit more” by saying:

“ Sketched the domestic political situation in England for him (Home Rule), the difficulties for France of maintaining the three year service period, the financial crisis in which France already found itself, and the probable unreliabilities of the Russian army. I strongly advised him to wait patiently, keeping our heads down for a few more years. We are growing stronger every year; our enemies are getting weaker internally.”

These are just few examples illustrating the point that financial circles did not desire the war between European powers. Arguable? Perhaps. However, in my opinion, the long termed cause was inability of the major European powers to accept Germany into an “inner circle”. By doing so, Germany was cut off and its fast growing economy could not stay in its boundaries. England underestimated Germany as a dominant power and had never thought of it as a potential ally worth of consideration. Thus, Germany felt that there was nothing to loose for her.

Raise of nationalism in post-Napoleonic Europe was another long term factor that probably laid behind the World War One. The ideas of devotion and love for one’s people and etnithity was wide spread across Europe encouraged by developing economies and technologies.

French people, after losing rich areas of Alsace-Loraine and signing a peace treaty with Germany after Franco-Prussian war in 1870-1871 felt humiliated. There was wide spread resentment among French people and feelings of revenge were popular. The Ottoman Empire falling apart created dangerous situation on Balkans and nationalistic feelings were stirred by many powers who wanted to acquire influence over there. Newly created independent states were looking at Russia and Austria-Hungary for support and relationship between those powers were in decline. Complicated system of alliances contributed to the whole uneasiness making many Europeans to believe that the war was inevitable.

Diplomatic situation and inability of Russia and Austria-Hungary to control situation on Balkans was the last major factor behind the Great War in my opinion. Bosnian crisis made a potential alliance between Germany and Russia impossible as Russia did not want to back out from its intentions and aspirations on Balkans and Germans felt strong enough to handle any type of military action.

The two Balkan wars did not resolve all tensions between countries. After the second Balkan crisis Serbia was cut off from the Adriatic Sea and Russia continued to back her claims. Thus, Serbian aspirations for greater role in Balkans were not fulfilled and its nationalism was reaching its pinnacle. Austria, believing that Serbs backed by Russia could annex some territories from its Empire, were ready to eliminate Serbia by any means. On the other hand, Serbs, having support from Russia who had strong pan- Slavic feelings at that time, were ready to push harder and so they did. When Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Ferdinand, the outbreak of the world war one was a matter of time.

What happened between the assassination and the actual outbreak of the war remains questionable by many historians. “What if…” game is played and different scenarios are offered and discussed. What if, Serbian government agreed to allow Austro-Hungarian commission to investigate the incident? What if, Germany never gave Austria-Hungary “cart-blanch” and so on and forth. These are all important questions yet there is one that always pops up in my mind whenever I think of this war. What if The Second World War had never emerged from the ruins of the First World War? Imagine all these people living in peace…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 27th, 2005 at 5:43 pm and is filed under History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.