On the Opening of WWI

What caused the First World War? 

Every child is taught in school the famous shot heard around the world, when Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinated Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire. The Austrians retaliated against Serbia, which drew a lot of allied countries into the fray until the world was at war. But there is extensive context necessary to understand how the fire spread out of control so quickly. And why was it that after the war Germany was blamed so harshly for a conflict that she never even started?

A large part of the preexisting tension that led to world war involved Germany and France. Animosity between the two nations had been strong ever since the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. A staggering defeat for the French, it culminated in the crowning of the new united German Empire, which ceremony took place in the conquered palace of Versailles. More vitally, the key economic border regions of Alsace and Lorraine were annexed by the Germans. French pride and the need for redemption played a heavy role in leading France to war. For their part, the Germans believed that the French needed a final and thorough crushing to cement German power in Europe. A deep and nasty militarism had taken root in the German consciousness, with military men like General Friedrich von Bernhardi believing that war was necessary to protect national interests. The Kaiser, always a mercurial and paranoid man, was eternally tormented by the idea that his empire was being encircled by various other European states who were jealous of Germany’s transcendent might. 

Militarism spurred statesmen and generals on all sides to avoid stepping back in any way that could have possibly prevented the incoming disaster. Germany was particularly committed, having prepared the so-called Schlieffen Plan years earlier, from which no deviations could be made. All-in-all, Germany should have carried the largest share of blame for propelling the conflict into the mass slaughterhouse that it became, although the ramifications of its punishment would lead to further disaster down the road.