germany after WW1

[sherminator1]

Can anyone tell me in 2-3 paragraphs why the allies blamed GErmany for WW1, if you agree or disagree with this, and your opinion on germanies treatment after the war (fair/unfair... other thoughts?)

[sking500]

The Allies should have just as well blamed themselves for WWI as Germany. My take is that Germany was mostly trying to play the same colonization game as the rest of the Western Allies. When she finally started developing a large enough Navy to challenge Britain and France both panicked and formed hasty alliances with anyone who would join them. This is especially true of France who had fought with Germany over control of Alsace-Lorraine and parts of the Ruhr Valley over a few hundred years leading up to WWI. Britain felt threatened mostly because Germany had one of the largest standing armies at the time and viewed a large Navy as an invasion threat. Germany reacted by allying with Austria-Hungary with whom they had close ties with anyway.

Once Franz Ferdinand was shot, and war was declared, the alliances that had been agreed upon leading up to that point were politically forced into war. The tension was caused by all sides, but the winners always set the rules. Despite the outcome, Germany actually got off somewhat lighter than what the French had hoped for and it was mostly the French who led the charge for the Germany blame-game.

[NEVjr]

when you win, you get to blame alot on your enemies. you notice that the allies wernt charged with war crimes after ww2 as well, was it just? no, was it fair? yes, its a bigger risk to start a war if you lose more when you lose

[Moderator Sinister]

The extreme loss of life was another reason to punish Germany. As the Black Adder once said:

"this whole mess would be made easier if we had just stayed at home at shot 50,000 of our own people a week."

[admiral_yamoto]

Wasn't it Serbia's fault?

WW1, politically interesting, the war is boring

[CrazyStraw]

Can anyone tell me in 2-3 paragraphs...Wow. If I had known it was this easy to get people to do my school work for free, I might have actually graduated from high school.

Peace

[squirecam]

Wasn't it Serbia's fault?

WW1, politically interesting, the war is boring

Perhaps you mean the shooters, and not the whole country...

Squirecam

[boylermaker]

It was Germany's fault in that they invaded France pre-emptively. However, there isn't much doubt that France would have attacked Germany once Germany attacked Russia, so it is really hard to say that any one country is "responsible" for WWI. WWI is such a stupid war! There aren't really good guys or bad guys, just winners and losers.

[admiral_yamoto]

WWI is such a stupid war! There aren't really good guys or bad guys, just winners and losers.

Amen, stalemates just aren't my thing ;)

[carl_brisgamer]

The Germans made the same mistake twice in the 20th century - they won a few battles but lost the war.

[carl_brisgamer]

If you are interested get a hold of a copy of A J P Taylor's book 'War by Timetable'. He argues that although none of Europe's statesmen wanted a war they were propelled into it by the need to mobilize faster than their rival powers which, once started, could not be stopped. A good read.

[boylermaker]

The Germans made the same mistake twice in the 20th century - they won a few battles but lost the war.
They also used the exact same genius plan twice: and nearly got away with it both times.

[pellulo]

The Irony of both World Wars is, if Imperial Germany had ended the Great War, in a truce, more a bit in her favor, she probably would have strangled the newborn U.S.S.R.(in order to please the Allies).

As for the Second World War, if Nazi Germany, had won the War (in other words held onto her European conquest), you probably wish the U.S.S.R, had won instead. Truly caught between the worst of two evils. Thanks, Pellulo

[40roundsready]

First off the allies where not uniform in the opinion of blaming Germany for WWI such as the U.S.A. However the British and French who suffered more casualties made Germany offically accept responsibilty for the war in the peace treaty as well as accept a large war indemnity. Prior the outbreak both the initial Allies France,U.K,Russia and the Entente formed by Germany competed to form alliances against the other. The late 19th Early twentieth century had seen huge advancements in technology and industrialzation, which are great for society in general however deadly in terms of creating modern efficent warfare. Most countries along with competing for military alliances sought to out pace each other in military might through conscription,military preparations, and production. This system of complex alliances,military mobilization and war plans meant that once in motion they could not be stopped. You have a domino effect of declarations of war with the spark being the assasination of Duke Ferninand of Austria-Hungary by a serbian anarchist group seeking autonomy from Austria-Hungary. The Austrians make demands of the Serbs for the assasination and in the end declared war on Serbia. Serbia has a peace treaty with France who has a peace treaty with the U.K. Germany reacts to the allies declaration of war with Austria-Hungary by declaring war on the Allies. Eventually most of the world will have joined up with Allies or Entente. The conflict should have been limited to Austria-Hungary and Serbia but the Alliances widened the war to most of the world with the brunt of the fighting taking place in Eastern and Western Europe. After the Allies win they wanted to punish Germany so severly with limits on their military,occupation of German land,loss of colonial possessions, and a huge war debt that it would discourage Germany from ever waging war again. The Versaille treaty had the opposite effect and is directly responsible for creating the conditions in Europe that lead to the rise of Fascism and to WWII. i highly recommend the Guns of August, great read on the subject.