Was it really Kaiser Wilhelms fault for getting germany into war or did the politicians want it too?

Was it really Kaiser Wilhelms fault for getting germany into war or did the politicians want it too?

Why was the Kaiser so powerful In German still anyway? All other major European powers had severely curtailed their monarchs powers bbefore WW1

  1. 8 months ago
    Anonymous

    Neither wanted it, but the Entente gave them no other alternative.

    • 8 months ago
      Anonymous

      If Germany didn’t give zaistria-Hungary the blank cheque message then they wouldn’t have pushed as hard on the Serbians because they knew they had no chance alone against russia

      • 8 months ago
        Anonymous

        Austria-Hungary had every right to punish a rogue state that actively supported terrorists in their territory.

        • 8 months ago
          Anonymous

          Correct. But the problem is that Austria-Hungary made a huge list of insane demands form Serbia that they expected to be denied to give the, a pretender for war

          But Serbia DID agree to almost all them. The few ones they refused or wanted to negotiate over were truly ridiculous stuff like Austria hungry demanding their soldiers be stationed in Serbian schools to “fused against dissidents”

          • 8 months ago
            Anonymous

            They refused the one demand that made the rest of the ultimatum enforceable.

            • 8 months ago
              Anonymous

              Who the fuck cares about that retarded demand? It wasn't worth waging war over.

              • 8 months ago
                Anonymous

                >hm yes, allow me to walk into your country with a billion of my own govt officials plz
                >no this is not a takeover what are you talking about
                Shut the fuck up, retard.

            • 8 months ago
              Anonymous

              >They refused the one demand that was intentionally made as nasty as possible to guarantee that the Inbred Austro's would be able to claim it was a casus belli
              FTFY

      • 8 months ago
        Anonymous

        This, without Germanies irresponsible support the war would likely have ended with a few brief skirmishes in the Balkans.

      • 8 months ago
        Anonymous

        You could turn the argument around: Serbia would have never resisted AH demands without being backed by Russia.

        What was Russia's business at the Balkans? Imperial games.

        The idea that either of the powers involved here were better or worse than the others is a ridiculous position.

  2. 8 months ago
    Anonymous

    The Kaiser as well as his generals just took advantage of the situation that was already there, because all countries were afraid and had to fight to defend themselves.

  3. 8 months ago
    Anonymous

    Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg pushed back against the war repeatedly - refusing armament budgets during the Balkan War, taking a dovish position during the 1912 Imperial War Council, and even pushing back against submarine warfare during WW1.
    It was the sidelining of his (and civilian power as a whole) that doomed Germany to war

    • 8 months ago
      Anonymous

      The civilian government wasn't sidelined until the war was in full swing.

    • 8 months ago
      Anonymous

      Bethmann-Hollwegh gave in after he learned about secret naval agreements between Britain and Russia regarding Baltic landing operations. That was the tipping point for him, since he felt completely surrounded by enemies.

  4. 8 months ago
    Anonymous

    Ancient Merovingian curse

  5. 8 months ago
    Anonymous

    War was coming because the various European powers had conflicting goals and claims.
    The Germans where worried that Imperial Russia would complete it's industrialization and would then be stronger than them.
    As such 1914 was the change for them to "sort things out" before the alliance got to strong.

    And while there where many problems with this. The largest was probably that the Brits where looking to shift to the Germans in their ever shifting game of balancing the continent. As such they needn't rush to defeat the Russians as the Brits would shift and the balance that was to the benefit of the German empire would regained.

    The emperor exercised his power only in certain areas. The main one however was the military. And it doesn't matter that you can't get a postage stamp changed when you want to go to war all you need is the military.

    • 8 months ago
      Anonymous

      Russia was an enemy of Britain and France for the entire 19th century. Germany could've easily taken advantage of that sentiment and allied with Russia instead of worrying about muh inevitable conflict. Germany should've sought a relationship with Russia like China's relations with Russia today.

      • 8 months ago
        Anonymous

        >Russia was an enemy of Britain and France for the entire 19th century
        Russia was Britains enemy, with their rivalry in Central Asia, not so much Frances.
        >allied with Russia
        Restoring the Three Emperors League was not an option as Austria-Hungary and Russia were never going to be friends again, and breaking with AH in favour of Russia was not an option either as no German wanted another brothers war on their hands.

  6. 8 months ago
    Anonymous

    To blame anyone in particular for World War 1 is kind of stupid. It was the ultimate outcome of a long trend in European politics that had gone on for decades. I can understand, in the immediate aftermath of such a war, blaming Germany and AH for the whole thing. But with the hindsight of history I do not think it is correct at all to paint any one party as being "the cause" of WW1.

    Everyone was champing at the bit for war and the defensive alliances that crisscrossed Europe would have made any spat turn into a full blown war. Even the actual reasoning of the time is quite flimsy - some Serbs killing off a figurehead leader caused the entirety of Europe to kill millions and destroy an entire generation.

    • 8 months ago
      Anonymous

      Not really. German Empire and AH wanted war far more than the others because they border Russia, and understand that Russia’s potential was too vast to match in the long run. They had a direct inventive for war sooner rather than later, whereas the Entente (besides France maybe) would have preferred peace for the time.

      • 8 months ago
        Anonymous

        incentive*

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