Why Did Germany Caused World War I?

Although Fischer’s thesis was widely accepted, there were people who argued against it. Most Germans had accepted the fact that Germany had caused World War II, but they disagreed with the blame Germany took for World War I. World War I was widely regarded as a war forced upon Germany by its encircling enemies. Critics argue that Fischer’s thesis placed Germany outside the real historical context. It is argued that Germany was not the only aggressive a European nation in the early 20th century, as it was a time when Social Darwinism views of struggle were well-known in Europe's ruling classes. Critics also oppose that in the centuries following Columbus's voyages to America, the Western European countries had already acquired vast overseas colonial

territories and long before German unification in 1871, so it is difficult to single out Germany alone as "grasping for world power" when this has been a European tradition for centuries. It was not until after World War II that many European colonial subjects finally won their independence.

Even after the conclusion on the Second World War, France refused to relinquish control over Indochina. Moreover, Fischer's timetable has also been criticized as inaccurate. Hollweg's Septemberprogramm, outlining German war aims, was not produced until after the war had begun and was still going well for Germany. At the same time, other powers had been harboring similarly grandiose plans for post-war territorial gains. Since its defeat in the Franco-Prussian War (1870), France was committed to a path of revenge against Germany and the reacquisition of Alsace and Lorraine. In addition, Fischer neglects the fact that the great powers of Europe were divided into two hostile military alliances of mutual assistance that would invariably result in a general European war should hostilities break out between members of opposing alliances. Fischer further neglects to address the nationalist aspirations of the subject peoples of the multinational Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman and Russian empires. It was after all, the assassination of the heir-apparent of the Austrian empire by a Serbian nationalist that precipitated the

war.