To what extent can germany be held responsilbe for causing the two world ears? Discuss critically.
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Answer:
The Treaty of Versailles When Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933, two of its main axes were ending the Versailles Treaty and it started acquisition of more territory for the German people. These two things could not be achieved without causing conflict with other nations.
Actually the Germans didn't start both World Wars. In both cases Britain declared war on Germany rather than the other way around. ... Germany declared war on France because their strategy required a swift and decisive attack in the West before the slower Russian army could mobilise fully......it entered into World War I on August 1, 1914, when it declared war on Russia. In accordance with its war plan, it ignored Russia and moved first against France–declaring war on August 3 and sending its main armies through Belgium to attack Paris from the north. The German invasion of Belgium caused Britain to declare war on Germany on August 4. Most of the main parties were now at war. In October 1914, Turkey joined the war on Germany's side, becoming part of the Central Powers. Italy, which was allied with Germany and Austria-Hungary before World War I, was neutral in 1914 before switching to the Allied side in May 1915.
Historians have vigorously debated Germany's role. One line of interpretation, promoted by German historian Fritz Fischer in the 1960s, argues that Germany had long desired to dominate Europe politically and economically, and seized the opportunity that unexpectedly opened in July 1914, making her guilty of starting the war. At the opposite end of the moral spectrum, many historians have argued that the war was inadvertent, caused by a series of complex accidents that overburdened the long-standing alliance system with its lock-step mobilization system that no–one could control. A third approach, especially important in recent years, is that Germany saw itself surrounded by increasingly powerful enemies–Russia, France and Britain–who would eventually crush it unless Germany acted defensively with a preemptive strike.