How far was Germany to blame for WWI?

Well, they got ALL the blame and was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles. The treaty said that Germany took all the blame and they lost land, money, and resources. Germany was humiliated and angry because they were the only ones who were punished.
How far was Germany to blame for WWI?
As far as you can blame any nation for protecting is livelyhood against another nation trying to grab it away!
How far was Germany to blame for WWI?
They definitely got left w/ the 'war guilt' however much they were to blame. Actually, Germany was the one convincing Austria-Hungary to fight, and when Russia decided 2 join serbia, the marched to germany, not austria-hungary. Germany took that as a personal declaration of war, and went to go defeat France, Russia's ally. But on the way to france, german troops barreled through belgium, a neutral country. This really helped the allies, it got england, japan, and some others on their side. unrestricted submarine warfare and the zimmerman telegraph to mexico got the u.s. mad. so yeah, i think germany was to blame. but they had to pay reparations, diminish their army/nave and they were left out of a lot.
Reply:Germany provided unalloyed support to Austria-Hungary in the latter's dispute with Serbia over the assassination of the Austrian archduke Francis Ferdinand.





This emboldened Austria to threaten Serbia with war. This threat alarmed Russia, which was an ally of Serbia. The Russians eventually got angry enough to begin mobilizing their army.





The Germans, with France on one side and Russia on the other, feared a two-front war. They decided if Russia mobilized for war, they would mobilize and attack France, hoping to knock them out of the war before the slower, less mechanized Russians really got going.





When Germany attacked France by going through neutral Belgium, the English declared war on them.





So, the Germans took the actions that turned a local spat between Austria and Serbia into a continent-wide conflict, but they were provoked by others who should have known better.
Reply:Germany deserves the Lion Share of the blame because Germany had the means to prevent the War. No matter how beligerant Austria-Hungary was, if the Kaiser had shouted loudly and clearly, "NEIN," then the Austrian-Hungarians would have either backed down or in a worst case scenario, there would have been a localized war against Serbia.


IF France and RUSSIA had intervened at this point then everyone would be blaming them and not Germany for World War One.


By violating Belgium neutrality, Germany insured Britain's involvement in the whole mess.


Final note - - - World War One was the fault of Diplomacy gone wrong. Entangled alliances, toothless treaties, a mish mash of egos and aims at cross purpose but still Germany was the biggest fish in the barrel and German armies poised on Austria's Border would have sent a clear message.





Peace////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\...
Reply:Certain sections of the German army were already talking about war with France as 'inevitable' as early as 1910. The Kaiser was a militarist adventurer, and the Germans were wholly to blame.
Reply:If you mean the German government, then they bear most of the blame. First, the kaiser gave Austria a 'blank cheque' to act as harshly as they liked against Serbia, and second, when he was starting to get cold feet at the prospect of a wider European war, the General Staff intervened and told him that if he didn't go to war with Russia, Russian railway-building in Poland would make German's Schlieffen Plan unworkable.
Reply:Guilty.


They were looking for a fight, wanted to destroy France's renewed power because France had allied with Russia, thus creating a threat on both side of the German Empire. There were talks of war against France as early as 1910. The Austrian Empire was looking for a fight because its power was waning and it thought it was now or lose power forever.





So when the Austrian Archduke was murdered by a Serb the Austrians took advantage of that to turn on the Serbs who had been making a lot of trouble in the Austrian-Hungarian empire. When the Austrians threatened the Serbs the Russians, allied to the Serbs, declared they would intervene, the Germans said they would help the Austrians, signed an alliance with the Ottoman Empire against Russia and declared war to the Russians, and the French caught by their alliance with Russia were dragged in the mess and said they would not stay neutral. Germany invaded Luxembourg, ordered Belgium to surrender and declared war to France. Great Britain declared they would protect Belgium's neutrality and when Germany invaded Belgium declared war, dragging in automatically the rest of the Commonwealth (Canada, Australia, India, New Zealand, South Africa). Then Austria declared war to Russia and Serbia, France declared war to Austria, then Great Britain declared war to Austria. And then Japan declared war to Germany.





You'll notice that Germany was the one who declared war and attacked the others first.