Controversy 1: How far Germany to Blame for World War I
Knowledge:
Causes of War
Kaiser’s relationship with Britain
Alliance systems
Colonial Policy: Weltpolitik
Moroccan Crisis (1905-06) Drive a wedge Britain and France. It failed
Moroccan Crisis (1911): Germans sent gunboat Panther as a challenge to the French
Naval Policy: Building of warships seen as a threat to Britain. Dreadnoughts
German Naval Laws
Revanche: France wanted revenge for the humiliation of 1870 War.
The Balkan War (1912): fall of Ottoman Empire, greater Nationalism by Serbia threatened Austrian
territory.
July Crisis: Shooting of Archduke Franz Ferdinand:
Schlieffen Plan: Mobilisation timetable to win a 2 front war.
Blank Cheque
Interpretations
Consensus: All powers shared the blame for World War II
Fischer Controversy: Germany had gone to war to achieve domination. The Blank Cheque had the
intention of starting a war. Germany’s social, political, and economic tensions lead to war being
inevitable.
Evidence: September Programme: plans for the peace negotiation from a European War.
Criticism: Fergusson: Germany’s war aims would not have remained consistent before and after.
The aims were determined by the apparent success at that point in the conflict.
Alternative theory: Hildebrand: Encirclement theory
Fischer’s second thesis: Internal Pressures made Germany want to go to war
Diaries of Admiral Muller: War Council of 1912 showed war to be inevitable and that it would start
when Germany was ready.
Primat der Innenpolitik: Domestic tensions lead to a more aggressive foreign policy
Rise of socialists who won 110 seats in the 1912 elections
Other Powers: Austria: Hapsburg dying power trying to maintain its control of territory