Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap Notes For Debate.docx

The Great Debate: Did Germany Start the War? A: Germany Did Not Start the War:

B: Germany Did Start the War:

aIntroduction Group A: We do not believe that Germany started WWI. When Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary was assassinated on June 28th, 1914 in Bosnia, Serbia, the Austrian-Hungarian government was extremely angry and wanted to get revenge on Serbia. After Serbia did not comply with demands from Austria-Hungary, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Russia mobilized the alliance system, causing Germany and all the other countries allied to Serbia and Austria-Hungary to get involved and Germany was taken advantage of by Austria-Hungary. Because of the last forty years of countries trying to be the best, the growing military of Russia, and an aggressive attack on Germany in the Battle of the Amiens, how can you say that Germany started the war? Group B: We believe that Germany was the one that started World War I as it avoided taking a peaceful approach to solve the conflict between its ally, Austria-Hungary and Serbia. They encouraged Austria-Hungary to start the war so that it would have a chance to win over Russia, France, and England and get her hands on most of Europe. 1st Point Group B: Germany took advantage of what was happening between Austria-Hungary and Serbia to enter the war, get rid of Yugoslavia, the empire that consisted of Serbia, Montenegro, other European countries, and thus get rid of Russia and gain control over most of Europe. Germany knew very well at the time that if it won against Serbia and other countries that were part of the Yugoslavian Empire, that Russia would lose one of its major colonies in Europe. Therefore, Germany took the conflict between Serbia and Austria-Hungary as an excuse to enter the war. Summarize and Rebuttal Group A: To summarize, you are saying that Germany took advantage of the conflicts between Austria-Hungary and Serbia to enter the war and take over more colonies. But Russia mobilized the alliance system by saying they will help protect Serbia. Russia did not need to get involved in the war. This could have been dealt between Austria and Serbia and no other countries needed to get involved. Germany decided to get involved after knowing that Russia was supporting Serbia. If Russia was not concerned about Serbia, it would have not concerned Germany to help Austria. Germany was encircled by the countries and had no other option than to fight in the war. Group B: So you are rebutting that Russia mobilized the alliance system and Germany had no choice but to enter the war. But to prove that Germany was greedy and aggressive, it refused Russia's offer of peace when Russia gave Germany one more chance for peace talks to begin. However, Germany ordered Russia to demobilize within 12 hours. When Russia refused to demobilize, because of the treaty agreement between itself and Serbia, Germany used that as an excuse to start the war. This proves that Germany was willing to start the war to win over Europe and not to protect Austria-Hungary, as it avoided taking peaceful approaches although Russia is the one that offered it. Group A: So you are stating that Germany asked Russia to demobilize and Russia refused, all so that Germany could win over Europe. But did you think of an alternative reason to why Germany asked Russia to demobilize? Maybe if Russia had, than Germany would not have had to enter the war due to the encirclement of Russia and France upon them. Russia only mobilized because Austria-Hungary took advantage of Germany’s support. They knew that Germany was rising to power because of their strong military and declared war on Serbia because they knew that Germany had their back. Group B: Your rebuttal states that Austria-Hungary took advantage of Germany’s support for their country and Russia only mobilized because Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. But we do not believe that Austria-Hungary took advantage of Germany’s support. They gave a blank cheque to Austria-Hungary saying that they would give them their support and military. They wanted to take over other colonies and by giving a blank cheque to Austria-Hungary, they could do so without getting blamed. Group A: Germany using Austria-Hungary as an excuse to start a war by giving them a blank cheque is what you believe. But Germany did not offer a blank cheque to Austria-Hungary. Austria-Hungary and Serbia have been having problems from before because Austria-Hungary wanted to take over Serbia. Austria-Hungary was not confident to fight them alone and knowing that they had the support of Germany allowed Austria to know that they had Germany’s support, money, and army. And in the end, whether Germany wanted support to Austria-Hungary or not, it was Austria-Hungary’s decision at the end as an individual country to declare war or not on Serbia. Also, the last 40 years for all countries was building up their military and country. Countries such as Britain, France, Russia, Austria-Hungry, etc. all wanted to be powerful and were all growing their military, taking over colonies, and had pride in their countries – not just Germany. Group B: So you believe that in the last 40 years, all countries were trying to be the best country is the world by using militarism, imperialism, and nationalism. But Germany was going over and beyond to try to be the best country in the world. An example of the lengths that they went to was “The Schlieffen Plan”. This involved Germany going through Belgium to France and trying to win France over before Russia could have a chance to react and retaliate. That proves that Germany’s intentions were much different than support for the Austrian-Hungarians because their intentions were based on attacking France rather than supporting their ally.

Group A: So your rebuttal states that that “The Schlieffan Plan” proves Germany’s over and beyond ways to be the best country in the world, which thus, probably made them responsible for starting the war. But you have to see that this has nothing to do with Germany starting the war. After being forcibly drawn into the war by Russia, every country was using any means necessary to win the war and try to end it. When the war broke out, every country was fighting and no one was peaceful. An example of this is the Hundred Day Wars, which commenced with the Battle of Amiens. The Triple Entente gave a surprise attack to the Central Powers, going over “enemy lines” to get to the Triple Alliance. Over 17,000 Germans were taken prisoner and there were over 30,000 deaths for the Germans. Group B: Your belief is that when it comes to the war, no country was being peaceful in the war and your example was the Triple Entente’s surprise attack on Germany in the Battle of the Amiens. But this was only one account of Germany at the victim’s side. Germany used weapons in the war that was morally wrong and gave an unfair advantage to the other countries. The Germans got their companies to make a special weapon called chlorine gas. An example of Germany’s aggressive is when their Major, Karl Von Zingler wrote in his letter stating this: “In other war theaters it does not go better and it has been said that our Chlorine is very effective. 140 English officers have been killed.” This shows how violent Germany was and how serious they were about winning the war. Group A: So to summarize, you are saying that Germany using weapons was morally incorrect and using chlorine gas proved their aggressiveness. You also believe that chlorine gas gave an unfair advantage to the other countries. But Germany is not an aggressive country. Firstly, Germany wasn't the first country to use weapons in WWI. The French first used tear gas grenades in 1914 triggering the Germans to come up with mustard gas because the Germans thought that they were going to lose. Therefore, they brought in mustard gas to try to win World War I. Secondly, the French believed that they won the war because of their use of the 75mm “Devil Gun” (called that by the Germans), which was a weapon that was up to 4 miles accurate. Since all the other countries' main goal in the end was to win the war, no matter at what cost, Germany can't back down and think morally where everyone is killing each other. Group B: To state your rebuttal, you are saying that Germany is not aggressive because all countries are trying to be aggressive to win the war. But it wasn’t just weapons that Germany uses that make them aggressive and the reason for which the war started. Germany’s jingoism started to build even before the war. They were building up their military to threaten Britain, taking over colonies that didn’t belong to them, and having pride and care for their country alone. They then used this jingoistic approach to use the war as an excuse to break the weaker countries and try to take over Europe. Group A: To summarize, you believe that Germany’s jingoistic nature lead them to want to use the war as an excuse for their true intentions of taking over Europe. But you have to remember that Russia had the biggest military and resources. They used mobilization and support for Serbia as an excuse to threaten Germany because they were intimidated by Germany. Germany was encircled by Russia and France and had no choice but to fight to be free. Group B Conclusion: Group B: We believe that Germany started the war because Germany was going over and beyond to try to be the best country in the world. An example of the lengths they went to was the Schlieffen plan which proved that Germany’s intentions were much different than support for the Austrian-Hungarians because their intentions were based on attacking France rather than supporting their ally. Group B: In conclusion we think that Germany started the war because they persuaded Austria-Hungary into starting the war. Germany took advantage of the situation so that they could use war as an excuse to gain control over most of Europe. Group B: Germany took advantage of what was happening between Austria-Hungary and Serbia to enter the war and get rid of Yugoslavia and Russia to gain control over most of Europe. Germany knew very well at the time that if it won against Serbia and other countries that were part of the Yugoslavian Empire, that Russia would lose one of its major colonies in Europe. Group A Conclusion Group A: We do not believe that Germany started the war because after being forcibly drawn into the war by Russia, every country was using any means necessary to win the war and try to end it. When war broke out, every country was fighting and no one was peaceful. An example of this is the Battle of Amiens where The Triple Entente gave a surprise attack to the Central Powers (including Germany) and killed over 30,000 Germans. Group A: Germany did not start the war because Russia mobilized the alliance system by saying that they will help protect Serbia. Russia did not need to get involved in the war. If Russia was not concerned about Serbia, it would not have concerned Germany to help Austria. Germany was encircled by the countries and had no other option than to fight in the war. Group A: We believe that Germany did not start the war because the French first used tear gas grenades in 1914 triggering the Germans to come up with mustard gas because the Germans thought that they were going to lose. Since all the other countries' main goal in the end was to win the war, no matter at what cost, Germany can't back down and think morally where everyone is killing each other.

Overall Conclusions

Group B: Therefore, as a result of Germany’s jingoism, aggressiveness, and abusing of her power, we believe that Germany was the main contributor of World War I. Group A: For the arguments that we have stated, we do not believe that Germany started the war. Because of Russia's mobilization, Austria-Hungary taking advantage of Germany, the last forty years of countries trying to be the best country, and a surprise aggressive attack on Germany, we do not believe that Germany started or is to blame for the war.

The assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife was critical in setting off the chain of events that led to the First World War. This then led to the cold-blooded World War one. It caused the war because Austria blamed Serbia for the killing of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Then Austria declared war on Serbia, the Russian army got ready to help Serbia defend itself against the attack and Germany sends a demand to Russia ordering it to hold back from helping Serbia. Then Germany declared war on Russia. The French army is put on a war footing getting ready to fight a German invasion. After all of that Germany declares war on France and invades Belgium, Britain orders Germany to withdraw from Belgium and the Germans did not listen. As you can see the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the cause of different events which then led to the war indirectly. I think the most significant cause of World War one was the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other causes of the war was Imperliasm, Militarism, Nationalism and Alliances that were formed. These were the causes of World War One. Also, everyone wanted to be the best country, which links back to all four causes and aspects of the events.