Rest of the World 1 Germany 0

WWI was a gruesome war with the most casualties of any war throughout history. It is even said that World War I had more casualties than the second one. Germany, before the war, were the biggest industrial empire producing most of Europe’s steel. However, Germany was too proud of their Empire and their immediate rush in proving their dominance proved to be quite disastrous for them. Germany lost WWI because of military, economic and political reasons.

The British navy was the most powerful at the time of WWI. With this advantage over the Central Powers, they saw that blocking the Central Powers’ ports would be an easy task. With Germany’s low economy at the time, this cut it off to leave the Germans with a miniscule income. Germany had to rely on inland trade which was only a minority because they could not trade with most European countries due to main enemies. Germany also were not efficient with their food supply to the army. The British were very economic during the war and rationed food. Rationing meant that the whole population would get the same amount of food daily. This cut down on costs. The Germans, however, did not ration and even sent in farmer to fight in the war which left the farms in poor condition or completely abandoned.
Because of the lack of morale and food supply, Germany were defeated by November 1918. Germany’s mistake of the Von Schleiffen plan can be said to be the fault of Belgium becoming hostile as well as Britain entering the war. The Von Schleiffen Plan was to march through Belgium and attack France from the side which would catch France unguarded. The Germans praised the plan and saw it as a quick battle in which France would be instantly overrun. This backfired, and other European nations gave heavy propaganda in return to Germany. This was not the only military fault of Germany’s behalf, no support from its allies, Austria-Hungary and Italy, led to mainly the Germans fighting the rest of the world. Germany had to face the US, Britain, France, Russia, etc on all of its borders. Italy even fought against the Germans half way through the war. Germany’s final offensive was the last battle of the war. The high command, instead of discussing a peaceful resolution, attempted a final attempt to push but were crushed by the entry of the US. Around 100,000 American soldiers entered France every month.
In respect to propaganda at the time, the Germans were very new to this and did not grasp the political tactic entirely. Propaganda is creating and distributing information in order to influence an outcome. The Germans made the allies as small and puny which made the soldiers view the exact same. The British, however, described the Germans as gorillas tearing the world apart. The British saw the Germans like that and were prepared to fight an equal adversary whereas Germany saw contradictory. The Zimmerman Telegram was another political reason for Germany’s loss. It was a telegram sent from the Kaiser to Mexico which asked them to join against the US. The US found out about this and acted upon it by joining the allies and defeating Germany’s final assault.
In conclusion, Germany did a numerous amount of mistakes to cause their defeat. If they would have thought their actions through, they might have actually won. Their propaganda, The Von Schleiffen Plan, the starvation of their own soldiers, as well as the reasons discussed above, all served to backfire upon themselves. Germany might have been the biggest industrial empire, but they lacked tactics and the experience that Britain and France had. Let us not forget that Germany was founded not long before the war.

Imperialism Essay

Imperialism was the main cause of WWI out of other factors like militarism, alliances and nationalism. It was the main reason because of the fact that all European powers wanted to expand their borders and colonies which in turn, conflicted with other powers around the world. The Boer Wars, The Opium War in China and the major race in Industrialization were examples of Imperialistic events prior to WWI.

The Boer War was when Britain, feeling weak, felt obliged to attack African colonies in order to expand and control trade and resources because of Germany’s telegram which was sent to Paul Kruger congratulating him on his defence against the ‘foreign invaders’. This was a cause because Germany was using political techniques to isolate Britain from the rest of the world by luring Britain into a trap to attack the Africans with such force that it would look inhumane to other nations. The strategy worked and Britain became extremely unpopular and made all European nations hate Britain. The reason that Britain became unpopular from this event was because the Africans were still developing and were not considered a strong adversary, so Britain was merely walking in and killing all those that stood in their path.

The Opium War was caused when China refused to open its trade routes to the rest of the world due to the fact that they had everything they needed and did not require other countries resources. It all started when raw materials only grown in China, were needed by the rest of the world. Desperately, Britain found a gateway in which they could provoke China into a war and open its trade routes. They did this by bringing in opium into China in which China countered by illegalizing it. Angrily, Britain illegally smuggled opium from India into China and started a war. This led to rebellions such as the Boxer Rebellion and the Teiping Rebellion in which other consecutive events took over China’s way of governing. European nations and Japan took full advantage of China’s weakness and set up colonies, traded cheaply with China and led to other events in which these nations would fight for such as Korea. The Opium War was not a ‘cause’ to WWI, but it was the other China issues such as land division, which made European nations fight with each other for.

The Major race in industrialization symbolized imperialism in the sense that all European powers required vast amounts of raw materials to mass produce goods such as steel. This led European nations to go into foreign countries and colonize them. When they colonized specific areas, they would send all the raw materials back to the mother country and then manufacture it into something that they can sell. This led the British to a war with African colonies, such as the Transvaal, and in China with the Boxers. Industrialization was a cause to WWI in the sense that all European nations were colonizing other ‘weaker’ countries and stealing their resources and sending them back which caused tension between the European nations. The tension between European nations was caused because they were all competing in the same areas such as Africa and Asia, and this led to conflicts with each other with governing issues, etc.

In conclusion, gathering from the events listed, you can see that these events were important during the first World War. Industrialization was a key point because of its breakthroughs with technology and better weaponry. The Opium War does not have a direct link with WWI but opened up new and smaller events in which European nations argued over and brought tension. The Boer War left Britain out of further events prior to WWI and left it in its isolation. They broke out of the isolation in WWI when they entered because of the German invasion of Belgium which surprised the whole of Europe. So in all, Imperialism was a group of many, small events which built up to a big worldwide problem which made it the big problem which drew tension between all of Europe.

“the unification of Germany was inevitable regardless of Bismarck’s role.”

Bismarck played an important role in the unification of Germany. From Source 11 on page 17, Taylor points out that Bismarck wanted everything to happen one way and ended up another. Regardless, he unified Prussia under a German flag. It was not entirely Bismarck’s decision, there were other surrounding factors that contributed to Prussia’s unification.

Bismarck’s aim was to unite the 39 German states under Prussian rule, and in this aspect he succeeded. Bismarck only chose options based on circumstance, he did not follow a code, but took control of clever diplomacy and skilful manipulation to make others join Prussia. There were also other factors which contributed to the unification such as nationalism and Napoleon III invasion. The German states were aware of their military weakness and nationalism brought them all together to push him back. This brought the states together before Bismarck became involved with politics.

In conclusion, Bismarck’s role was far greater in unifying Prussia than surrounding factors. I say this because his trickery in diplomacy and manipulation brought bigger states together rather than all the German’s pushing back Napoleon. The material was there and Bismarck sewed it all together.