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Germany’s Role in the Causes of World War I

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Germany’s Role in the Causes of World War I
World War I (1914 – 1918) was a major war centered on Europe but rippled all around world. This conflict involved all of the world’s great powers at the time and many other countries. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilized. More than 9 million combatants were killed. It was said to be the most damaging war in the European history (World War I Records). Whether Germany should be blamed for the outbreak of World War I is contestable. In my opinion, World War I is actually much more complicated than just the expansion of industry, colony, and military of Germany. Germany did not bear the sole and total responsibility for it because other Western powers actively took part in this predatory war. More likely, WWI is not only a result of competition among few great powers, but also one of the inevitable outcomes of the development of capitalism in the world. After Frankfurt Assembly made the decision for the “Lesser Germany” which was led by Prussia, Germany began to enter an industrial era and eventually developed to the widespread industrial expansion. The victories of three wars over Denmark, Austria, and France finally led to a unified Germany and created a large domestic market which provided a solid ground for development of industrial capitalism. Under the leadership of Bismarck, Germany experienced strong economic growth and rapid industrialization. Resources were spent on scientific research, modern political and economical system reformation instead of the “German question”. As illustrated, Germany had gone through four waves of technological progress, the railway wave (1877 – 86), the dye wave (1887 – 96), the chemical wave (1897 – 1902), and the wave of electrical engineering (1903 – 18); German manufacturers began to capture domestic markets from British imports,

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