War Without a Cause As Term Paper

However, in the end, they were unable to stop the war despite their best efforts. The war happened anyway, in spite of the best intentions and actions to prevent it. T he actions of the various governments were reactions to events that they had tried their best to prevent. They did not make a full-blown effort to convince their people of the need for war, until the war had already begun. Had the war been intentional on the part of Germany or any other entity, there would have been plans in place to gain the support of the people long before August 1, 1914.

Only Germany had such a plan in place. However, this does not mean that they started the war intentionally. It might mean that they saw it coming and wanted to be prepared. In the end, only the players know what their motives were on any particular day. The reactionary nature of the actions in the beginning days of the war lend support to Taylor's supposition that the first World War was a big accident involving many players and bad timing.Works Cited

Primary Sources

The Treaty of Versailles (1919), esp. Article 231, http://net.lib.byu.edu/~rdh7/wwi/versailles.html

Memorandum of Prince Karl Max Lichnowsky (1914)

Secondary Sources

Davis, H.W.C. The Genesis of the War. The English Historical Review, Vol. 39, No. 154 (Apr., 1924), pp. 217-239

Fischer, F. Germany's Aims in the First World War (London: Chatto & Windus, 1967), p. F5

Joll, J. The Origins of the First World War (London: Longman, 1992), esp. pp.1-9 J74

Mombauer, a. The Origins of the First World War: Controversies and Consensus. London:

Longman, 2002.

Rohl, J.C.G. Admiral von Muller and the Approach of War, 1911-1914. The Historical Journal,

Vol. 12, No. 4 (Dec., 1969), pp. 651-673

Simpson, W. Hitler and Germany (Cambridge University Press, 1991), p. 26.

Taylor, a.J.P. From the Boer War to the Cold War: Essays on Twentieth-century Europe (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1995), pp.116-181.

Williamson, S. Inventing the Schlieffen Plan: German War Planning, 1871-1914 (review)

The Journal of Military History - Volume 67, Number 3, July 2003, pp. 957-959

Mommsen, W. Domestic Factors in German foreign policy before 1914. Central European

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