Was Germany Responsible For World War 1 Research Paper

I strongly believe that Germany is not to be blamed for starting the First World War. In my opinion all the major powers helped to start the war, moreover, they should share the blame.
Firstly, Germany was being forced to admit that they started the war, however, according to Count Brockdorff-Rantzan (head of the German delegates at Versailles in 1919), the German people felt they were fighting a war of defense. If Germany had caused the war the other countries would have only fought defensively. Furthermore, Germany only declared war due to the alliance system. Besides, Russia had already mobilized an army to support Serbia, then, Germany declared war on them.
Secondly, imperial rivalry was one of the main causes of the Great War. As the origins of the
The Balkans were a very unstable area as different nationalities were mixed together, the Turkish power which had ruled the Balkans for many centuries was in decline, in addition, Austria-Hungary and Russia both wanted to control this area so they could have access to the Mediterranean sea. The Balkan crisis started in 1908 when Austria took over the provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Russia and Serbia protested, nevertheless, when Germany made it clear that they supported Austria-Hungary, Russia backed down. Austria-Hungary became very confident knowing that they could count on Germany, what is more they were looking for any excuse to take control of Serbia. Austria-Hungary’s opportunity came with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo. Although, they had no evidence that Gravilo Princip was acting under orders of the Serbian government, Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia. Consequently, Austria-Hungary gave Serbia a ten day ultimatum to become part of the Austrian empire. As Serbia could not accept on the 28th of July 1914, Austria declared war on