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Use Sources 1,2 and 3 and Your Own Knowledge. “Germany Aggression Was Responsible for the Outbreak of a General European War in August 1914”. How Far Do You Agree with This Judgement?

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Use Sources 1,2 and 3 and Your Own Knowledge. “Germany Aggression Was Responsible for the Outbreak of a General European War in August 1914”. How Far Do You Agree with This Judgement?
Use sources 1,2 and 3 and your own knowledge. “Germany aggression was responsible for the outbreak of a general European War in August 1914”. How far do you agree with this judgement?

The debate of Germanys responsibility for the outbreak of war first began with the charge of war guilt given in Article 231 of the Versailles Treaty. Germany rejected Article 231 and successfully campaigned against it as by 1950 it had become widely accepted that Germany where not solely responsible for the outbreak of war in 1914. The first source from Gordon Corrigan, Mud, Blood and Poppycock, published in 2003 addresses Germany’s “unconditional support” to Austria- Hungary to support the idea of Germany being the main reason for the outbreak of World War 1. In this source Corrigan refers to Fritz Fischer’s theory in which he argued that Germany’s leaders might not have been solely to for what happened in 1914 but hold a substantial share of the responsibility. Source 2 from L.F.C Turner, The Origins of the First World War, published in 1970 agrees with Source 1 by reinforcing that it was Germany’s support to Austria and the Blank Cheque that were vital in the starting of War. On the other hand, Source 3 from James Joll, The Origins of the First World War, published in 1984 disagrees with source 1 as Joll highlights the involvement of other countries with a main focus on Britain being a main factor in the cause of war. Source 2 agrees with this to some extent as it also discusses that Germany is not the only country that is responsible.

All three sources are secondary sources and therefore show a unbiased explanation to some extent as well as including there own view; the reliability of the sources can be argued as they all are influenced by their own personal opinion. Source 1 uses Fischer’s views in order to support the source, it can be seen as being an unbiased source as he has drew upon further knowledge and evidence and came to a conclusion. Source 3 is similar in the

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