The exact wording escapes me now (and I hate hearsay, so please forgive the memory lapse). Anyway it ran along the lines that "Everyone knows that Germany started the First World War", and "but the Left is denying it".
Beware conservative newspapers tossing this nonsense phrase "the Left" around as if it means anything. It is a nonsensical term (as is the balancing term "the right"), usually used as an all-purpose slogan to insult anyone with whom it does not agree.
The problem here is dealing not with slogans, but with facts.
So start with this potted summary from the "World Book" (an American outlet, and, as far as I am aware, one not known for radical "Leftist" opinions"):
http://blog.worldbook.com/2013/07/22/this-week-in-history-austria-hungary-declared-war-on-serbia-in-1914-beginning-world-war-i/
Update: 29/10/2023. This link is now dead (quite why would be interesting). It is advisable also to recognise that my Anti-virus has a warning to avoid this page.
And if you want some more details, try this:
http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/firstworldwar/index-1914.html
And if you want an exceptionally complete resource:
http://www.firstworldwar.com/
The German Empire did not exactly behave like a diplomatic giant, the German war machine (along with its top commanders) was primed and extremely ready to go, and there is no doubt that public enthusiasm for the war (at least at the outset) was high when it was declared (see the famous picture of the crowd cheering in Munich with Adolf Hitler standing there among them). But it is extremely convenient logic to say that Germany actually started it.
That Germany invaded neutral Belgium (in order to get at the French more quickly than it could through the fortified French defences along the German border) and that Britain (who might otherwise have remained neutral) felt obliged under the Treaty of London of 1839 to protect Belgian neutrality - there is no question. That the German High Command (under von Moltke (the younger) with his reinterpretation of the von Schlieffen plan), the German government (check out the response of Bethmann Hollweg, the German Chancellor, who dismissed this treaty as some silly document not to be taken seriously), and the German diplomatic corps did not see the need to avoid this action .... Yes, a grotesque error all round, and all should be held responsible.
So Germany was responsible for Britain being involved in the Great War. But that is not the same thing as saying that they actually were responsible for starting the whole dreadful business. Ignoring the events in the Balkans and the connecting series of conflicting alliances and commitments is, again, a very convenient and not totally accurate reinterpretation of history.
http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/firstworldwar/index-1914.html
And if you want an exceptionally complete resource:
http://www.firstworldwar.com/
The German Empire did not exactly behave like a diplomatic giant, the German war machine (along with its top commanders) was primed and extremely ready to go, and there is no doubt that public enthusiasm for the war (at least at the outset) was high when it was declared (see the famous picture of the crowd cheering in Munich with Adolf Hitler standing there among them). But it is extremely convenient logic to say that Germany actually started it.
That Germany invaded neutral Belgium (in order to get at the French more quickly than it could through the fortified French defences along the German border) and that Britain (who might otherwise have remained neutral) felt obliged under the Treaty of London of 1839 to protect Belgian neutrality - there is no question. That the German High Command (under von Moltke (the younger) with his reinterpretation of the von Schlieffen plan), the German government (check out the response of Bethmann Hollweg, the German Chancellor, who dismissed this treaty as some silly document not to be taken seriously), and the German diplomatic corps did not see the need to avoid this action .... Yes, a grotesque error all round, and all should be held responsible.
So Germany was responsible for Britain being involved in the Great War. But that is not the same thing as saying that they actually were responsible for starting the whole dreadful business. Ignoring the events in the Balkans and the connecting series of conflicting alliances and commitments is, again, a very convenient and not totally accurate reinterpretation of history.
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