I understand that a question about the causes of the First World War has been asked previously here, but looking through the answers didn't quite provide what I wanted.
I'm currently approaching my A-Level Exam for History, and one of the questions is guaranteed to be on the causes of the First World War. Having gone over the arguments in class, the view I take to most is that Germany caused the war, although not through direct desire to conquer Europe, more through a misconcieved idea that a war was inevitable anyway and that sooner was better. Even if this isn't your view, I'd appreciate help, because, to be honest, the easiest arguments to make in the exam are either equal blame or German blame.
Although I've got a lot of detail on The Kaiser, the War Council Meeting, and German Foreign Policy in the period, there are two politicians I could do with more detail on. Namely, the Chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg and Helmuth von Moltke, the Chief of Staff.
If any of you can give me some detail on this rather specific topic, I'd be very thankful.
Moltke was no a politician, he was Chief of the General Staff. Annika Mombauer has written a short biography of him, dealing with his role in the lead up to and outbreak of, the war. Highly recommended!
Bethmann-Hollweg is something of a controversial figure, but I believe that the general consensus is that outside of trying to keep Britain out of the war, he was not the champion of peace that his biographies and memoirs portrayed him as. In the lead up to the December 8th War Council, he had already met with representatives from the German states, and decided that war must come now to support Austria; hence why he disparaged the Kaiser later, because the decision had already been made. Once again, however, the Kaiser 'chickened' at the last second, and the December 8th War Council did not reach a decision for war per se, but post-pond it until Germany was better prepared to face Russia, France and Britain. In July, 1914, this was the case.