I admit myself to be a WW2 Germany buff, so I may be sounding a little biased.
Anyway, according to how I currently understand it, the Treaty of Versailles cites Germany as the country of aggression during WW1 and forces it to pay for repairs and reparations for the conflict. I find it a little odd considering the fact a Serbian pulled the trigger on Franz Ferdinand, an Austrian. From there, I find it quite reasonable for Germany to be angry.
Is WW1 the fault of Germany, or is it an example of "history is written by victors"?
^ these answers I've given should be pertinent.
the Treaty of Versailles cites Germany as the country of aggression during WW1 and forces it to pay for repairs and reparations for the conflict
The Treaty in actual fact says this:
The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies
This same clause, Article 231, was included mutatis mutandis in every treaty signed with the Central Powers, except Lausanne, which was signed with Turkey. Every Central Power had to acknowledge responsibility for the damages they had done to the Allied signatories, and their obligation to pay them reparations. It says nothing whatsoever about 'war guilt', and the only country to seize on this and kick up a fuss was Germany. The second article, Article 232, acknowledged that Germany could not possibly pay for all the loss and damages of the allies, and that these would be assessed based on how much Germany could pay.
'War Guilt' was a complete non-issue (although most would have charged Germany and Austria-Hungary with responsibility) until the German government made it an issue. Weimar propaganda fabricated the charge of unilateral war guilt so that the onus would be on the Allies to prove that Germany and Germany alone was responsible for the war. If that could not be proved, then obviously the treaty had no basis legally, and would have to be revised. The Foreign Office contributed by churning out volumes of Die Grosse Politik, the German diplomatic history of the war, which was arranged and it's documents doctored so as to paint Germany as the victim of a plot to 'encircle' it, just as prewar and wartime propaganda had charged. It especially caught on in the US, where the idea of a 'slither into war' as Lloyd-George dubbed it still has influence on historical teaching and international relations theory.
Is WW1 the fault of Germany, or is it an example of "history is written by victors"?
I'll direct you to the wiki to read up on the problematic nature of the "history written by the victors" charge, but suffice to say the causes of the war were complex. In the case of the July Crisis itself, Austria-Hungary created the crisis by planning a war on Serbia despite scant evidence of Serbian state involvement in the assassination, and then shelling Belgrade despite the Serbs agreeing to most of their demands. However, it's questionable whether or not they would have forged ahead without the 'blank check,' or without the knowledge of past German support in 1908, 1912 and 1913. Moreover, Germany's actions widened the conflict via the declarations of war on Russia and France, and the invasion of Belgium. In that sense, it was the fault of Germany and Austria-Hungary.
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