More than any other country Germany were most to blame for starting the First world war. Do you agree?

The controversy, as to what extent Germany played in determining the outbreak of the First World War, is one that has caused debate amongst prominent historians. The First World War was started by many underlying factors such as imperialism, nationalism and the forming of diplomatic alliances, culminating in the outbreak of hostilities on the 28th July 1914. The question is were Germany the main instigators and purely to blame.

Europe at the beginning of the 20th century was rapidly changing, there were also many wars and ongoing battles being fought between rival imperial countries. An example of this is Russia expanding its country eastwards which led to the Russo-Japanese war in 1904-1905. There were also the two Moroccan crises of 1905 and 1911 respectively which helped sour relations between many of the imperial powers before 1914. As they all had a desire for a place in the sun, countries like Germany, Britain, France and Holland. Also there were the two Balkan wars of 1912 an...