[teppe]

Very fascinating. As a lover of history, I have often wondered what persuaded a country as great as Germany to launch WWI/WWII.

Indeed, Germany’s rich heritage of scientific and production genius throughout the 1800’s would naturally lead a nation to notions of superiority. Even in today’s post WWII world, Germany stands as a powerhouse in comparison to neighboring European nations.

My personal belief is that it is only through the honest application of Christianity, which teaches that the best of human existence is expressions of love and tolerance.

There are those who will disagree with me stating the obvious dichotomy that many wars were justified through Christianity; however, I maintain that these justifications were a contortion of Christianity rather than an expression of it.

[huldah1776]

“Not that there weren’t hints even in his own lifetime. As early as 1870, German zoologist Gustav Jaeger observed that “the war of annihilation... is a natural law, without which the organic world... could not continue to exist at all.” “

Well, that explains why ALL those who are out to destroy Israel are annihilated upon the return of the Messiah, thus fulfilling the prophecy of “Peace On Earth, Good Will To Men” at His birth.

[Jimmy Valentine]

You had three dynasties, Great Britain, Germany and Russia ruled by incompetents and Austro-Hungary ruled by an outdated autocrat.

The only thing that saved Great Britain was the fact that theirs was a constitutional monarchy.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"I have often wondered what persuaded a country as great as Germany to launch WWI/WWII."

You have to realize that Germany only became a country in 1870. Before that, the Germanic peoples were split up into many seperate principalities with their own kings. The only time they ever came together was during time of war and even then not all would agree on the same direction.

The great Prime Minister Bismark who facilitated the unification of Germany also created many secret treaties with different countries. Some of these came into effect causing WWI (the one with Austria mainly). Also, as you note, they were a great and powerful nation. However, they were also a new nation that wanted to expand and enlarge their empire. Unfortunately they came late to the Empire building game and the other great powers were not looking to give up any of their posessions (part of the reasons for the arms race at the beginning of the 20th century). That certainly played a role. However, though social Darwinism played a great role in Nazi ideaology, I think it played a lot less role in the cause belli of WWI.

[BroJoeK]

teppe: "I have often wondered what persuaded a country as great as Germany to launch WWI/WWII."

puppypusher: "...European leaders at the time all thought that the War was going to be over in weeks "

Old Teufel Hunden: "they were a great and powerful nation.
However, they were also a new nation that wanted to expand and enlarge their empire.
Unfortunately they came late to the Empire building game and the other great powers were not looking to give up any of their posessions..."

Oratam: "it was a bewildering patchwork of secret defense treaties..."

The first point to remember is that throughout all of human history, empires were self-justifying -- a fact you can easily see by asking, "what 'moral justification' did the Romans have for invading, occupying & controlling Britain in 43 AD?
What 'moral justification' did Napoleon have for invading Russia in 1812?"

The answers are: they needed no "justifications" since victory was justification enough, their empires were essentially amoral.

Thus, the idea that the German Empire of 1914 might need some moral justification for starting a major war is relatively new -- indeed, it puts our own perspective back into the minds of past rulers, inappropriately.

Of course German rulers well understood that they did not want the entire world allied against them, and that required major deceptions -- events must be made to look as if they happened "on their own" without German control.

So, they pushed Austria to invade and finish-off little Serbia quickly, while the Kaiser & most of Europe were on vacation.
Unfortunately, Austrians had timetables (and vacations) of their own, and thus Serbia remained un-invaded and un-"finished off" until vacations were over, but now Russia got involved, to the point of calling a partial mobilization, strictly they said, to warn Austria against invading little Serbia.

German leadership decided to use Russia's partial mobilization against Austria as Germany's excuse to declare war on Russia, then immediately began executing its "Schlieffen Plan" to invade... France!

So why did they do it?
The answer is, in their own minds they needed no "justification", but they did have reasons, and first and foremost, they believed that time was running out for Austrian & German Empires -- if they did not act against Serbia & Russia in 1914, Russia would soon be too powerful for them to defeat, so now was the time.
They weren't particularly concerned about France -- after all, Germany dealt handily with the French in 1870, and would surely do so again -- but France had to be defeated before turning on Russia.
And, they did not expect Britain's great naval power to have much effect on land, in France.

And so their "Schlieffen plan" was put in motion, and the rest, as they say, is history.

[1010RD]

They had the best chemical companies in the world because of their intellectual property right system. It was dynamic and prosperous. Obviously, that didn’t save them from their own politicians, or, more accurately, from themselves.