League of Three Emperors?
Russia was an Empire too. Who do you think dismembered Poland?
“Germany in treating a country throwing its weight around as a cause for war,”
A Russian invasion into East Prussia, is cause for a defensive war. The Germans in the First World War, did not have the same goals as in the Second World War. Nor did they fight in the same manner or the same fashion.
Outside of the opening year, the entire war was defensive. Russia collapsed in 1917. Then France held on, and Germany finally collapsed in 1918, after the US came into the war.
The Germans did not want war in 1914. They knew that if they fought everybody, they would lose. They did the best they could in a hopeless situation, and darn near pulled it out in the end.
“A Russian invasion into East Prussia, is cause for a defensive war.”
That didn’t happen until after Germany declared war on France and Russia and after they invaded Belgium.
“The Germans in the First World War, did not have the same goals as in the Second World War.”
Not all of the same goals, but enough of them.
“Nor did they fight in the same manner or the same fashion”
Well, they didn’t have tanks and planes, and not “blitzkrieg,” exactly, although they did mobilize faster than everyone else. They didn’t have the SS and the Nazi ideology, but the similarities are daunting. And all the differences aren’t really germane to the present discussion, i.e. whether they started the war.
“The Germans did not want war in 1914”
Yes they did. That’s why they declared war and invaded other countries.
“They did the best they could in a hopeless situation”
The best they could do was declare war on nations that had not given them cause for war and invade a neutral country? If that’s the case, I wonder, what would not doing their best entail? What would it have taken for them to be seen as aggressors?