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I know this thread is about Otto von Bismarck, but why can't we blame the Germans for World War I, at least in large part? True, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarjevo is the oft stated reason for the war, but that isn't the case.
Austria-Hungary used the death of the archduke as an excuse to saber rattle against Serbia, especially since the assassin belonged to an Serbian nationalist group. To the Austro-Hungarian government, this implied actual involvement by the government of Serbia, even though no proof existed to support that belief. Since Serbia was in the Balkans, a region that Austria-Hungary considered in their sphere of influence, this provided them with an opportunity to launch a war against Serbia, conquer it, and add it to the empire.
The government of Kaiser Wilhelm was actively instigating for Austria-Hungary to go to war with Serbia. They gave assurances to the Austrians that no one would go to war in defense of little Serbia. Further, they pledged military support to Austria in the unlikely event that other nations did in fact come to the defense of Serbia. The only country that gave a damn about Serbia was Imperial Russia, and despite having a defense treaty with Serbia, it was questionable if Russia would actually honor it and risk a larger war.
You have to understand that by this point in history, all three of these empires were experiencing a large degree of social unrest. A revolution could occur in Russia at any moment. Austria-Hungary was barely able to hold onto it's empire because so many of it's parts wished to become independant or at least have greater autonomy. Germany was faced with the growing threat of socialism within it's borders. All three viewed a war, any kind of war, as a possible solution to their problems.
This is why German Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg so eagerly pushed the Austrians to go to war against Serbia. He knew that the various alliances the nation's of Europe had with each other could potentially lead to a somewhat larger conflict, but it seemed like a gamble worth taking. Plans had been in place for some time to fight a two front war against France and Russia, Germany's most likely enemies. So Germany figured, why not push the Serbia issue and see what happens?
Once Austria declared war on Serbia, and Russia mobilized it's army seemingly to come to the defense of Serbia, Germany had it's excuse to launch what was expected to be a short, European war. Germany believed that they could defeat France in five weeks and then turn their attention to Russia, which was estimated would take six weeks or longer to mobilize fully for war. The plan almost worked. Unfortunately, failure to calculate properly what Britain would do, let alone the United States, really doomed the whole thing. The rest, as they say, is history.
Many of these alliances that dragged virtually every European nation into this conflict were in large part orchestrated by Bismarck. But the intent these alliances really had was to protect Germany from outside threats. The Three Emperor's League, the Dual Alliance, the Triple Alliance, the Reinsurance Treaty, all Bismarck concotions. Too bad for Germany that this tangle of alliances and treaties had the opposite effect of their original intent.
Germany may truly not have wished to plunge the whole of Europe into conflict. But the actions they took and persuaded others to take pretty well guaranteed that what was supposed to be a limited military action, would become nothing less than a world war.
Unless Germans gave up their dreams of unification, I truly see no other alternatives to a big European war to settle the inevitable shock to existing power structure in Europe as a result of the unification of Germany. Europe was, at that time, simply too small a place for so many great powers. France and Germany would have to bump heads no matter what, so did Russia and Germany. Bismark realized Germany's vulnerable position, that's why he created such a messy patchwork of alliance, to his credit, his alliance system did maintain peace for half a century even though no new international order was created to replace the old order destroyed by the emergency of Germany. More often than not, only war and blood can establish order that reflects reality, the only reason we haven't gone to WWIII is because everybody is spooked by Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Without the threat of total annihilation, it's actually quite an achievement to maintain peace for so long among competing powers whose suspicion and fear toward each other could only be greater than what we had witnessed between US and Soviet Union. German people had every rights to yearn for their own unified country, while it's also natural for France to feel threatened at first, humiliated after being defeated and swear for revenge at last. Anybody who puts the blame of war on any specific individual or nation simply forgets that we as human being, always resort to war to settle our differences, the only reason we had 2 world wars and tens of millions of casualties was because of advancement of technologies, fundamentally speaking, war is still war, nothing changed, nothing will change.
Another interesting fact is that Count Alfred von Schieffen submitted his plan... The Schliefen Plan, for the War in 1905. The problem being, Germany stuck to the plan, even though it was 9 years old when the War broke out. Even though circumstance had changed, they stuck to the plan.. World War I, The Schlieffen Plan
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