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Student worksheet
Interpretations of the causes of World
War 1
Diverse types of interpretation about the causes of World War 1
Historical interpretations can be divided up into: academic, educational, fictional,
popular, and personal. Here you will find one example of each.
FICTIONAL INTERPRETATION OF THE CAUSES
An extract from the episode ‘Goodbyeee’ from the British historical sitcom ‘Blackadder Goes Forth’.
BBC1 on 2 November 1989. The characters are in the trenches awaiting the order to go ‘over the top’.
Baldrick: The thing is: The way I see it, these days there's a war on, right? and, ages ago, there wasn't a war
on, right? So, there must have been a moment when there not being a war on went away, right?
and there being a war on came along. So, what I want to know is: How did we get from the one
case of affairs to the other case of affairs?
Edmund: Do you mean "Why did the war start?"
Baldrick: Yeah.
George: The war started because of the vile Hun and his villainous empire-building.
Edmund: George, the British Empire at present covers a quarter of the globe, while the German Empire
consists of a small sausage factory in Tanganyika. I hardly think that we can be entirely absolved
of blame on the imperialistic front.
George: Oh, no, sir, absolutely not. [aside, to Baldrick] Mad as a bicycle!
Baldrick: I heard that it started when a bloke called Archie Duke shot an ostrich 'cause he was hungry.
Edmund: I think you mean it started when the Archduke of Austro-Hungary got shot.
Baldrick: Nah, there was definitely an ostrich involved, sir.
Edmund: Well, possibly. But the real reason for the whole thing was that it was too much effort not to have a
war.
George: By Golly, this is interesting; I always loved history...
Edmund: You see, Baldrick, in order to prevent war in Europe, two superblocs developed: us, the French and
the Russians on one side, and the Germans and Austro-Hungary on the other. The idea was to
have two vast opposing armies, each acting as the other's deterrent. That way there could never be
a war.
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POPULAR INTERPRETATION OF THE CAUSES
Wikipedia Harris Morgan (2007) – Depiction of the causes of the First World War as an image.
PERSONAL INTERPRETATION OF THE CAUSES
"The politicians who took us to war should have been given the guns and told to settle their
differences themselves, instead of organising nothing better than legalised mass murder."
The interpretation of Harry Patch, the last surviving World War 1 army veteran who died in 2009,
in his book „The Last Fighting Tommy‟ (2007). Harry Patch died aged 111. He fought in the
British Army in World War 1 and did not speak of his experiences until he was 100 years old.
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EDUCATIONAL INTERPRETATION OF THE CAUSES
Trigger for war
Few topics in 20th-century history have caused as much controversy as the debate surrounding the origins of
the First World War. The eventual Allied victory in 1918, and the subsequent move to blame Germany for the
outbreak of the conflict through the 'war guilt clause', laid the foundations for a bitter and enduring debate
that still fascinates historians today.
The immediate trigger for war in the summer of 1914 was the assassination of the heir to the Habsburg
throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, by the Bosnian-Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June.
This event led directly to Austria-Hungary's declaration of war on Serbia a month later and the subsequent
entanglement of Europe's other Powers in a general war by 4 August.
Great Power rivalries
However, the root causes of this conflict were to be found in the many and varied Great Power rivalries of the
late 19th and early 20th century. They found expression both inside Europe - where a delicate series of
alliances maintained the 'balance of power' - and elsewhere in the world, as the era of empire-building
reached its peak.
Germany, a latecomer to Great Power status, feared encirclement by France and Russia and resented
Britain's naval supremacy. French enmity towards Germany was forged by the humiliating territorial losses of
Alsace and Lorraine during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71.
Russia and Austria-Hungary, both multinational empires with severe domestic problems, were at
loggerheads in the Balkans, where Russia's pro-Slav tendencies clashed with Austria-Hungary's desire to
curb demands for Slav autonomy within its borders. Finally, there was Britain, whose pre-eminent position as
a colonial, naval and commercial power in 1914 encouraged intermittently tense relations with France,
Russia and Germany.
Declarations of war
These competing interests and rivalries came to a head with disastrous consequences in late July and early
August 1914. One week after Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, five European empires were at war.
Germany, Austria's closest ally, quickly declared war on both Russia and its long-time ally France.
On 4 August, the Germans launched their attack on France by invading Belgium, thus breaking the 1839
Treaty of London, which guaranteed Belgian neutrality. Later on the same day, Britain - one of the original
guarantors of Belgian neutrality and the ally of both Russia and France - declared war on Germany. The
European war that so many had predicted was now a reality.
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ACADEMIC INTERPRETATION OF THE CAUSES
"First, the evidence is overwhelming that nearly all the European great powers bore some share of the
blame for the escalation of a crisis in the Balkans into a world war. It was not only the Germans who
gambled on war. The Serbs started it by encouraging their countrymen in Bosnia to carry out a terrorist
attack on the heir to the Austrian throne. The Austro-Hungarians wrongly thought the right time had come
to reckon with the Serbs. The Russians wrongly thought that standing by the Serbs would be
advantageous for them. The French thought that an offensive into Germany would be the best form of
defence. And the British government decided that letting Germany beat France was not in the British
national – or rather imperial – interest. Second, Germany was in some ways more democratic than
Britain, where the right to vote was still based on a property qualification that excluded two fifths of men,
and in every way more democratic than Tsarist Russia, on whose side Britain fought.
Third, it is far from self-evident what Germany‟s aims would have been in a limited continental war from
which Britain had stood aside. The notorious “September programme” of war aims was drawn up after
British intervention. If Britain had stayed out and Germany had defeated France and Russia, it would
have made no sense to make territorial claims (e.g. against Belgium) that might have caused the British
to change their minds. Germany‟s main concern was to defeat Russia. A break-up of the Tsarist empire
would have been a boon for “freedom, justice and democracy”, especially from the point of view of the
many ethnic minorities oppressed by Russian rule.
The war of 1914 was avoidable. A more intelligent British policy might have deterred the continental
powers from fighting altogether. At the very least, the war could have been contained – confined to
Europe and shortened. Because all the combatant powers blundered, however, it dragged on into late
1918."
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Worksheet 1: What does each interpretation say?
Your teacher will give you 5 different types of historical interpretations about the causes of World War 1. Your task is to summarise in one or two
sentences what each interpretation says. Try to use your own words. An example is done for you.
Type of interpretations
What it says about the causes of World War 1
FICTIONAL - extract from a popular UK TV
comedy show called „Blackadder‟ (1989)
POPULAR – image designed for Wikipedia
(2007)
PERSONAL – viewpoint of a First World War
veteran (2007)
The war was caused by politicians who had disagreements with each other. Instead of sorting
them out between themselves, they sent young men to fight and kill each other.
EDUCATIONAL – chapter from the UK
National Archives online exhibition on the First
World War (2014)
ACADEMIC – summary of the viewpoint of a
Professor of History (2014)
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Worksheet 2: What has shaped how the historical interpretations have been constructed?
If we are going to understand a historical interpretation, we much think carefully about the purpose for which it was constructed and the audience for
whom it was intended. The more we can find out about these, the deeper our understanding of the interpretation will be. Complete this table, an
example has been done for you.
Type of interpretation
General thoughts about the audience and purpose of this
type of interpretation
Specific things about the audience and purpose of this
interpretation
FICTIONAL - extract from
a popular UK TV comedy
show called „Blackadder‟
(1989)
Fictional accounts do not have to pay much attention to factual
accuracy. Their primary purpose is to entertain their audience in some
way. This might be to make them laugh, or it might be to make them
think about the world in a new way, or to help them to relax. They can
have lots of viewpoint and not much evidence.
The Wikipedia entry for this suggests that there were concerns at the
time that a comedy series might trivialise the events of 1914–1918.
However, it was and is very popular and won a comedy award in
1989. Historians (and in 2014 the English Education Minister)
criticised its role in reinforcing the popular idea of soldiers as "lions
led by donkeys".
POPULAR – image
designed for Wikipedia
(2007)
PERSONAL – viewpoint of
a World War 1 veteran
(2007)
EDUCATIONAL – chapter
from the UK National
Archives online exhibition
on World War 1 (2014)
ACADEMIC – summary of
the viewpoint of a Professor
of History (2014)
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