To what extent was Imperial Germany to blame for the outbreak of the 1914-1918 conflict? <-- Making of Modern Europe exam write up.

I took this exam on the 13/04/2013 so I'll just write a few bullet point notes from what I remember writing. :)

• Ongoing Russian/Austria-Hungary tensions over Bosnia (Bosnian crises).
  
• Final spark - Assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria by a Serb nationalist.
  
• Blank cheque - Germany gave Austria-Hungary the 'blank cheque' meaning that they would support Austria-Hungary in event of conflict against Russia.
  
• Scramble for Africa- All countries had imperialist aims - but Germany was keen to build an empire- Britain and France had already acquired successful empires at this point - Germany's imperialistic aims were also fuelled by French revisionism whereby France wanted to claim back Alsace & Lorraine  (their two richest regions) from Germany which they had lost after the Franco-Prussian war.
  
• Germany's military rivalry with Britain - arms race - right to have the best / most advanced military.
  
• Entangled alliances system meant that all main powers would be brought in (in the event of conflict between two opposing powers.)
  
• Shlieffen plan - Germany had a plan in place to attack France before Russia could mobilise their troops so that they would not have to fight a war on two fronts (from Russia and France)
  
• Nationalism of the great powers.

__________________________________________________________________

My overall conclusion was something along the lines of :

Although Germany may not have been directly involved with the main sparks which caused the outbreak of World War I, they had heavily anticipated it and even encouraged it - it is undeniable that Germany were prepared for war, with the Shlieffen plan and military expansion.