Who s most responsible for the outbreak of war in 1914 The rules set forth by the Treaty of Versailles made it clear that Germany was mostly responsible for the outbreak of war in 1914 which is why the three western democracies placed a limit on their power afterward When the Ottomans began to decline Serbia saw a chance to reestablish itself but Austria Hungary wasn t going to let this happen They eventually annexed the land between Austria Hungary and Serbia called Bosnia and Herzegovina which was the final straw for Serbia On June 28th 1914 when the heir to the Austrian throne Franz Ferdinand was visiting Bosnia he and his wife were both assassinated by a member of The Black Hand The Austrians knew Serbia was responsible and they planned to destroy Serbia to prove they couldn t get away with it Franz Joseph of Austria asked Wilhelm II if he and Germany would help fight Russia if they were to attack Serbia since Russia was allies with Serbia Wilhelm II agreed This is known as the Blank Check By allowing Austria to attack Serbia Germany set the Great War in motion Germany had a secret plan for giving Austria their blessing Germany was focused on Imperialism more than any other country and Wilhelm II wanted Germany to control all of Europe His attempt to expand Germany previously clashed with the Entente several times including the two Moroccan crises and Balkan crises thus isolating Germany from the three major powers in Europe Under Bismarck Germany had grown out of warfare and believed war was the best way to gain power Germany s agreement to help Austria in order to gain more power risked a General War Germany knew a war was coming so they created the Schlieffen Plan and made additional preparations to their military Now all they needed was a reason to attack the Entente They wanted it to look like they were only joining the war to defend their ally when in reality they wanted to weaken the Entente The appointment at Sarajevo gave Germany the perfect opportunity to use their military strength to do just that With Germany s blessing Austria sent Serbia an ultimatum that would end their existence as a state After consulting with Russia Serbia denied and in response Austria declared war on Serbia Germany then urged Austria to attack Serbia quickly because Russia wouldn t be able to mobilize in time thus allowing Germany to achieve the Schlieffen Plan Within weeks after everyone declared war except Italy and WWI began WWI could have been avoided if Germany had not chosen to back Austria and wasn t so focused on Imperialism and European domination Instead they used the assassination of Franz Ferdinand to start the first general war the world had seen in over a century making them primarily responsible for the outbreak of war in 1914