Editing History of Germany (section)

====Causes====
Ethnic demands for nation states upset the balance between the empires that dominated Europe, [[causes of World War I|leading to World War I]], which started in August 1914. Germany stood behind its ally Austria in a confrontation with Serbia, but Serbia was under the protection of Russia, which was allied to France. Germany was the leader of the Central Powers, which included Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and later Bulgaria; arrayed against them were the Allies, consisting chiefly of Russia, France, Britain, and in 1915 Italy.

In explaining why neutral Britain went to war with Germany, author Paul M. Kennedy recognized it was critical for war that Germany become economically more powerful than Britain, but he downplays the disputes over economic trade imperialism, the Baghdad Railway, confrontations in Central and Eastern Europe, high-charged political rhetoric and domestic pressure-groups. Germany's reliance time and again on sheer power, while Britain increasingly appealed to moral sensibilities, played a role, especially in seeing the invasion of Belgium as a necessary military tactic or a profound moral crime. The German invasion of Belgium was not important because the British decision had already been made and the British were more concerned with the fate of France. Kennedy argues that by far the main reason was London's fear that a repeat of 1870&nbsp;– when Prussia and the German states smashed France&nbsp;– would mean that Germany, with a powerful army and navy, would control the English Channel and northwest France. British policy makers insisted that would be a catastrophe for British security.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kennedy |first=Paul M. |url=https://archive.org/details/riseofanglogerma0000kenn |title=The Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism, 1860–1914 |date=1980 |isbn=978-0-0494-0060-3 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/riseofanglogerma0000kenn/page/464 464]–470|publisher=Allen & Unwin }}</ref>