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\u201cThe purpose of this pamphlet is not to make an argument for war or to give an extended account of the reasons for our entrance, but to answer briefly and sharply the question as to what our direct charges against Germany are.\u201d<\/p>\n
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While I was shuffling through the pamphlet box I was not on the lookout for anything in particular, however I was intrigued when I saw \u201cThe University of Chicago War Papers\u201d and proceeded to flip through some of the pages.\u00a0 I was interested to see what such a prestigious university had to say about the war, and I was not let down.\u00a0 The author of the pamphlet was Professor and Head of the Department of History at the University of Chicago Andrew C. McLaughlin.\u00a0 I found it very interesting to see that the Department of History at the University of Chicago supported the claims in the pamphlet made against Germany as it was a very one-sided opinion on the war.\u00a0 The pamphlet was published in 1918 almost a year after the U.S. joined the war.\u00a0 The topic of the pamphlet was the \u201cSixteen Causes of War,\u201d pin pointing exactly sixteen reasons why the war began.\u00a0 Dr. McLaughlin was able to narrow down the many influences of the start of WWI into precisely sixteen causes.\u00a0 According to Professor McLaughlin, the only country that began the war was Germany.\u00a0 This was a very strong claim to make considering there were numerous countries involved.\u00a0 I found it shocking that this professor had exactly sixteen reasons as to why the war began, each argument structured around Germany\u2019s involvement.\u00a0 Not only does Professor McLaughlin say that Germany started the war, but it is \u201cperfectly evident from the examination of the public documents\u201d and is made \u201cdoubly certain by other evidences\u201d that Germany began the war.<\/p>\n
Although I do not necessarily agree with placing the blame solely on Germany for starting the war, McLaughlin gives numerous convincing arguments.\u00a0 The second cause of the war was on account of ambition.\u00a0 Germany had \u201cdeep-laid plans of world-domination,\u201d a claim rather extreme to have been published by the University of Chicago.\u00a0 Despite such an outrageous argument, although not completely false, McLaughlin did include footnotes supporting his evidence.\u00a0 He mentions the idea of Weltpolitik <\/em>which is the principle that world politics is based on the strongest power, explaining why Germany may have felt the need to start the war.\u00a0 Germany invading Belgium did not help their case as being accused of starting the war.\u00a0 The invasion of Belgium by Germany showed that they had no intention of respecting the rights of others in their path, treating treaties like \u201cscraps of paper.\u201d<\/p>\n Professor McLaughlin blatantly ignores events such as Archduke Franz Ferdinand being assassinated and only factors in Germany\u2019s wrongdoings, which were mostly in response to what other countries had also been doing that was causing tensions.\u00a0 The other causes of the war charged Germany with openly defying the world, filling our lands with spies, espionage, as well as blatantly ignoring international law.\u00a0 Quickly opening up the pamphlet, one would not assume that these wildly accusatory claims would be present in a pamphlet published by such a well-renowned university, it interests me to see what the other pamphlets published by the university discuss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cThe purpose of this pamphlet is not to make an argument for war or to give an extended account of the reasons for our entrance, but to answer briefly and sharply the question as to what our direct charges … Continue reading