The notable historians of this period can be divided into two camps. One camp sees the war as arising from the assassination of the Austro-Hungarian heir in June 1914 and snowballing almost spontaneously due to the alliance structure and military plans that were in place. This view throws the blame widely and avoids blaming Germany or any other party too specifically. The other camp sees the war as a consequence of Germany's increasingly aggressive planning and foreign policy, beginning with the Schlieffen Plan to invade France, drawn up in 1904, and growing more intense after the Agadir Crisis of 1911. This view originated with the writings of Fritz Fischer in the 1960s and has been referred to as the "Fischer thesis." | The notable historians of this period can be divided into two camps. One camp sees the war as arising from the assassination of the Austro-Hungarian heir in June 1914 and snowballing almost spontaneously due to the alliance structure and military plans that were in place. This view throws the blame widely and avoids blaming Germany or any other party too specifically. The other camp sees the war as a consequence of Germany's increasingly aggressive planning and foreign policy, beginning with the Schlieffen Plan to invade France, drawn up in 1904, and growing more intense after the Agadir Crisis of 1911. This view originated with the writings of Fritz Fischer in the 1960s and has been referred to as the "Fischer thesis." |