Germany as a country was very ambitious and eager. So, even though Austria-Hungary was seeking out a contained war within the Balkans, when Germany entered the conflict, the war was brought to a global scale. Germany was ambitious due to its success against France in 1870 - 1871, and because of this it thought could take on other great powers in Europe. Germany felt it could prove itself, and wanted to do this by encouraging Austria-Hungary to go to war. Germany said they would protect Austria-Hungary in case of war. This was called the "blank cheque". Germany thought Russia had a small military that would take a while to mobilize, but they were wrong. When they saw that Russia was mobilizing fast, they got scared and decided to act. However, they were already warned of this. Britain had already told Germany that if the Austro-Serb war were to get out of hand, that Britain would not hold back and it would be a huge catastrophe. I believe that because Germany ignored Britain and decided to go to war, and because of their ambitions, that they were partly responsible for the war.

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