Kriegsschuldfrage or The Question of War Guilt

The Austro-Hungarian empire was enormous in size only second to Russia, but a lot weaker than Germany, France, Russia and  of course, Great Britain. Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm was Queen Victoria's oldest grandson and until 1914 had enjoyed great popularity in Great Britain. Not a soul could imagine that Great Britain would go to war with Germany. But the Balance of powers in the region was changing But by 1914, Serbia had doubled in size since its victory in the first Balkan Wars and its mere rise in power was threatening Austro-Hungarian dominance in Geopolitical terms.  Austria fired its first shot on 28th Of July 1914 with the Kaiser's backing, but the war would only end four years later and would hand down a guilty verdict to Kaiser Wilhelm II.  Versaille Assigned war guilt and criminalised the Kaiser.  Historians still struggle with Kriegsschuldfrage, or  question de la responsabilité dans la guerre or the question of war guilt. The War as we know ended in 1918 with poppies and promises of peace. But who really stood to gain from Europe's folly? Britain went from being amongst the greatest creditors to greatest debtors. By 1916, the horrors of Verdun and Somme would be etched in British, French and German minds forever. By the end of 1921, Britain owned the US taxPayer 4. 5 Billion, France 3:5 billion, Italy 1.8 billion.  The United States stayed neutral from 1914 to April 1917 until they decided they had to fight a moral crusade for Freedom and democracy, rather lofty ideals at times when Great Britain had about 57 colonies, France at its peak had 72. Why even brave little Belgium had managed to seize Congo a territory 77 times its size!  WWI shaped a new global order and it elevated America's status to a great power in the great game.