Sidney Bradshaw Fay was one of the people who wrote about the guilty party of the First World War. Fay states that none of the European countries wanted war however in each of the countries, political and military leaders did certain things that lead to the declarations of war and the mobilization of troops. These leaders also failed to delay the onset of war. According to Fay each country was, to some degree, guilty of the war.

Fay wrote that Austria was more responsible for the immediate cause of the war than any other country. He writes that Austria was acting in self-defense against the eroding "Serbian and Jugoslav agitation which her leaders believed threaded he existence". Also after the shooting of the archduke, Count leopard von Berchtol

According to Fay, the fault of Great Britain in preventing the World War was because Sir Edward Grey did not do one of two things, which could have prevented war. Fay wrote "If early in the crisis, he had acceded to the urging of France and Russia and given a strong warning to Germany that, in a European War, England would take the side of the Franco-Russian Alliance, this would have led Bethmann to exert an earlier and more effective pressure on Austria." If this had only been known, the war could have been prevented because, as Fay thinks, Austria would have not declared war on Serbia. Fay also wrote that if Sir Edward Grey had listened to German urging, and warned Russia and France earlier in the crisis, war could have been prevented if England stated that they would remain neutral. England's nonpartisan outlook would have made Russia hesitate with her mobilization and France would have put pressure on St. Petersburg to have peace talks instead of going to war.

The alliance system was one of the main reasons for the war. In a situation where every country must be loyal to another in case of a war, no one remains neutral to arbitrate in the war. Had the system not existed any war that potentially broke out between Austria and Serbia could have been stopped or slowed by neutral countries but since none of the great powers of Europe were not in an alliance no one was left to make any effort in stopping the war.

Russia's responsibility lies in the fact that they supported Serbia in military power. Even though Russia was still trying to recover from the Russo-Japanese war, they were willing to help Serbia in a war against Germany. Their main reason for doing this was to ensure that Russia could still use Serbia as access to the Mediterranean they needed for trade and military purposes.

According to Schmitt, Germany was at fault because they felt that they could win the war on the assumption that England would remain neutral; but England did join the army on the opposing side. Germany also thought that war was "a good means of dealing with the menace of socialism, which seemed to be steadily increasing," wrote Schmitt. He also wrote that without Germany being part of the alliance system the war would have never broke out.

d, the Austrian foreign minister hurriedly declared war against Serbia in order to forestall all efforts at mediation. He even refused the advice of his all

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