1. Why did Russian mobilisation mean war for Germany?

“The alliance between France and Russia meant that Germany

faced a war on two fronts. Her only hope was to deal with France
in the west before the main Russian armies could invade from the
east. That left no time to wait and see, for Germany Russian
mobilization meant war.”
2. What were countries convinced of?
“The leaders had little more idea of why they were fighting than the
men. They had no lists of war aims. Germany and Austria, Serbia,
Russia and France were all convinced that they were fighting a
defensive war, brought upon by someone else.”
3. Why did Britain go to war?
“If Britain stayed neutral the war would still threaten the country’s
vast global empire, trade and security, and Britain needed to stay
on good terms with France and Russia. Even in peacetime she
was not powerful enough to defend her empire against everyone,
in Africa and India the safety of Britain’s colonies depended on
French and Russian goodwill.”, “Above all Britain could never
afford to allow Europe to be dominated by a triumphant Germany,
if Germany overran the channel ports then Britain’s control of the
seas would be under threat.”
4. What attitude did Austria-Hungary bring with them into
Serbia?
“The war is taking us into a country inhabited by a population
inspired by fanatical hatred toward ourselves. An attitude of
extreme severity, extreme harshness and extreme distrust is to be
observed towards everybody.”
5. How did Austria-Hungary disappoint Germany?
“... That too set a pattern for the war, a foretaste of the military
weakness that would dog Austria-Hungary’s partnership with
Germany.”, “Germany was relying on her ally Austria-Hungary to
hold the Eastern front, with Russia massing on her borders,
Germany was horrified to learn that Austria was concentrating her
reserves not against Russia, but down in the Balkans to deal with
Serbia… the Serbs easily beat off the Austro-Hungarian attack…”