Essay on Causes of World War 1

World War I was a tragic episode in European history. As with most wars, there were some causes that led to this event. A few of these causes were militarism, alliances, and imperialism. The first spark of the war was on June 28, 1914 when the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated by a Serbian nationalist group called the Black Hand. The Austrian leaders demanded an apology from Serbia, they got upset and Russia said they would help Serbia. With no apology and the threat of Russia, on June 28 Austria-Hungary declared war on them; Russia in return declared war on Austria-Hungary. Germany declared war on Russia, France on both Germany and Austria-Hungary. Finally Britain had joined France and Russia, then all of Europe was at war.

Another debated cause is imperialism, which is the policy of extending a nation's authority by territorial acquisition or by the establishment of economic and political hegemony over other nations. This contributed to WWI because of the rivalry it caused in Europe between Great Britain, Germany, and France. They needed foreign markets after the increase in manufacturing caused by the Industrial Revolution. Great Britain, Germany, and France competed for economic expansion in Africa. Even though Great Britain and France came to an agreement several problems before the war had to do with the dislike of Germany against Great Britain and France in North Africa. Also the crumbling of the Ottoman-Empire in the Middle East was a big factor for Austria-Hungary, the Balkans and Russia. So the competition for colonies brought great powers into conflict and fueled the ideas of war and added to the present tension that already existed, and that tension keeps on building up.

Great War, also known as The First World War, lasted for four year (1914 to 1918). It brought a huge development of war technics and weapons. More number of countries had been involved in the Great War than any previous war. It involved the mobilization of the whole nations, not just an enormous army that turned the war into a “total war”. (Clare 6) However, historians are still arguing about the major cause of the World War I. The major cause will be one of the four long-term causes of WWI, which are Militarism, Alliance, Imperialism, and Nationalism. In my opinion, the two major causes would be Alliance and Nationalism. Alliance is an association between two or more countries for mutual benefits that formed with different treaties, while

England's colonial increased majorly. Causing Germany to catch fear. At this point England was the largest colonial empire. England wants to remain strong and never again become the slaves of humanity. This all caused alliances to help create balance of power between groups of nations that helped keep

Militarism caused WWI because certain countries spent a great deal of money on their military, and they were very eager to utilize it. Lastly, alliances helped spark the war because alliances are formed due to rivalries and mistrust. When one country starts a conflict, its allies

Alliances between countries that was the first main cause of World War 1. It was the formation that had a significant impact on World War 1. “The problem that the Alliances had was Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife was assassinated on June 28, 1914, by Gavrilo Princip, igniting a conflict that led to World War 1 and made a larger problem”. The other problem was between the Triple Alliances and the Triple Entente. The countries that were in the Triple Alliance was Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy and for the Triple Entente was Russia, France, and the United Kingdom. Germany was worried about having to fight a war on two fronts or two different borders, but the fear was not justified because France and Russia are against Germany and Russia was larger than Germany. In document B “The Crime Of The Ages.

World War 1 was the first total war that the world had ever gone through. World war 1 began on July 28, 1914, and lasted till November 11, of 1918, lasting over 4 years producing over 10 million casualties. The main question is “What was the underlying cause of World war 1?” this is asking what were the causes that led to the war. There were a few causes to world war 1, the most underlying cause was militarism. Militarism was the most impactful reason for the war, and what ultimately pulled the last straw.

Three Causes of World War I World War I and its consequences have dominated European history since 1914. Because of the bitter controversy over the post-war peace treaties, the origins of the war continued to be an issue of utmost political importance in the years to come. The Great War had its roots in 1870 in the grand expansion and uncontrolled ambitions of Bismarck and the new Germany (Wolfson et al 1997). Imperialism, which began to emerge around the turn of the 20th century also played a decisive role. Fights over the colonies contributed to the establishment of complex set of international alliances, which helped to destabilize the European balance of power and when combined with

Imperialism also played a role as a cause for WW1. In the late 1800s, less and less land that could be colonized existed. This sparked a scramble for the land left in Africa. Britain and France had the largest empires, with Britain having a presence on 5 continents and France present in 4. Germany was not very quick to acquire colonies, and only had small holdings in Africa. This angered the British and French, and so increased nationalism and hostility towards Germany. Territory and imperialism can be considered a reason for World War 1.

There was a lot of reasons World War 1 commenced imperialism, assassination, nationalism, alliances, and militarism are a few of WW1’s causes. On June 28th, 1914 archduke of Austria-Hungary and his wife were on their way home from an event when their driver took a wrong turn and Blackhand member Gavrilo Princip just happened to be in the alleyway where they stopped to turn around. Gavrilo Princip quickly pulled out his gun and shot both Archduke and his wife. This Assassination caused Serbia and Austria-Hungary to declare war which lead to WW1. Militarism is the belief or desire of a government of people that I country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests. Militarism denoted a rise in military expenditure, an increase in military and naval forces, more influence of the military men upon the policies of the civilian government, and a preference for force as a solution to problems. This caused the war because it built up nations armies and when you have a huge army that's good you use it. Imperialism is a policy of extending another country‘s power and influence through colonization, and use of military force to create empires they exploited weaker countries. This policy of one nation dominating other countries or regions caused the war because countries wanted to be huge empires like Great Britain. There were many causes of World War 1 but the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand,

Two Alliances were formed in Europe preceding World War 1. The triple alliance consisting of: Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary (Document 1). The other alliance being the triple entente, which was made of the three powers: Great Britain, Russia, and France (Document 2). Both of these alliances were formed to oppose one another. When there was a conflict preceding the war and Germany rose up, France formed an alliance with Great Britain and Russia in order to have a defense in case of an attack from Germany. In turn Germany took this as a sign that these countries were preparing for a conflict. So, in response they formed an alliance with France and Austria-Hungary.

World War 1 was caused by long term tensions between European nations. This followed the unsuccessful attempt of France trying to achieve dominance in Europe. However on the 28th June 1914 there was an assassination of the Austrian heir- Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s, in his visit in Sara Jevo, Serbia. (Dugan 2000) Figure 2 shows an artist’s illustration of the Heir, his wife and the assassin during the attack. This resulted in Austria declaring war on Serbia. Russia soon pledged an alliance with Serbia, this was not long after Germany declared war on Russia. (Dugan 2000)

Although alliances was a cause for World War I, militarism was the main cause. Militarism was the main cause because if no one was preparing for a war there wouldn’t have been one. With everyone thinking that having a big army is the key to success and the only way they would be able to use that army would be in a

The cause of World War 1 was in fact a mixture of reasons. The systems of Alliances, Imperialism and Nationalism were all equally responsible for starting the Great War. World War 1 began in 1914 and finished in 1918, it was a gruesome war that killed almost eight million people and left many without limbs. The events of World war 1 were clearly far too complex to be attributed to one cause. It was a combination of factors that were brought together to create an environment mandatory to achieve war on a global scale. Alliances were only one of the causes responsible for World War 1 and there are many viable reasons for that.

So, Germany made a decision, as too much of the world had been claimed they must fight to gain countries, in order to build their much desired Empire. This lead to the war as it created rivalry between Britain and Germany, who were both powerful Empires in their own right. This meant in the case of a war between nations, such as the one which followed, these domains would be on opposing sides and would have a good motive to want to belittle the others status, Empire, National forces and wealth.