preview

Essay On The Causes Of World War 1

Decent Essays

As two of the most transformative events in modern history, there is a lot of value in studying World War I and II, especially their causes. It is also important to remember to look beyond the direct physical reasons for the wars, at the underlying reasons relating to the nations’ attitudes and beliefs. Both wars shared a similar attitude of rivalry between nations, but World War I had been preceded by 40 years without a large war, while World War II was less than 25 years removed from World War I. This difference, along with the common understanding of how new weapons would affect war, changed how many nations viewed the potential of another world war. Adolf Hitler alone was another large and important difference between the two wars. After each war, the cause for the war was never fully addressed or taken care of. After both wars, there was unease and tension between nations. Put simply, similar issues partially caused the World Wars, with some important differences in causes. At the end of both wars, their causes had not totally been fixed.

Common Causes Their most important common cause of World War I and World War II was the nationalist rivalry between the European powers. In 1914, around the start of World War I, Nationalism was “nothing like the optimistic, utopian movements of the nineteenth century; it was hostile, fearful, and aggressive” (Week 5, Lecture 1, Background to the War). This led to people being much more open and accepting toward the violent,

Get Access