In the decades leading up to World War I, many European countries began to place more focus on their military might. The European powers invested significant amounts of money and production time to designing and building new weapons or mass-producing vast quantities of offensive and defensive weaponry. Between 1870 and 1914, the military budget for Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia and Italy more than quadrupled. Some nation's budgets increased more radically than others. Germany, for instance, increased its military spending by 73 percent between 1870 and 1914. The growth of these armies did not happen in secrecy or isolation. Each nation was aware of the growing military power of their neighbors and responded by growing their
As the 20th century began, all the countries were looking to upgrade their arms. The more the countries divided the more the need to increase armed forces became important. Between 1870 and 1914, the armies for France and Germany doubled, and sea master was constantly changing between Britain and Germany. It seemed that each country was coming up with different plans to attack their enemies. (World War One- Causes, 2014)
European nations have greatly loosened their grip on military power—in fact they are wary of using military power. The US itself held quite a different economic stance in the times of the Great War than it does today. During WWI, America soared a soared creditor nation. Today, the US has buried herself beneath a huge mountain of debts—and the war is only burying her deeper.
The nations had spent millions of dollars on building their army and navy. Germany in 1890 had spent around 30 million in British pounds, then by 1910 they had spent around 60 million in British pounds. (Document C) All of these countries had spent so much money into their armaments, there was a lot of tension building up between the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente that either one was ready. The countries also had lots of colonies with territory by the other nations. No one wanted to get in each other’s way, but it became too close for comfort. (Document D) This proves how Militarism was a cause of
As much as Europe’s worldwide empires had globalized the war, so too its economic linkages
There is a sense that modern weapons during the 20th century proved to be the most technological advancements and thus created competition in which sprawled into a new stage of warfare enlightenment. At the brink of the war and the salient of forces perhaps the most technological tool used had been the trenches. The pursuit of territorial conquest would halt at the trench lines inventing a new progression in how war is envisioned today. The disadvantages often outnumber the benefits of war, however, war managed to create a boosted in advanced warfare starting as early as the Franco-Prussian War. As the war progressed during 1914, items such as uniforms called for change. The sense of pride in nationality struck in numbers and not in bright colors. For the sake of duty and country was the most powerful drive including those who sought ground in the western lines.
In 1919, Treaty of Versailles was made after the World War I. Germany and Austria-Hungary was blamed for the Great War and was imposed financial debts and territorial dismemberment on them. Germans could not afford the huge debts and during the 1920s the Great Depression which started in the USA impacted the economies of the whole world. There was high unemployment and the prices of daily necessities were high. The German government was distrusted. People chose to believe a man Adolf Hitler with his extreme ideas, and Racism that promised to make Germany stand up again. After Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in January 1933, he had secretly built up a military and
When a nation gained more powerful arms, they were seen as a larger threat to the rest of the world, which was proven by post-war speeches from leaders of involved countries and statistics from the war. When Germany was blamed entirely for starting the war, German Versailles Treaty delegation leader Count Brockdorff-Rantzau argued that imperialism and the massive power put in the militaries across Europe had a larger impact on the war than Germany (Document 5). The mobilization of European armies and missed preventative steps to avoid war in almost every European country were both also cited by many historians for causing the Great War to occur (Document 6). The effects of military advancement and involvement in political discrepancies is clearly shown in statistics of money paid by each country involved in the war throughout time. When the war broke out, substantial increases in the investments made for weaponry are shown, especially by the main countries involved in the war, such as Great Britain, France, and Germany (Document 1). Military advancement overall had a large part in World War I’s breakout, due to its effects on the mindset of countries to create more weaponry for defense, and the power it gave to a nation’s
Jessica Kasparian Period 3 Cause of World War 1 “If even one person is left standing at the end of a war, then the fight was worth it,” Garrus Vakarian, Mass Effect 3. World War 1 was one of the cruelest wars ever with more than 10 million deaths and 20 million wounded. With the major conflict with the alliances, World War 1 shifted how the world is now. There were many reason why World War 1 occurred.
On document C the ratios and percentages shows of how much they spent for weapons and how it drastically changed in 1890-1914. The name of the countries that were
The economic elements during the time 1914-1918 can be defined by the actions taken to gear up for World War I. The war called for some major economic help, but many people feared that with such reliance on major industries big businesses would become more controlling over the nation than ever before. The winter of 1917 didn’t help matters when it came to the railroad system as the industry was hit hard by blizzards, fuel shortages, labor unrest, union strikes, as well as poor coordination of private railroad companies preventing trains from delivering war-related freight (Keene, 607). Because of these issues, the federal government decided to intervene and take the management of the railroad corporation into their own hands until the war ended.
When most people talk about World War I, they typically only talk about the Western front. The Eastern front was entirely different compared to the Western front but equally as ghastly. Nonetheless, the one thing both fronts had in common was the vitality of the German army, which was the only country that fought a two-front war, as it had to fight in the West against the Entrance powers of France and Great Britain and in the East against the Russia. Germany had to bear the brunt of the fighting on both fronts as Austria-Hungry proved incapable of resisting Russian offensives without German support. The support of the Entrance and Central powers’ home fronts were essential to the war efforts and came in multiple forms such as economic assistance or social acceptance. For instance, the West proved to be an effective adversary against the Central Powers as the Entrance Powers’ approach to economic warfare disheartened the Central Powers’ armies and helped undermined their ability to wage total war. Total war demanded total mobilization of all a nation's resources, but what the most important resources were, differed between the two fronts. For example, vast munitions industries had to be built to provide supplies for the stalled armies on the Western front but in the East, providing transportation and the mobility of such transportation was the most significant challenge. While both fronts faced their own unique challenges, overcoming such challenges was key to military
Every power in Europe was fighting to gain power to prove it’s greatness as a nation, and would do so by whatever means necessary. Germany and Russia were particularly ahead of the others, boosting their egos and even influencing their public policy. Europeans wanted bigger, better militaries because they believed that having more power would prove their strength as a country. This belief would prove to be a great mistake and was, of course, was sprouted under the same notion mentioned previously;
Unique systems of finance such as nation state resources, levee en masse, and alliances provided the means to build, strengthen, and maintain military forces for war. Innovation was used to change organizational design and maneuver practices which allowed the command and control of large military forces and successful engagements of the enemy. Discipline allowed forces to understand and study tactics through Bildung and Nationalism among troops allowed forces to move great distance by pillaging for logistic resources without deserting their units.
As the world entered the 20th century, an arms race had begun. By 1914, Germany had the greatest increase in military buildup. Great Britain and Germany both greatly increased their navies in this time period. Further, in Germany and Russia particularly, the military establishment began to have a greater influence on public policy. This increase in militarism helped push the countries involved to war.
Allies bound by treaty, as well as compelled by defensive nature, began to acquire mass weaponry. Once these countries entered the war, they had to keep gaining power; i.e. spending money, and building on to military, thus putting financial burden on their countries for the benefit of their alliance. Britain and Germany especially, began an arms race, acquiring submarines as well as conventional weaponry. Powers were participating in naval warfare. This force of action solidified alliances. Countries chose sides and entered into alliances for personal benefit and gain. They pledged their allegiance to stronger countries in a “gang like” mentality which stressed an ideology of work with me, or be destroyed by me. This describes an effort to create a balance of power. However, the security dilemma was in full effect as everyone accumulated weaponry. It was hard for any nation, especially Germany, to keep tabs on the power that everyone had gained.