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Nationalism: The True Cause Of World War I

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The true cause of WWI is still, to this day, commonly fought and argued over. Even it having been over 100 years since the war ended, a common ground still cannot be found. While there are many theories and ideas presented as to the true cause of the war, one element stays as a constant involvement with nearly each and every one of these arguments; nationalism. In my opinion, nationalism is without a doubt the prime cause of World War One. Before the outbreak of world war was even a thought in anyones mind, Imperialism was a widely common action throughout all of Europe. Africa was a newly discovered continent, and all of Europe wanted a piece of the new found land. In fact, the division of Imperialistic powers within Africa became such a problem that European officials held a meeting known as the Berlin Conference, a discussion the equal separation of Africa among the various powers in Europe, so as to avoid war. The larger the power, the more land they received. This, however, this created much strife among Europeans, as the powers with more lands seen themselves as better and more efficient than every other power below them. With every country in Europe being fueled by nationalism, constant fights about which nation was the greatest created non-stop conflict among European powers. …show more content…

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;

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