The Causes of the First World War

Decisions for War, 1914-1917 by Richard Hamilton and Holger Herwig investigates the origins of the First World War detailing individual country’s reasons for entering the war. Historians at War by Anthony Adamthwaite explores how scholars have understood the origins of the Second World War throughout varying times and differing national view points. Both works share a common theme of determinism; a retrospective notion placed on historical events by historians that Europe was inescapably predestined to go to war and that nothing nor anyone could inhibit that. Both remark that this popular approach does a disservice into the explanation of war as it does not accurately depict the economic and social agency present in Europe at the time. In

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

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,

Promptly after the First World War had ended there were many debates about who or what caused the war. Historians such as Fritz Fischer argued that Germany was the to blame for the entirety of the war but there have been many more ideas of what was the cause of the war and therefore causing peace to fail. The main ideas amongst historians for the underlying causes of the war are the different balance in power due the formation of alliances, imperialism, militarism and also the July Crisis of 1914. This essay will argue that the alliances were the main cause of peace failing as with the constant conflict of interests and increasing tension it made it almost impossible to create peace in Europe in 1914.

Being one of history’s major wars, World War One, formerly known as “The Great War”, provokes the controversial question that leaves historians debating: Was World War One avoidable? With prior tensions, naivety to war, and rivalry for pursuit of power, the conditions present in Europe, in 1914, were all the makings of an inevitable war–World War One. To begin with,

The Great powers in Europe, during the period of the late 19th century can be seen to have stumbled from one crisis to the next, leading many to believe that a conflict within Europe of some kind or another would occur. However when conflict arose, it is argued by some historians such as Gilbert and Large, ‘that nothing could have been predicted at such a colossal scale, duration and devastation at which it was that would lead to both political and cultural change’ . The First World War unlike the second, can be argued as being orchestrated by not a single party or regime, but through a complicated series of events which played part in tipping the fragile balance of European powers. The assassination of Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austrian throne, can be seen as the catalyst which sparked the July crisis leading the main European powers and then later the world into war. Within this essay I will evaluate the key reasons which were ignited by this spark by looking through the short, medium and long term causes.

The First World War started from a minor conflict. However, poor decisions and lack of logical thinking by various belligerents, especially Germans, caused the minor conflict to become ‘The Great War’. Although, the German contribution to intensify the war was greater, all other belligerents who were influenced by the Germans in making decisions during the war were inclined to mistakes, leading to the disastrous outcome of the war.

The assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary marks the birth of the conflict we now call World War I, and (arguably) sparked the war into it its fiery beginnings. However, to say the killing was a “spark” implies that the makings for “a fire” were already present, and upon examination of the offered documents this becomes true in multiple aspects. In fact, the given sources reflect that the existing tensions in pre-war Europe, combined with what amounted to anticipation of the conflict, all resulted in a kind of warfare unseen and unexpected by pre-war Europe, which thusly ended in what history sometimes calls one of the most imperfect treaties of recent time, and a general failure. As such, determining the causes of the Great War become evident only as all three aspects of the conditions of wartime Europe are reviewed, giving each equal credit.

In recent years this post-Fischer consensus has in turn been revised. Historians have returned to the arguments of the interwar years, focusing for example on Russia’s and France’s role in the outbreak of war,[4] or asking if Britain’s government really did all it could to try and avert war in 1914. Germany’s and Austria-Hungary’s roles are deemphasised, and it is stressed that there were decision-makers in all the major capital cities who considered a general European war in August 1914 to be a risk worth taking. After 100 years of debate, every conceivable interpretation seems to have been advanced. In some of the most recent publications, even seeking to attribute responsibility, as had so confidently been done at Versailles, is now eschewed.[5]

Many authors have laid emphasis on the fact that Hitler was the only one responsible for the outbreak of war. However as A.J.P. Taylor said in his account on the origins world war II that the outbreak of ‘was “implicit” since the moment when the first war ended, because of the failure of that war either to satisfy German ambitions or to crush them completely’ (Henig, 1991). In this paper we will discover how events in the aftermath of World War I led to the outbreak of the Second World War.

The Pity of War: Explaining World War I, published in 1999, generated much controversy since the central argument of the book is that it would have been more beneficial for Europe if Britain had stayed out of the First World War in 1914, thereby allowing Germany to win. In one of my interviews with The Guardian newspaper, I state that Britain entering first World war was the biggest error in modern history. I am not overestimating my claim and here is why.

The origins of the Second World War have been a contentious issue ever since the conflict ended in 1945. It is a topic which continues to provoke furious debate more than sixty years later. It was unquestionably Hitler’s war and was directly brought about by his actions in the 1930’s. However opinion is divided as to whether his actions were meticulously planned or was he simply an opportunist who pragmatically took each step as they arose naturally. Marshal Foch described the Treaty of Versailles “as a 20-year armistice, rather than an enduring peace” (www.timeshighereducation.co.uk). I will examine the events between the wars to determine if these events were preordained or if the horrors

In this essay, there will be many topics covered. These topics are: the cause(s) of WWI, the “opening moves” of WWI, the war at sea, the war in the air, the “endgame” of WWI, and the results of the war, any terms will be defined in the footer of every page. The factors that contributed to the outbreak of WWI are; the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, Austria’s declare of war against Serbia, which resulted in Germany’s declare of war against Russia and France, which in turn resulted with Britain’s declare of war against Germany.

World war 1, also known as the Great War, was one of the most devastating wars in history. The War Occurred Mostly Europe and took four long years, it started from 1914 and ended in 1918. During the First world war, there were great amount casualties. In the war, 17 million people died and 20 million wounded. This war has been a tragedy for many people in Europe because they have never witnessed was a war like this before. People believe that the main cause of World war 1 was the assassination of the heir of Austria-Hungary Arch-Duke Franz Ferdinand. However, I believe there is more than that in the background of the war. There were many other contributions that led to the outbreak of the First World War. One of the many causes of the war is

The events that result to or lead to the outbreak of a war form part of history that is highly analyzed and discussed over historical times for number of significant reasons. These reasons include giving answers to questions and shedding knowledge upon some particular patterns that may exist in war circumstances and giving an understanding on how and why they occur. For instance, the First World War was preceded by a number of events globally. The cause of war was introduced by many major factors which include the rise of imperialism and the growth of nationalism, increased militarism with the formation of mutual defense alliances and the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo.