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Wars And Conflicts Among States Were One Of The Main Designers

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Wars and conflicts among states were one of the main designers of International Relations and the international system in general. War is something that’s unavoidable and eventually happens. World War One (WWI) was a time of struggle for Europe. Many factors lead to tensions within Europe -- sparking the need for war. The war occurred between 1914 until 1918 and was mainly fought between the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary) and the Allied Powered (Great Britain, France, and Russia). Eventually, countries such as the US joined in. Before WWI, these tensions brewing in Europe were for competing for land and power; it was a matter of time before war broke out. There are perspectives that examine the origin and the explanation to …show more content…

This brings back to pre-WWI, 1914 was the expansion of European power between the “two ambitious empires -- Germany & Russia -- forging alliances with established and weakening powers creating two major alliances”: Germany and Austro-Hungary, and Russia, France, and Great Britain. Ultimately, what started the war was Germany and their concerns about Russia’s expansion. The Russian Empire was building a railroad going into Europe; the German Empire figured that the Russian will eventually “cross the outer edge of the Russian Empire and sections of Romania and Poland”. What worried the Germans was the sections will be “in striking distance of Germany”. Therefore, they decided that they needed to form an attack, but they can’t have Russia directly. Germany wanted to find a way to draw Russia out, so they decided to attack France. Since France is Russia’s allies, if the Germans invade France that means Russia will come marching over to come help France, which will give a chance to strike them. Austro-Hungary joined the war with Germany after an assassination of a next-in-line king which “allowed Germany to come to the defense of its ally, attacking France as well”. This prompt a reaction from Russia which therefore war was started. Britain joined the war as well -- allying with Russia, which Germany didn’t expect. They thought

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