Were Nationalistic Beliefs Ultimately Responsible for the Outbreak of the First World War

Another debated cause is imperialism, which is the policy of extending a nation's authority by territorial acquisition or by the establishment of economic and political hegemony over other nations. This contributed to WWI because of the rivalry it caused in Europe between Great Britain, Germany, and France. They needed foreign markets after the increase in manufacturing caused by the Industrial Revolution. Great Britain, Germany, and France competed for economic expansion in Africa. Even though Great Britain and France came to an agreement several problems before the war had to do with the dislike of Germany against Great Britain and France in North Africa. Also the crumbling of the Ottoman-Empire in the Middle East was a big factor for Austria-Hungary, the Balkans and Russia. So the competition for colonies brought great powers into conflict and fueled the ideas of war and added to the present tension that already existed, and that tension keeps on building up.

Nationalist was a root cause to World War 1. Nationalism played a role in the direct cause of WW1. A group of six assassins had enough nationalism to kill the archduke and start one of the biggest war in world history. If it wasn't for Nationalism then WW1 would've never taken place. This is so because if no one wanted to take place in a war things would've turned out a lot different and we wouldn't be the same today. Nationalism is so

Imperialism was one of the four contributing factors to the cause of World War One, along with secret alliances, militarism, and nationalism.  It is the most important cause of WW1, because it created a build-up of tension in Europe and outside of Europe, and through imperialism, the three other causes were able to affect the beginnings of the war. Imperialism is defined as the governing of one people by another country, which was a recurring dilemma prior to WW1 due to the industrialist movement. Although not all events that fall into the imperialistic category were about controlling another country, they contributed to the war, and imperialistic events were the foundation of the cause of WW1.

From 1890 to 1914, there was a drastic increase in the amount of money nations began to spend on their navy and army advancements. In fact, as the war began to approach, Germany raised the amount they spent towards armaments from 30 million to 120 million pounds and the Triple Entente raised their total money spent to 225 million pounds in 1914 (Document C). The presence of more armaments created an environment ready for war. Their existence meant that the countries are more likely to use them, which only discouraged time to cool off. Additionally, as one country built up their armies more, the others felt they had to do the same which increased tensions. Britain who increased its colonial empire to the largest in the world since the Romans’, caused an arms race where the nations were competing only to have more armaments than the others. Being an island, they began spending more money on their navy, needing to defend its waters. On the opposing side, Germany did not want to get their own feet tramped by any foreign power, fearing to become the anvil rather than the hammer. Bernhard von Bülow, the German Chancellor, said the only way to “keep ourselves at the fore if we realize that there is no welfare for us without power, without a strong army and a strong fleet” (Document D). Using the idea of survival of the fittest, individual countries became stronger in the fear of being destroyed by the aggressors. Clearly, having arms was a

Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, and Nationalism played a huge part in the led up to World War 1. With the threat of war hanging over the heads of many countries, the Arms Race began. Germany, France, and Russia started to recruit a large portion of their male population. This gave the men a taste of war and the military experience. The Arms Race caused every European state have access to a huge army, but these armies ere ruining their economics. The citizens knew that they needed to rid of themselves of these armies before they went into economic ruin, but before this could happen they were propelled into war. Germany created a large, modern navy that threatened Britain. At the time of this threat, Germany was trying to secure Britain

Imperialism being one of the underlying causes for world war 1 was one of the ways that made it world wide. Imperialism highlighted the benefits the alliances got from their own colonies when it came to the amount

While many factors led to the first world war, militarism contributed the most, because of the arms race of 1890 and the mobilization of the European countries. First of all, the arms race of 1890 allowed France, Britain, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia to stockpile on weapons. One example of the arms race is Britain’s response to Germany’s Second Naval Law. “The next year, in an attempt to compensate for its small empire, Germany enacted the Second Naval Law, intending to build a navy capable of challenging the British Royal Navy in combat. The British responded.” (Doc. D) Because Britain had a powerful naval army, Germany had to strengthen their navy to match them since they were enemies, however, Britain responded by continuing to maintain their strength over Germany. This

Moreover, Imperialism required weapons to maintain the control. All European expedentures from 1908 to 1913 had a competition of nations, and lead to rival nations forming alliances to better be equipped for defense with better military. When more weapons were created it had caused tensions to rise. In 1911 France tried to take over Morocco, Britain feared that Kaiser wanted to set up a naval base in Agadir. Later on, a conference was held and the British and French pointed their fingers at Germany. France took control of Morocco and Germany. This lead directly to Militarism. Militarism had not only done that but, it also made it increasingly hard to upkeep with all the changes going on. Not surprisingly, it was a significant cause of World War one because Kaiser was humiliated and could have felt determined to fight Britain and France earlier as an act of Revenge. Also, it would require militarism to defeat

There were many causes that contributed to World War I like: Imperialism, Militarism, and Alliances. Europeans thought they could make the world their oyster and take over any areas they pleased. Most countries did not appreciate their land being taken from them. For example, Serbia wanted independence from their mother country Austria-Hungary, so a nationalist group called the Black Hand, decided to assassinate the Archduke. If Serbia didn’t assassinate the Archduke of Austria-Hungary the war probably wouldn't have happened at all. Europe’s imperialism is what caused the Great War that went for four long years from 1914 to 1918 and had over 30,000,000 million casualties. The main cause of World War I was Imperialism which caused Alliances and

Imperialism also played a role as a cause for WW1. In the late 1800s, less and less land that could be colonized existed. This sparked a scramble for the land left in Africa. Britain and France had the largest empires, with Britain having a presence on 5 continents and France present in 4. Germany was not very quick to acquire colonies, and only had small holdings in Africa. This angered the British and French, and so increased nationalism and hostility towards Germany. Territory and imperialism can be considered a reason for World War 1.

Some of the causes of world war one are imperialism, militarism, nationalism, and alliances. Imperialism is when one country rules over another through establishment of colonies. Imperialism resulted from Industrialization, which was needed for raw goods and markets for manufactured goods. The countries fought with each other over colonies. Militarism was used for building a strong military and in order for that country to have its interests dominate the government. In the past, war was seen as something that was acceptable to solve conflicts and enhance a country. Some examples of imperialism include: naval arms race between Great Britain and Germany. Nationalism is a strong feeling of loyalty and protection of culture and need of ethnic group to have a country that is their own. Alliances are countries that form cooperative groups in order to protect everyone’s interests. However, the most significant cause of world war one was industrialization, which had fueled imperialism, and Nationalism. Together they both caused three factors that led to war: German unification, territorial rivalries, and economic competition.

The United States wasn’t jumping to get involved it WWI. They wanted to remain neutral for the duration of the war. However those plans did not last because we entered the war in 1917. There were many reasons the war started in general and that U.S. entered the war. There were many things that resulted from the war.

Even before WW1 began, years of tension had built up a rivalry between the great powers of Europe, triggered by alliances, power plays, weapons races and security. Furthermore, the Balkans was a power-vacuum, formally under the control of a fast-deteriorating Ottoman Empire. Imperialist expansionism on the part of Austria-Hungary and the German Reich was also giving rise to tensions. The increased efforts of Germany to have a colonial empire in Africa was another factor that led to WW1. During the 19th century, Britain, France and Germany had been in competition with each other, trying to build colonies in the Americas, Africa and Asia. Russia, Japan and the United States were doing the same in the Asian

Before World War 1 began there were many conflicts between many countries, these conflicts are what eventually led to the war. Nationalism lead to World War 1 for reasons people believed they needed to fight for their country, many people who weren’t fighting wanted to support their soldiers, and many soldiers felt as if they couldn’t back out of the war. Militarism was a cause because each country was building up their weapons and ammunition, as well as building up their armies. Finally Kaiser Wilhelm II was a cause because he had a very strong hate towards Britain, he was a very aggressive leader and he wanted Germany to be the number one country. Nationalism, militarism and Kaiser Wilhelm II were the three main causes of World War 1.

Britain initially stood as the “greatest” power of them all, with a population of 37 million by