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World War 1 Dbq Essay

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The most anticipated war in history, World War One, started off with the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Franz Ferdinand. As a result, Austria-Hungary gave the killer’s country, Serbia, an opportunity to take ownership and apologize to A/H’s government. Without a response from Serbia, A/H declares war, launching the July Crisis- one of many of Europe’s fighting frenzies. Countries were declaring war on each other, gathering secret alliances, and building their armies. The Crisis continuously built its longevity until declared as a Great War, a nickname for World War One. Knowing which event pushed the world to arm themselves, historians had asked what the underlying causes for the war were. Causes for the war were alliances, imperialism, nationalism, and most destructive, militarism. The first cause of war was alliances; though not the strongest motive, it provoked a large amount of tension leading up to the war. There were two “sides” to warfare- the Triple Entente, and the Triple Alliance- commonly known as the Allied and Central powers. As seen in Document 3, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and temporarily Italy, made up the Central powers while the Allied powers were …show more content…

Nationalism in the Triple Entente was present in Russia and Britain’s national anthems, (Document 5) where both exuberate national pride. The difference in that nationalism and Germany’s are the undertones of violence. Even before the war, Germany’s cockiness was commonly known as their most prominent deadly sin. The German Chancellor gave a speech in 1899 (Document 8.)- “...without a strong army and a strong navy, there can be no welfare for us.” “...the German nation will be either the hammer or the anvil.” He persuades Germany to expand their land and defenses, for they could change the world with their pride alone. The country had changed the world, debatably being crowned “at fault” for starting the

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