World War I: Impactful Reasons For European Imperialism

World War I, also known as the first World War, or the Great War, was a global war originating in Europe the began on the 28th of July 1914 and lasted until the 11th of November 1918. World War I was a war that was fought between two sides with a few of the World’s greatest Nations of that time. The two sides were Triple Entente which included Britain, France, and Russia, and the Triple Alliance which was consisted of the countries Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. World War I left a mark on history as we know it, what could have possibly led to that war?, What were the underlying causes of World War I?. The major causes of “The Great War” or WWI consist of four long-term causes and one short-term cause. The common acronym that’s used for the four long-term causes to help students remember the causes of WWI is M.A.I.N; the acronym stands for Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, and Nationalism,and the short-term cause The Assassination of the ArchDuke Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo on the 28th of June 1914. To put all of this in a simpler way the five major causes of WWI was Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, Nationalism, and the assassination of the ArchDuke Franz Ferdinand. Each of topics played a significant role in the reasons why WWI would begin.

In total, Europe had about 3.43 million men at their disposal. This number represents how militarism was the main cause of World War One. In the early 1900s, there was tension between many of the large European powers, and many of those countries started to build up their armies and navies. They also started to mass produce new weapons that could cause even more damage. World War One had many causes, but the main reason the war started was militarism because of the large increase of standing armies, navies, and weapons.

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

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.

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,

During World War One, the United States encountered many challenges, affecting America and Foreign Nations and their respective populations. Imperialism, economic expansion and industrialization impacted the United States’ experience during World War One. Americans were forced to recognize their strengths and weaknesses internally and externally.

Nationalism is a sense of pride one has towards their nation's achievements and the belief that the nation should be able to control the government, and each facet of manufacturing. After Napoleon’s exile to Elba, the Congress of Vienna tried to resolve the issues in Europe. Delegates from Austria, Britain, Prussia and Russia wanted a new Europe that left Germany and Italy as separate states. Strong nationalist groups led to the reuniting of Italy in 1861 and Germany in 1871. The resolution at the end of the Franco-Prussian war left France irritated at the loss of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany. France was destined to recover this lost territory. Large areas of both Austria-Hungary and Serbia were home to opposing nationalist groups, but all had the same vision to have freedom from the states in which they lived. (Crocker, 2017).

Nationalism wasn’t the only cause of world war one so were Imperialism, Alliances, Militarism, and Assassination. Alliances were a major part of the war , it was basically their back up plan you can say. If they needed something their alliances were their to provide them with money, weapons, etc. The not so good part about this is that if one country is in a war they can easily get sunked into the war as well. Militarism created arms race it was created do to the modernization of armies. It wasn’t necessarily the cause of world war one it was more of a combination of things. It also had to do with imperialism. The counties involved wanted land that wasn’t in their borders. It is a problem but it didn’t really set it all off as well as nationalism

Between the period of 1870 and 1914, European powers was at an all-time high. The European powers shifted from being land-based empires to sea-based empires. Land-based empires were typically short-lived, unstable and had limited power. While the new transition of sea-based empires according to class notes, shaped the modern world’s network of long-distance trade. European powers switching to sea-based empires caused major growth, such as global trade and the “New Imperialism”. Coming from this new entry was the Industrial Revolution, which according to John Hobson’s, “Imperialism caused mass production, development of communication and transportation, economic surplus and global trade”. This was the start of major imperial growth between European Powers. European powers started to realize that they had the power to expand their empire globally and take over undeveloped markets. In the 19th century before the war, nationalism and imperialism was extremely important to European Powers. European Powers realized they had the power to go from imperialism to direct colonialism, where they could gain control over other territories.

There are four different causes that added onto the creation of the World War 1 over time. The main cause was the assassination of Austria-Hungary Archduke Franz Ferdinand in the year of 1914. Along with the Militarism, Nationalism, Alliances, and Imperialism.

As previously mentioned, America was morally justified in joining the war. However, the factors of America’s economic and political justification must be included as well. America could have prevented the sinking of their ships. How? By listening to the Germans and their warnings. According to William Jennings Bryan, the Germans warned America not to travel on British ships, nevertheless, America neglected their warning. As a result of America’s indiscretion, the British vessel was sunk; along with it was with was the cargo and the lives of many. While America claimed to stand for the vindication of human rights, William Jennings questioned why they weren’t objecting to Great Britain starving a nation. Politically, America was not justified

World War I happened in 1914-1918. It was a big destruction. Hundreds of thousands died in single battle, while thirty million died as a result of the war. Progressives believed that new ideas and honest, efficient government could bring about social justice. Many progressives were from all political parties, social classes, ethnic group, and religion. Imperialism is a policy which strong nations extend their political, military, and economic control over weaker territories. The growing trend to emphasize science and secular values over traditional ideas about religion became known as modernism. Following European success, Japan and the United States also began to consider the benefits of imperialism, the policy where strong nations extend

“Nineteenth century liberals believed that if European states were organized along national lines, these states would work together and create a peaceful Europe. They were wrong.” (Textbook WWI) In 1914, European leaders thought a balance of powers would be a good chance for the European countries, so no one country could overpower another. Germany was not ok with that change, and formed a alliance with Italy and Austria-Hungry, this alliance was called the Triple Alliance. In response, Russia, Great Britain, and France formed what was called the Triple Entente. A Serbian group called the Black Hand also was important during this time. They assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, and soon after the war started. In 1914, imperialism is one of the main underlying causes of WWI because of the Triple Alliance/ Triple Entente, strengthening military forces, and the population of the countries.

Europe at the time was looking for a source of income and resources so the looked no farther than their neighboring continent Africa. According to Document E “Great britain and south Saharan africa Imports and Exports, 1854 and 1900” during 1854 Britain was importing almost double of what they were exporting from Africa but during 1900 Britain was exporting almost double of their imports. The imperialistic changes allowed for Britain to change their colony Africa from a dependent source of material and trade to a dependent source of

World War 1 (better known as The Great War), was caused by a great many elements, some long-term, some short-term and the spark. Together these reasons created a brutal war involving many countries across the globe and also killing a vast number of the world’s population. In this essay, I will thoroughly explain what started this war and which reasons made it start sooner.