Causes of WWI Essay

Wars argon large and complicated affairs. The first word state of warfarefare was the product of numerous an(prenominal), many things. Although the war ordainedly began on July 28th, 1914, it had been building up for a while. The low gear of the war was much like a domino affect. It started when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. On July 29, Russia ordered a mobilization only against Austria-Hungary in keep going of Serbia. The Germans threatened war on July 31 if the Russians did non demobilize. France accordingly mobilized. On August 1, Germany declared war on Russia, and dickens age later, on France. The German invasion of Belgium to attack France, which violated Belgiums official neutrality, prompted Britain to declare war on Germany. instauration War I had begun. nationalism, militarism, and imperialism solely prompted the rivalry among nations which guide to WWI.Nationalism, the love and support of ones realm, has always existed. At this time, however, it was so prominent, it helped bring the first world war. Since so much pride was devoted to countries, it make the possibilities of peace between late(prenominal) rivals less probable. People felt great loyalty and were willing to do anything for their country. In history, many wars have been over territorial disputes. A country feels nationalistic, and citizenrys pride leads to people wanting to expand with more(prenominal) land. A country can feel so strongly astir(predicate) this, that they will fight for it. The spark of the world was the assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife. They were shot by a Serbian nationalist beca utilisation of the crisis in the Balkans. The Balkan Peninsula was a mountainous vault of heaven below Austira-Hungary and consisted of many different ethnic groups. Each group was very(prenominal) nationalistic and wanted to ext closure its borders, especially Serbia. Austria-Hungary took over two Balkan Slavic areas. Document 6 describes the tensity in this region at the time. Serbia did not want Austria-Hungary to have Bosnia and Herzegovina. The archduke was shot because the Serbians feared that when he became in bureau he would continue to persecute the Serbs who lived in the Austro-Hungarian borders.The assassination, however, only created more problems. A virulent ultimatum was given to Serbia and when Serbia tried to negotiate that harsh terms, war was declared upon them. Serbias ally, Russia joined right in the war, and soon after many former(a) European countries. Nationalism was in any case a contributing factor to the bond papersystem. A country having more people on its side meant they felt more correctly, and more nationalistic. During World War I there were two alliance systems the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente. The Triple Alliance include Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. The Triple Entente included abundant, Britain, France, and Russia. Later on in the war, the join State s entered the war on the Triple Entente side, and Russia left. Members of the Triple Alliance were also known as the Central Powers.This is because the three countries were grouped together in the center of Europe. On each side of them, they has enemies, which is why this was a two-front war. This is shown on document 2s map. Germanys Schlieffen Plan was a course of study to have a large part of the German army go west to fight France, and then go east to fight Russia. Nationalism is what made Great Britain join the war. Under the Schliefeen Plan, German troops invaded Belgium (a neutral country) because they refused to let the Germans pass through on their way to France. Great Britain was most tied with Belgium so after the Germans attacked Belgium, Great Britain declared war on Germany. Although not the only cause of the large, complex war, Nationalism was the cause of many of the other causes. In many ways Nationalism can be a positive thing. It can improve economy by change m agnitude competitor and devotion and hold a country more prosperous. Theses feelings created by nationalism can go to far. Nationalism can also cause rivalry, feelings of superiority, and competition can lead to aggressiveness which leads to wars.Around 9 one million million million people died in World War One. Tension between countries led to a arms race in Europe. Countries were over nationalistic and felt that having a large army made them more powerful. Glorifying military power and having an strong army is known as militarism. When a country has a strong army who is ready to fight, they are more likely to use war as a way of getting what they want. The main countries who participated in WWI all had significant increases in the amount of money they spent on instruments. Germany change magnitude its per capitata expenditures on armaments from $1.28 in 1870, to $8.19 in 1914 (document 1). Propaganda, a way of persuading people to think one way, was used to keep up morale and support for the war. Posters like the one shown in document 5 was used to grave soldiers for battle. People felt patriotic when they went to fight in the war. Countries competed tohave the largest militaries, and the high hat weapons. Militarism at this time led to the creation of many new weapons. Fritz Harber invented a method of using nitrogen from the air. It was used to create one of the crush weapons of the time, poison gas.The machine gun was also a new weapon of the time. It fired ammunition automatically and was extremely deadly because it was quick and easy. some other weapons of war included the tank, the airplane and the submarine. Submarines were used in unrestricted state of war and fired torpedoes. Militarism is why the war was so deadly. It caused rivalry between nations. Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany envied Britain for having such a strong naval forces so he increased the German navy and built many warships. Britain responded by increasing its navy and buildin g more warships too. Things like this started the arms race and created even more competition between countries and alliances. Leaders looked at militarism and saw war as the only way to solve problems, which is not true at all. some other factor which contributed to the increase in rivalry in Europe was imperialism. Great Britain, Germany and France needed foreign markets after the increase in manufacturing caused by the industrial Revolution. These countries competed for economic expansion in Africa. Africa between 1880 and 1914 was split up between Britain, France, Germany, Italy and several other nations (document 4). Long before the war there was competition between these countries for resources, land, and markets. Each country wanted to be the most powerful and felt that they could do this by obtaining as much land and wealthiness as possible.Many forms of imperialism were used to do this with. Germany and France disputed over who would go steady Morocco a couple times, so t he mistrust between these countries was already at a high level. Before the war, grudges had already been formed. Document 8 describes the tension and the trouble spots prior the WWI. The reason why the became and world war so quickly was because of all the factors that were already in place. Mainly rivalry, which imperialism contributed to greatly.World War One was ended with the Treaty of Versailles. The treaty was intended to make peace between the countries. The treaty was unfair and created with revenge in mind. It made Germany pay $33 billion in reparations and forced them to accept war guilt. Adolph Hitler himself was a product ofthe First World War. In many ways, the end of World War I was the cause of World War II.