Some countries such as Russia and Austria-Hungary didn’t greatly increase expidentures until around 1910, but this still evidences growing aggression before the war. The average of these country’s expidentures in 1870 was $1.91, and in 1910 this had increased to an average of $3.99. Instead of doing so in a way that made allies feel safer, it seemed this new technology could be used against anyone; “the imperialism of all European states has chronically poisons international relations” (document 5). Counrtries prioritized advancing their own military far over helping allies, and thusly allies became aggresive. Eventually, “a European war broke out. Why? Because in each country [of Europe] political and military leaders did certain things that led to the mobilization [of troops].” Leaders wanted the best military in Europe, even the world, which meant they tried to beat friends and enemies alike. This made for the means for Europe to break into a world-scale
Militarism, the glorification of the military, affected most of Europe at the turn of the twentieth century as demonstrated by Documents 1 and 7. Military spending in three of the major powers in Europe, Great Britain, France, and Germany, more than doubled per capita from 1870 to 1914, according to Document 1. Great Britian and Germany in particular were involved in an arms race with each other. Germany attempted to build a navy to rival Great Britian’s, whose navy was considered the best in the world at the time, and Great Britian responded by improving on their own navy. In the rest of Europe, countries were building up their stores of weapons, including rifles, bombs, and artillery, causing international
In July 28, 1914 to November 11,1918 World War 1 took place where over 17 million lives were lost and over 20 million wounded soldiers. This war was between Britain, France, Russia, Italy and the United States against Germany, and Austria-Hungary. The main cause of World War 1 was militarism where many European countries kept increasing their size of their army and navy without a war going on.
Militarism is the belief of keeping a strong military. Each nation would spend millions on weapons and keeping their military strong. Document C ‘‘Growth in Armaments, 1890-1914’’, states that nations including Great Britain, Austria-Hungary and many more spent millions on developing their armies, Great Britain being the nation that spent the most. Militarism helped
It’s 1939, Hitler has risen to power wreaking havoc on other countries. This is the start of what is known as WWII. Taking a few steps back is WWI. It all started in 1914 and ended in 1918, this is commonly referred to as the “Great War”. This war dealt with the Triple Alliance, the Triple Entente, the Central Powers, and the Allies. After this war ended on November 11, 1918, leaders from the countries made a treaty called the Treaty of Versailles. After this treaty was made, many things happened and the question in many people 's minds was how did this treaty cause WWII? The Treaty of Versailles helped cause WWII by treating Germany harshly in these three ways: Their army was reduced, they lost territory, and the number one reason is all of the blame Germany got.
An alliance is an agreement when two or more countries support each other. These two alliances were a significant cause of tension that led to the outburst of the war. Firstly, them being involved in the Moroccan Crisis in 1905 and 1911. When France wanted to make Morocco one of its colonies, Britain, which is an ally, supported France’s decision. On the other hand, Germany wanted to contradict the move, being an opponent against the Triple Entente, making a speech saying that Germany supported independent Morocco. France refused to withdraw their decision, yet it agreed to Germany’s Kaiser’s request for an international conference to discuss further actions. This was extremely rough on Germany since only Austria-Hungary, which is an ally, supported the Kaiser’s interpretations. Furthermore, Britain and Russia supported France, adding to the fact that Britain and France began secret military talks after the conference to strengthen their relationship. Britain, once more, supported France when the Kaiser of Germany accused France of taking over Morocco, and started to prepare for war. These preparations also came out of Britain being uncomfortable of the fact that Germany is expanding its navy. Secondly, when Serbia doubled its size, Russia
Militarism is the policy in which a country glorifies its military power by having an army prepared at any time. This militarism also came from nationalism, or extreme patriotism, within countries. According to document C, a graph adapted from The London Times History of The World, shows the amount of money (pounds) that went towards the production of armaments from 1890 to the start of the war (1914). It also shows how the armaments increase among the navy and army within certain countries that were involved in the start of the war. Every country was recorded to have an increase in currency that fueled the production of weaponry. According to the document, by 1914, the Entente Powers (France, Great Britain, and Africa) had 2.23 million men ready to fight while Germany and Austria-Hungary had 1.2 million men; a tremendous amount of soldiers. According to document D, a speech from a German Chancellor, explained that Germany would be in shambles if they did not take military action in the war. “...to battle its way through in the struggle for existence without strong armaments on land at sea, have not yet been found,” (Document D). The German Chancellor is saying that without a strong military, Germany will go down. Chancellor describes Germany as the Hammer or the Anvil. This means Germany either build up their military like a hammer or become a sitting anvil, waiting to
Nationalism was the main cause of World War One. The direct result of it led to the militarization of Europe’s countries, nationalistic feelings in Yugoslavia, and the alliances formed before the war. Despite the common idea that the first world war started because of Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination, it was only a reason for Austria-Hungary to declare war. Nationalism was the driving factor to his assassination, and would not have happened without it.
Alliances are formed for different reasons such as the need for financial or military support, trade agreements, investments or loans. Alliances became strong in the early 1800s when european nations either wanted to support French dictator Napoleon Bonaparte or they wanted to defeat him. Alliances weakened in the mid 1800s, but strengthened again in the late 1800s. The Triple Alliance of 1882 was an alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy, fueled by anti- French and anti-Russian feelings.The Triple Entente of 1907 was a three way agreement between Britain, France, and Russia. Most alliances were signed in private and not all details were told to the public. The secretive nature caused other countries to be suspicious. As the large nations banded together in many different alliances for different reasons, they built relationships and gained resources needed to go to war. Alliances were a major reason the war became bigger. If there hadn’t been alliances, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand would have only cause a war between Serbia and Austria-Hungary. Because of alliances, Russia came to aid Serbia and that led Germany to declare war on Russia. Eventually the other countries with alliances joined
It involved all the world's great powers. which were assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies (centered around the Triple entene of Britain, France and Russia) and the Central Powers (originally centered around the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria Hungary and Italy).] More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilized in one of the largest wars in history. More than 9 million combatants were killed, largely because of great technological advances in firepower without corresponding advances in mobility. It was the sixth deadliest conflict in world history, subsequently paving the way for various political changes such as revolutions in the nations
Prior World War I Europe had a long term of peace with in the countries. Lots of imperialism was happening at the time. Most of the European countries had colonies around the world. Although most of the countries were threatened by each other due to the amount of colonies each country had. In attempts to show their superiority over its surrounding countries Germany decided to build up their army, causing the surrounding counties to mimic Germany's actions The European countries where frighten by each other leading to the creation of alliances more specifically the Triple Alliance consisting of Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary and the Triple Entente containing Russia, France, and Great Britain. Once the Assassination of Sarajevo had passed, the war started causing the alliances to rename themselves and add to their alliances. Russia, France, and Great Britain became the Allied Powers during the war, the United States joined the Allied Powers later in the war. While Germany, Italy, and the Ottoman Empire became the Central Powers. The main reason of the cause of this war are the amount of militarism and
Alliance systems contributed to the underlying cause of World war l because different countries had different alliances with different countries. For example, Austria-Hungary had an alliance with Germany, although, Germany could have had other alliances with different countries, without Austria-Hungary knowing.
There were quite a few causes of the first world war (WW1). The long-term causes were the militarism, alliance system, imperialism and nationalism- MAIN. The short-term cause was the fact that Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia for killing Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife. I personally think the most significant cause to WW1 is the alliance system and here, I will justify why I think like this.
I seek to explain the onset of World War I, World War II Europe, and World War II Pacific by using a systemic level of analysis, particularly dynamic differentials theory. Dynamic Differentials Theory states that war is likely when a dominant power is facing deep and inevitable decline. These dominant powers are more likely to wage war against another power because they suspect their own power is fleeting and want to prevent their decline by any means necessary. This theory also states that war is only likely in a multipolar system when the declining state has substantially more military power than the others, and will only declare war when the declining power believes its military strength has reached its peak.