The assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was not the cause of WWI, even though it is often seen as if it is. There were a lot of factors and already existing background tensions between countries that in the end resulted in WWI. Five main factors contributing to the beginning of WWI, are militarism, alliances, imperialism, nationalism, and the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. The assassination of Franz Ferdinand was the last straw to WWI, but without the other factors, there would not have been a war in the same way as WWI. The first factor was militarism. Militarism is the glorification of the military and the build-up of armies and materials needed for war. In the years before WWI, this was a very common thing in Europe. …show more content…
The always-increasing paranoia of the nations (for fear of being attacked by a neighboring country) also added to the growing distrust between nations. The military build-up also increased the feeling of competition between the countries and easily led to deathly escalations in the production of materials. Finally, this also easily led to war, since all the countries were over-equipped for their armies, even small-scale fights or disagreements could easily lead to large-scale wars. While militarism certainly wasn’t the cause of WWI, it made it significantly easier to start the world …show more content…
Nationalistic pride led to the race for colonies and the build-up of armies to show that their country was better than the other ones, which led to alliances, to protect the country from other countries with strong armies and many colonies. The last factor and technically the start of WWI was the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Serbia. They were visiting the country on a considerably bad day, since that day was a Serbian nationalist holiday, and there had already been threats against the Austrian royalty. Austria was outraged and demanded compensation, in the form of three demands. The suppression of all anti-Austrian activities, the dismissing of all anti-Austrian officials, and allowing exclusively Austrian officials to investigate the assassination. Serbia agreed with the first two but denied the third one. Austria didn’t like that and then declared war on Serbia. Russia mobilized its army to protect its ally Serbia, to which Germany reacted by declaring war on Russia and their ally: France. France had no other choice but to declare war on Germany and
(25-1c, Spielvogel) Combine these two major factors with the governments thinking that a war would suppress internal strife and you have a the powerful mixture that caused World War
The photo of Europe in World War 1 shows the alliance systems (Document 2.) Because Austria-Hungary had protection from Germany and Italy, they were forced to fight Russia, France, and Great Britain even though those countries had nothing to do with each other. This created the domino effect, as alliance after alliance, the war grew. To conclude, militarism, alliances, and nationalism were the main causes that led to World War 1. Militarism was the increase in the military with the industrial revolution.
Militarism is the belief a society has to maintain the strength of their military as explained in Docs C and D. In Doc C, a chart, shows the expenses each country uses to build up their military and advance their weapons. The chart clearly shows that Germany spent the most amount of money to build a dominant military to defeat. Therefore militarism has clearly formulated a role in World War I. In Doc D, a speech, expresses the thoughts of Bernhard von Bulow, a German Chancellor, and his idea behind building a more powerful military. As a result, Doc D clearly explains the thoughts but was not the main cause of World War
During the years that led up to World War 1, many factors took place that potentially caused the war to occur, especially in the continent of Europe. In the Balkan peninsula, a belief called nationalism caused lots of chaos and tension between the nations (OI). Prideful Balkan countries would battle amongst themselves to prove their dominance as a culture. On top of this, countries formed alliances, creating an intricate alliance system that stretched throughout most of 20th century Europe
The German Government has advised the Serbian Government to afford the maximum cooperation in this matter in which it finds all Europe against Serbia, and the Russian Ambassador to Berlin has also been approached and has given assurances that he will urge his Government to influence Serbia accordingly. [Doc. 4 Lichtenau to Vitzthum 2, July, 1914. ] The actual assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand did not cause the War it simple gave a great excuse to start the war. Germany used it to trick Serbia into declaring war to allow them a chance at war with Russia.
The expansion of armies and militarism was a leading cause of World War 1. Although several forces created tension among the nations of Europe, militarism was the most significant for pushing countries into war. Each country that fought in the war was planning on obtaining better military strength and forces. Militarism would allow countries to develop, and if they were lucky enough, they would acquire more land. Milltirims also united the country as a whole.
In the Great War, many soldiers were losing their lives in the field. The alliance that were in the war, were ultimately fighting for the desire of power. Countries like Germany and Austria-Hungary that were a part of the war wanted to be in control of as much as they could. This caused a lot of tension with the Triple Entente, which was an alliance between France, Great Britain, and Russia. With all them waiting to be the best of the best, Austria-Hungary and Germany had to up their military and have their people ready to fight any war.
The assassination was the spark that set off the domino effect of both alliances. The responsibility of the cause lies on Austria-Hungary because of their clear desire for the war and their lack of trying to prevent it. It shows how conscious Austria-Hungary was of the domino effect that would happen if they acted, but acted anyways. World War I could have been delayed or possibly even prevented without Austria-Hungary’s declaration of
Alliances had been put in place in order to balance power and prevent a world war to ever happen. Alas, the conflict between Austria-Hungary and Serbia was not prevented at all. The conflict was what pushed forward the war and caused countries to call for more alliances. This had gotten more and more nations involved in what started as a small conflict to a war. Countries started declaring war on eachother until it was, what some might call, a bar fight.
Militarism and Alliances were 2 of the causes of WWI. In Document C, the graph shows the growth of militaries leading up to the war, and in the year 1914 there's the highest military enrollment. The alliances between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy convinced Russia, France, and Great Britain to create their own alliance, as shown in Document A. The different countries grew their militaries as their competitors’ militaries grew. They wanted to have the largest military, to seem the most powerful.
Militarization was the most significant cause of World War I because countries were enhancing their militaries in order to increase their power, and it led to new military technologies. Germany and Great Britain were improving their military strength by expanding their army during 1914. “By 1914, Germany had the greatest increase in military buildup. Great Britain and Germany both greatly increased their navies in this time period… the military establishment began to have a greater influence on public policy.” (CAUSES OF WORLD WAR I)
Militarism made nations want to prove their power. Imperialism caused distrust and propaganda. Allies caused nations to fight for dominance. World War I was a big battle and caused nations to spend money and lose millions of people during the
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.
To begin with, I believe the assassination was one of the immediate causes for the World War breaking out in July 1914. Firstly, Bosnia was under control of the Austrian-Hungary Empire. However, the Serbs wanted to be free to live together in their own country and to be completely independent of the Austrian-Hungary Empire.
The Causes of the First World War Carmen 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 think the most significant cause of WW1 was the alliance system.