World War I Essay

There are five major causes to World War I, militarism, alliances, nationalism, imperialism, and the spark that ignited the war; the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. The European powers did not make any active effort for more internationalist/cooperative policy that would have been the antithesis for the growing causes of World War I. It would only be after World War II and to some extent the European Union that would encourage Europeans to work together instead of turning the continent into a wasteland every few decades.
Firstly, I would argue nationalism is the starting point for World War I. During the Industrial revolution, nationalism became an important driving force in European countries to industrialize and make technological progress. The common citizen wanted their country to have the most powerful military and economy. They viewed the Industrial Revolution as a war that can be lost. For

It was a sense of duty to most people at the time that their country had to have the best military. The Europeans viewed going to war as the first option when there is a territorial dispute. For a country to ensure it had the best military, it needed massive amounts of resources. To accommodate this, the European powers carved up Africa and Asia into colonies, protectorates and spheres of influence.
In due time, it was clear that no single European country could single-handedly hold supremacy over Europe or the world. To adjust to this reality, Europe began building a system of alliances. The Germans made an alliance with both Italy and Austria-Hungary. The French, British and Russians made a coalition to counter the German alliance system. The alliance system was a stabilizer in the sense it granted a balance of power in Europe. But, it also meant that it wouldn’t require much effort to get all the major European power to go to war with each