Causes of WWI
World War I started due to a culmination of several long and short term factors involving aspects of nationalism, imperialism, militarism, alliance systems, and physical conflicts occurring over a forty year period. The industrial revolution brought around a radically different Europe than there had ever been before and it made nations compete and be wary of each other politically, economically, and militarily. This tension among the leadership of the European nations was supported by the rising nationalism within each nation. Economic and imperial competition and fear of war brought the nations into alliances and an increase in arms manufacturing. Nationalism was very strong within the European nations because of their strong sense of brotherhood and ethnic culture. Nationalism is what led to the unification of Germany in 1871 after a series of wars commanded by the Prussian leader Bismark. Along this path towards German unification was the Franco-Prussian war ending in a French defeat. The war's end left the French bitter after the loss of their Alsace-Lorraine. This was the first of many clashes between Germany and France which strengthen their hatred of one another. Nationalism brought a problem for German ally, A
Militarism was the next factor to lead to the Great War, where it brought competition of arms between the great powers of Europe. Britain had the largest navy in the world, highly envied by the German Kaiser William II. The Kaiser began increasing his navy trying to match the British fleet. However, this led to a British increase of naval warships to counter Germany. Britain was the commander of the seas, but Germany had the largest army in Europe. Their army of ever growing numbers with trained soldiers living under the conscription laws of mandatory armed service. France knew the size of Germany's army and began to enforce similar conscription laws to increase its land force to match Germany's. This constant raise of populations of armed nations placed Europe in a position of inevitable war, for the armies built did not stand alone because of the alliance system. ustria-Hungry in the Balkans, an area populated by many conflicting cultural groups. The strong belief in Panslavism by Serbia and Russia's willingness to support their Slavic brothers was not liked by the Pangermanism of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Such a hatred of Austrian rule in the Balkns led to the creation of many anti-Austrian militant groups in the area, the most popular being the Black Hand. The Black Hand reached high levels with the Serbian government, and it was eventually a Black Hand member who began the ball rolling towards war in the days precipitating its start. Imperialism was another factor that led to increased rivalry within Europe.
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1039
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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