World War 1 Research Paper

“European nations began World War 1 with a glamorous vision of war, only to be psychologically shattered by the realities of the trenches. The experience changed the way people referred to the glamour of battle; they treated it no longer as a positive quality but as a dangerous illusion.” –Virginia Postrel. World War 1 was one of the most horrendous, life shifting wars in history that began in Europe and lasted for 4 years (1914 - 1918) besides affecting 9 million lives. The world was so destructive due to the intensity of the fighting and the deadly weapons. It was the first war in history to involve too many countries, and as a result, World War 1 became known as the Great War. In my opinion, nationalism wasn’t the main cause of the war.

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

Nationalism is a strong force of patriotism, and a strong supporter of political independence for one’s country. Nationalism is also one of the main causes that led to the crack of World War 1, since all the powers had a nationalistic pride. Many nations believed that nationalism helps the nation to gain the support for war, in addition to competing with other countries on which nation is the better, stronger and most powerful. The greatest nationalist movement was the Slavic group in the Balkans. The Balkans was a very unstable area, and it was also known as the “sick man of Europe”. The Balkans included different nationalities such as the Serbs, Croatians and Bosnians, and each wanted independence for their country and they didn’t want to be combined and controlled together, which made it harder to rule. There were also a series of wars between the Balkans and Serbia, and as a result Serbia doubled its size. Additionally, Serbia was now determined to unite all Serbs into a “Greater Serbia”. The growing Serbia was a threat to Austria-Hungary, since it was easier for Serbia to attack Austria-Hungary after Austria-Hungary’s colonization of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which is one of the Slavic groups with Serbia. Moving on, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, with his wife, was visiting the capital of Bosnia to check on army exercises in