World War 1 Causes

Causes of world War 1 World War one was one of the largest displays of conflict that has ever happened. Never before had there been such a show of military force. World War 1 is responsible for the deaths of 37 million civilian and military casualties. The war lasted for four years, Involved 32 countries, and costed 32 billion dollars. The war had many different reasons and factors for happening, but the main cause was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary. The Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated on June 28th, 1914 by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip. Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were driving through Sarajevo a Serbian nationalist Nedjelko

Before World War 1 Britain was the greatest Imperialist power. In the 19th Century Britain was in control of a quarter of the world. Britain's imperialism was mostly set on the acquisition of country's resources, and increasing trade. Britain's imperialism was strengthened by their Navy, which was the largest and most powerful at the time. Due to increasing demand for land Russia, Germany, and France all tried to conquer Africa. Germany later acquired a large portion of South Africa, which was well received by the German populace. This caused problems for Britain who wanted to have a British owned railway that spanned the length of Africa. Tensions also rose between Germany and France over Morocco. In 1905 the German Kaiser Wilhelm the II traveled to the Moroccan city Tangier, while France was trying to take control of Morocco. The Kaiser made a speech about Moroccan Independence which outraged France. Another incident in 1911 happened when the French were trying to mitigate tension with the moroccan people. Germany sent a gunboat to the Moroccan port of Agadir without permission, or warning. This prompted a much greater response from France as well as brought Germany and France to the verge of war. The decline on the Ottoman Empire was a major blow to Europe's imperial power. The Ottoman empire was losing war and was on the brink of collapsing which caused imperial instability. All of these factors contributed

Nationalism was a very profound in the beginning of the 20th century in Europe. This nationalism fueled many exaggerated reports on the state of rival countries. Due to these nationalist reports it can make a nation become alienated and wrongly dislike other countries. Nationalism in Europe assured its citizens that a war against them would mean total victory, which contributed to the rallying support of the European populous. These victorious militaristic ideas were fuelled by the fact that in the 19th century Europe had not had any large scale military defeat during most of the century. Nationalism also was apparent with Germans who had become unified and had believed that the prussians naval fleet would mean victory against Russia and France. The Russian Tsar believed that there citizens were protected by god and that there massive military force made them more powerful than smaller European countries. The French believed that their defenses on their eastern border made them very capable of protecting against the Germans. During the late 19th century Europe had expanded its military and commercial control while also avoiding major conflicts. Germany's growth was threatening European nationalism this started a time of propaganda like literature in Europe. The literature usually stated racist and degrading remarks about rival nations. Due to these scandalous campaigns, as well as the ideal of