The Underlying Causes of WWI The Sarajevo murder was a predominate moment in history which ignited the spark to World War I. The murder was essentially when Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinated the Archduke of Austria-Hungary Franz Ferdinand, alongside his wife and mother to be, Sophie. Historians believe that this was the major cause that of World War I, since Europe was already so divided it only needed one incident to spark war. However although this was considered a catalyst to the war, there were many other key factors occurring before the assasination that led the countries to war. The initial reasoning behind the war outbreak was the issues occurring between countries before the war began. Imperialism caused wider conflict …show more content…
-The meaning of imperialism is “a system where a powerful nation rules and exploits one or more colonies (collectively known as an empire)”. 2 -Imperialism was constantly occurring between countries before the war unfolded, because increasing competition longing for superior empires directed a growth in conflict. -Rising industrialism caused countries to need markets, this meant that empires were desperate to expand. 1 -The two empires with the most imperial power were France and Britain. -By 1900 the British Empire had already stretched over five continents, as well as the French had lots of power over parts of Africa.4 -Britain and France owning large sums of land caused a rivalry with Germany, since Germany was having trouble expanding and finding colonies in …show more content…
- For example, France and Germany’s armies doubled from 1870 to 1914, there was also compitition between Britain and Germany over navel power. 3 -In 1906 British introduced the ‘Dreadnought’, Germans later began to create their own navel ships. -The Germans increased their military strength, with the ‘Schlieffen plan”, planning for them to attack France through Belgium if Russia declared war on them. -A key example of militarism was Germany had the strongest military build-up, as alliances started to declare war on each other they went straight for their plan of attack rather than waiting for events to unfold. -Nationalism also influenced European governments to spend more on military weapons and upsurge their arm sizes. -“Virtually every major European nation engaged in some form of military renewal in the late 1800s and early 1900s.” 2 - In summary, militarism was a key cause to World War I, since they increased army’s strength, power and desire for stronger empires (no match for the great powers of