Dbq Causes Of World War 1

Causes of World War I
World War I was the bar fight of all bar fights and was expected to end quickly. Unfortunately, the treacherous battle field held soldier's longer than expected. At first, Europe had been flourishing with colonies worldwide and had developed in technology greatly. Alliances had been put in place in order to balance power and prevent a world war to ever happen. Alas, the conflict between Austria-Hungary and Serbia was not prevented at all. The conflict was what pushed forward the war and caused countries to call for more alliances. This had gotten more and more nations involved in what started as a small conflict to a war. Countries started declaring war on eachother until it was, what some might call, a bar fight. Although

Militarism is the policy in which a country glorifies its military power by having an army prepared at any time. This militarism also came from nationalism, or extreme patriotism, within countries. According to document C, a graph adapted from The London Times History of The World, shows the amount of money (pounds) that went towards the production of armaments from 1890 to the start of the war (1914). It also shows how the armaments increase among the navy and army within certain countries that were involved in the start of the war. Every country was recorded to have an increase in currency that fueled the production of weaponry. According to the document, by 1914, the Entente Powers (France, Great Britain, and Africa) had 2.23 million men ready to fight while Germany and Austria-Hungary had 1.2 million men; a tremendous amount of soldiers. According to document D, a speech from a German Chancellor, explained that Germany would be in shambles if they did not take military action in the war. “...to battle its way through in the struggle for existence without strong armaments on land at sea, have not yet been found,” (Document D). The German Chancellor is saying that without a strong military, Germany will go down. Chancellor describes Germany as the Hammer or the Anvil. This means Germany either build up their military like a hammer or become a sitting anvil, waiting to

Imperialism had taken over with increased wealth, trade, and industrialization among powerful nations. Many of the colonies that countries had were used to help in war. This caused much anger among colonies that were forced to fight in World War I. According to document F, a chart representing the size of colonies and who they belonged to in 1913 (a year before the war), Britain was the richest in colonies. Britain held 12,740,000 square miles of colonial land and a population 400,000,000 people living in those colonies. This mass amount of power not only caused the war to become more heated with countries like Britain using their colonies to fight on their side, but it also spread jealousy to less powerful nations. According to document E, a German propaganda poster, illustrates Britain as an octopus that is reaching over the world to its conquered colonies. The title reads “Freedom of the Seas,” (Document E) with a caption reading “England, the bloodsucker of the world,” (Document E). In document F, Germany had less colonial rule than Britain and therefore are angry that Britain has so much power. This brings on more bitterness that caused the war. Imperialism is the underlying cause of World War I because it not only caused bitterness among countries with less colonial rule, it also promoted the increase in militarism and alliances. Colonies were forced to fight alongside