German Military Alliances In Ww1

enemies by entering into a military agreement with other countries. If there was an attack this agreement guaranteed that the other member either had to aid the country or remain neutral. When Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia these military alliances were the reason so many countries got involved in the war, which caused it to turn into a world war. The European arms race was also a contributing factors to the outbreak of World War I. The periods before 1914 saw the production and development of fearsome new weapons, which were capable of killing on an industrial scale. Exploiting new mass-production methods, Western nations mixed out these weapons and arms in large quantities and at a quick pace. But the descent into war was not just

At the time German government was still dominated by the Prussian Junkers who feared the growth of these left-wing parties. Fritz Fischer excellently argued that they intentionally pursued an external war to distract the population and whip up patriotic support for the government. Russia was in the middle of a significant military build-up and reform that they planned to complete in 1916–1917. However, others oppose that, “German conservatives were ambivalent about a war, worrying that losing a war would have disastrous consequences, and even a successful war might alienate the population if it were lengthy or difficult”

For over a hundred years, the empire had been run in a fundamentally feudal method with a German-speaking aristocracy. However, with the danger embodied by a rise of nationalism within the empire's many constituent ethnicities, some elements, including the Emperor Franz Joseph, decided that a negotiation was necessary to keep the power of the German aristocracy. In 1867, the Ausgleich was decided on, which turned the Hungarian elite in Hungary into almost equal associates in the government of Austria-Hungary. This arrangement raised a high degree of displeasure amongst many in the traditional German-speaking ruling classes. Some of them thought of the Ausgleich to be a catastrophe because it frequently frustrated their intents in the governance of Austria-Hungary. For example, “It was extremely difficult for Austria-Hungary to form a coherent foreign policy that suited the interests of both the German and Hungarian elite” . As a result, there was extensive support of a war with Serbia in leading circles both at Vienna and at