How Did Alliances Cause Ww1

WW1 was triggered when the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary and his wife were assassinated by a member of a terrorist group from Serbia called the Black Hand on the 28th of June 1914. This caused Austria-Hungary to declare war against Serbia on the 28th of July 1914, exactly a month later. Due to this aggressive reaction, it caused a butterfly effect causing many other European countries to join because they were allies, or even scared that their country might get harmed in the war if they did not participate. Although the four main causes that started minor feuds between countries before the Great War were Imperialism, Nationalism, the alliances system, and rapid militarism, some of these factors even led to the war being longer

Alliances are allies created amongst countries to support each other. Some examples of alliances during the Great War were the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance. The Triple Entente was an association between Britain, France, and Russia, they were also the brains of the Allied Powers during World War 1 (David G. Haglund, ND). The Triple Entente came together in 1907 to counter the threat caused by the Triple Alliance (Study.com, 2003). The Triple Alliance was an alliance consisting of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, they were part of the Central Powers as well. This alliance was created in 1882 to prevent isolation of Germany and preserve its peace as Russia would not start war with two empires (Amy McKenna, ND). Such alliances caused the War to be longer because their allies came to each other’s aid because of their agreement. Due to this many European countries joined the war making it last longer. Alliances caused tension from early stages because it created a defensive atmosphere. There was also a reassurance that one country is aided by their allies if they engaged in conflict. This encouraged countries to find or create conflict rather than finding a peaceful solution (Isobel M., ND). This soon led to the outbreak of World War 1 during 1914. Alliances initiated many more countries to have a strong military which contributed to making the war to be longer. Alliances caused nationalism to spread because it pushed countries to create alliances to spread their influence, that also caused major tension between other alliances resulting in feuds and later the Great