How Did Imperialism Cause World War 1

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In 1914 a war that brought the world together, sparked by the assassination of Austria-Hungary’s heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, by an assassin from Serbia. Austria-Hungary coming to a point where they blamed Serbia for being behind the assassination requests that Germans back them up when they declare war on Serbia. But there was more to the cause of the World War 1 than what meets the eye. The competition between countries with who was more superior, the alliances that were made between many countries, imperialism that helped the countries obtain the resources they need for war, and their proud belief of nationalism that brought them the people the courage to go to war. Militarism was one of the 4 M.A.I.N causes to World …show more content…

It shows the Eastern hemisphere and who owns what part of what land. It shows that Great Britain held the highest amount of land and population with 33,000,000 sq. km. of land and 400,000,000 population of colonies. Germany held 2,950,000 sq. km. with 12,000,000 population of colonies. This is an example of how imperialism provoked Germany into militarism, and getting Germany started in the ‘friendly competition’ with Great Britain of being better. The last main cause of World War 1 is nationalism, the spirit that In Document I, it states Serbia’s reason for war, “The war between Serbia and Austria...is inevitable. If Serbia wants to live in honor, she can only do this by war. This war is determined by our obligation from the duty of our race which will not permit itself to be assimilated.” This quote comes from a newspaper that is ran by Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijevic, head of Serbian Military Intelligence and founder of the secret society “The Black Hand”, the ones responsible for the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. This document states that the reason that they are going to war is because it is inevitable, it is tradition and culture, and because it is their duty. This document shows that nationalism plays a factor in the start of World War 1 because the Serbians that were lead by Dragutin were given a raise in morale with a speech that explained their sole duty, which was