How Did Imperialism Contribute To Ww1

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Nationalism, Imperialism, Militarism, and Alliances helped to not only begin World War 1, but also to propel it forward and fuel the fire that kept the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente, later referred to as the Allies and the Central Powers, in ongoing battles. Several events went down in order to , including demands Austria-Hungary made of Serbia, the steadily increasing prices of war, the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand, and many more.
Nationalism was only one of the four main motives that helped World War 1 begin. The document reprinted from “The Origins of the First World War” by James Joll states, “Our whole race must stand together to halt the onslaught of these aliens from the North.” Colonel Dimtrevic was referring to …show more content…

They also wanted Serbia to assure them that they get rid of dangerous publicity against the Monarchy. Not only did Nationalism help to start World War 1, but Imperialism also played a big part. The political cartoon titled “China, the Cake of Kings… and Emperors” printed by Le Petite Journal shows how the competitive nature of Imperialism started off slowly but then ended violently, leading to damage. The cartoon shows Europe and Japan, tearing up and destroying China unexpectedly and without their consent, portraying the tensions between the countries because China wanted them to stop, but they weren’t. Along with that, an excerpt from May 7, 1919 by Count Brockdorff-Rantzau stated, “In the last fifty years, the imperialism of all European states has chronically poisoned international relations […] came to a crisis in the World War.” According to Rantzau, Germany was not alone guilty of the war because all of the countries distrusted each other and were not willing to work together, so it was everyone’s fault. Rantzau also stated that, “Policies of retaliation, policies of expansion, and disregard for the right of …show more content…

In the chart by Gordon A. Craig, the overall trend of European military spending from 1870 to 1914 is shown. The spending trend continuously went up over those years. The increasing prices of the wars eventually lead to the overall higher chances of war. In the book “Origins of the World War” by MacMillan, Sidney Bradshaw Fay said, “ … [these leaders] failed to do certain things which might have prevented [the war]. In this sense, all European countries […] were responsible [for the outbreak of World War 1].” According to Fay, everyone was partly to blame for the uprising of the war. The “certain things” she was referring to were better relations with Germany. Getting along better with Germany could have helped significantly with preventing this

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