Long Term Causes Of Ww1 Research Paper

The outbreak of World War I (WW1) in 1914 was a result of tensions that had been building between European countries for decades. It was a global conflict fought between two alliances: the Triple Entente and Triple Alliance. The war was as a result of both long and short term causes. A long-term cause is a cause that occurs a long time before the event. During WW1 this included Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, and Nationalism. Short term causes are causes that happened right before the event which in WW1 was the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. In my opinion, the two main long term causes of the WW1 were Imperialism and Nationalism was the thread that linked the causes together.

Militarism is the belief that a country should build strong

Imperialism is the desire to form an empire so that you can rule other countries and use them to gather resources and increase your power. Britain’s view of imperialization was to maintain and expand trade to have control over the raw materials, which intensified competition. By the 19th Century, the British Empire was the biggest Imperial power in the world. The “Scramble for Africa” between 1884 and 1914 occurred where European nations invaded and took control of Africa, which marked Britain and France as dominant colonial powers. Germany could not stand Britain’s control of oceans and markets and Britain viewed Germany as a threat to Europe. By the time Germany was able to create its own colonies, there was very little left which then increased its annoyance and created tension among European Countries. Colonies like Bosnia didn’t want to be controlled by Austria, so they rebelled, which was a very important factor in causing the war. Imperialism fed by nationalism. Nationalism refers to a sense of pride in one’s country. It is the idea of wanting your country to be the best, or wanting freedom and independence for your country. Nationalism was one of the main causes that led to WW1 as it created competition and tension between nations as each sought to assert their independence and power. Serbian nationalism was rising rapidly with the decline of the Ottoman Empire and was Russia’s ally. Bosnian