MANIA: The Causes Of World War I

MANIA:The Causes of World War I World War I was one of the most fatal wars that was to ever exist. This war was fought throughout Europe between the two alliances, Triple Entente and Triple Alliance, while many others happened to join for assistance. Although to this day the question still remains, what was the cause for WWI? A few of the causes to set off one of the greatest wars are Nationalism, Imperialism, Militarism, Alliance systems, and the assassination of the Archduke.

Nationalism is the devotion and loyalty to one’s country, their main priority is to further its interests as opposed to the interests of other countries. This feeling spread through Europe during the 19th centuries thus causing many problems. The Slavic people of

As the alliance system divided Europe into opposing groups, each nation began to increase spending on its military. This set an aggressive mood in Europe as each nation was prepared to fight a war. Germany had an industrialized nation, as well as an industrialized military. Germany spent millions of dollars improving their military in order to make it ready for war. To keep up with Germany, many other countries like Britain had to also update their militaries. With an improved military, Germany became anxious to utilize their army. Germany was so confident that they could win with their new army that as soon as the war was declared, they did not hesitate to make the first strike. Increased military and naval rivalry led not only to the belief that war was coming but it also rose suspicions that alliances were gathering together and creating plans for attack. For example, all the three Entente powers held secret military talks. The British and the French naval authorities agreed that the French navy should be concentrated in the Mediterranean and the British in the North Sea. Germany and Austria also had military agreements. When the First World War was fought, it was to be fought by all powers because they had made the military plan

By this time, Europe was ready for a war, all that was needed was an excuse. Gavrilo Princip, shot and killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife. Princip belonged to a group called the Black Hand, who wanted Serbia to be independent from Austria Hungary. Austria Hungary demanded Serbia to punish those responsible for the assassination. When Serbia failed to follow, Austria Hungary declared war on Serbia. Since Serbia was an ally of the Triple Entente, the Triple Entente declared war on Austria Hungary. This, in effect, meant a declaration of war against the Triple Alliance. Ferdinand’s assassination started a chain reaction that led to both powers declaring war on each other. Without a doubt, the one most significant cause of the described above that was most responsible for World War I was the system of alliances. The Triple Alliance and Triple Entente created extremely high tension in Europe which motivated countries to move into war for an small incident such as the assassination of the Archduke. Europe was divided into two opposing groups and each nation was ready to enter war due to militarism. The high tensions between European nations ultimately led to the declaration of war on Serbia by Austria on July 28, 1914, marking the beginning of World War