Main Causes Of World War I

1. The First World War, or World War I, was the first global war which began in 1914. Lasting until 1918, the war spanned over three continents, most of the fighting being fought in Europe and the Middle East. Fighting spread to Africa and Asia due to European Colonialism.

Today, a common acronym used to explain the causes of World War I is M.A.I.N. This stands for militarism, alliances, imperialism, and nationalism. Militarism, or the belief in maintaining a strong military to promote national interests, led to an arms race throughout Europe, each nation building up its armies and navies out of mistrust of neighbors.

Around this time, a network of secret alliances formed between groups of nations. The two major alliances were the Central

All the European powers desired colonies in Africa and Asia. By this time, all of Africa (except Ethiopia and Liberia) and parts of Asia were carved up and shared between various European nations. To protect these colonies, countries began building up their militaries greatly, especially the British and Germans.

Nationalism, or extreme patriotism, was also a major cause of World War I, and is also directly related to what sparked the war. The major conflict at the time was in the Balkans, and Serbia came out of the war as superior. Since its military might and patriotism was inflated, it pushed for Pan-Slavism and desired the liberation of Slavic people in places like the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was this Pan-Slavism movement which inspired the nationalistic movements in Bosnia. This prompted the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary, triggering the “War to End All

However, there were also many deaths caused by an infinitely more disturbing force: Nazi ideology. One of the platforms of Hitler’s political success was based on anti-Semitism which he grew by making Jews the scapegoat of all of Germany’s economic hardships. This hatred thus sparked a genocide, or extermination of large groups of people (especially of a specific ethnic group), known as the Holocaust, or the systematic execution of Jews and other minorities. The Holocaust ended with the liberation of the concentration camps by American and British troops. Once the war officially ended, a new era, with new conflicts, began. The war left a divided Europe: the western half supporting capitalism, and the eastern half being coerced into supporting communism. The division between these two groups, who became unified by pacts known as N.A.T.O. and the Warsaw Pact, respectively, was known as the Iron Curtain. This curtain persisted until the fall of the Berlin Wall and end of the Cold War in