The four primary causes to World War I were Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, and Nationalism, also known as M.A.I.N. Within the four, one held most of the contribution to WWI. The primary cause of WWI were the alliances and the loyalties that came along with them. Militarism is the belief that a strong military is essential to a nation and to show its strength it must be used. Alliances are agreements between nations to always support each other and stand together. Imperialism is ruling other nations and holding colonies through force. Nationalism is a the idea that your country is stronger and better than other countries. Europe was a very feeble continent before WWI. Patriotism was a serious cause of war between numerous countries everyone …show more content…
However, Serbia felt they should have been given the territory, as it might have been a Balkan state, which set it under immediate clash with Austria-Hungary. On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by Serbian national terrorists. This led to Austria-Hungary declare war on Serbia July 28, 1914. Now that Austria and Serbia were in war, Russia began to mobilize troops toward Austria’s area, and after telling Germany they were mobilizing troops toward Austria, and not Germany, the Germans declared war on Russia because Germany and Austria were allies. Soon after, Germany declared war on France, because like Germany, they were going to help their ally while in war. At this point Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Serbia, and France were all in war. Despite being loyal to their ally, Italy decided to declare themselves neutral, and later on switched to be in the Triple Entente. In conclusion, since Austria decided to declare war on Serbia, their allies were automatically brought into the war. It was only a matter of time before both groups of allies were all in battle due to their loyalties. If these secret alliances were never formed, then the chain reaction causing lots of nations to be at war would have never