Primary Causes Of World War I

World War I
World War I starting in 1914 and ending in 1918 was the most disastrous event in human history at that time. Although this military confrontation between the European superpowers framed the next century of both unrest and cooperation, the discourse around Word War I is nevertheless controversial, particularly the causes of the war which remain highly disputable.
After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1918 Austria-Hungary presented ultimatum against Serbia requiring to eradicate anti-Austrian terrorist organizations and accept the official investigation of Austria. After its ultimatum being rejected, Austria broke diplomatic relations with Serbia and declared war on July 28. Russia launched mobilization

The individual level of analysis emphasizes that Wilhelm II jeopardized diplomatic relations with Russia, France and Britain by a rapid military buildup and a naval competition. At the domestic level, insufficient influence of diplomatic sector over a self-controlled and unchecked military institutions and a poor consistence between their policies further escalated the conflict. Additionally, elite groups used nationalist sentiment to overt attention from socialist dispute and division and united countries to preserve power. Systemic level highlights that Hague conference and trade treaties did not produce sufficient interdependence to prevent the war. These factors together created a spiral of action and reaction and a path dependence which culminated into the World War

Unification and rapid economic and military development of Germany threatened relative power capabilities and raised the concern of security among European countries. Intensified security dilemma and nationalism, as wells as their desire for power encouraged self-controlled and unbalanced military institutions to use technological improvements and produce offensive plans which in turn led to the cult of offensive. Therefore, the causes stressed by both realist and liberal perspectives provided the ground for the development of the cult of offensive which is an important causal factor of war as it did not leave the room for diplomatic and peaceful resolution of conflict. Considering those systemic and domestic conditions it is hard to conclude that war broke out by chance. However, we could nevertheless argue that worldwide war was unintentional and power politics, biased and powerful domestic military institutions and exaggerated assessment of each other’s offensive strategies brought the major European superpowers into the most dreadful war of that