World War I took place from 1914 to 1918 and involved 84 nations. At its end, 18, 407,800 people had died and over 23 million were injured. It had many causes including nationalism, militarism and imperialism. But the most immediate cause of the war was the assasination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian group called the Black Hand. One of the main causes of the war was nationalism. This is when people of one country have such pride in their country; they put their interests ahead of any other country. For example, Austria-Hungary in the early 20th century contained a large group of Slavic people. Other Slavic groups made their own contries such as Serbia and Russia. The Slavic citizens wanted independence for themselves. …show more content…
That is when there is tension with and between countries. Imperialism involved one country gaining control over new territory in another region. Imperialsism is a tense game that has to be played with diligence so as not to disrupt competing countries. European countries (France, Germany, Italy Russia) were fighting for power over smaller countries. In the conquest of these territories, friendship between countries as well as disagreements were formed. An alliance is when countries have existing tensions or similar interests and team up to keep each other in line. A benefit of alliances is that countries could hold each other repsonsible for their actions. This would help keep power in balance around the world. A drawback of the alliance system is when countries pick a side and base their decisons on old disputes or practices, not logic. Some countries made their decision based upon political beliefs or practices. The alliance system was another cause of the war. When Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungry formed the Triple Alliance, France, Britian and Russia formed the Triple Entente. This was meant to stabilize force and calm tensions, but instead it only sharpened political tensions leading to the