Cause Of World War I

World War I started in 1914, after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and lasted until 1918. During the dispute, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire, the Central Powers, fought against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan and the United States, the Allied Powers. The main cause of WWI was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife at Sarajevo on the 28th of June in 1914. However, historians feel that a number of factors contributed to the competition between the great powers that allowed war on such a widespread scale to break out. Germany and Austria are usually regarded as the main perpetrators.

There were many causes that led up to World War l, some being when an alliance,

Large areas of both Austria-Hungary and Serbia were home to differing nationalist groups, all of whom wanted freedom from the states in which they lived. War was narrowly avoided by a conference which allowed France to retain possession of Morocco. However, in 1911, the Germans were again protesting against French possession of Morocco. Austria-Hungary took over the former Turkish province of Bosnia. This angered Serbians who felt the province should be theirs. Serbia threatened Austria-Hungary with war, Russia, allied to Serbia, mobilized its forces. Germany, allied to Austria-Hungary mobilised its forces and prepared to threaten Russia. War was avoided when Russia backed down. There was, however, war in the Balkans between 1911- 1912 when the Balkan states drove Turkey out of the area. The states then fought each other over which area should belong to which state. Tension between Serbia and Austria-Hungary was

“The Treaty of Versailles was supposed to create peace, but only created another disaster.” It forced Germany to lose territory, left germans outside of Germany, and caused serious economic problems especially by worsened the depression of the 1930’s. Certain parts of the treaty took away German territory and distributed it to other countries or the the other territory was used to form new countries. The Treaty of Versailles also weakened Germany's means of transportation and put Germany's river system under foreign control. It put restrictions on Germany's military as well. Germany was allowed only an army of one hundred thousand and fifteen thousand in the navy. This treaty prohibited Germany from having an air force, armored cars, tanks, heavy guns, submarines, or dirigibles. The treaty also forbade the import of war materials in Germany. Finally, the treaty laid Germany solely responsible for World War 1 and ordered that Germany pay the entire cost of it through an undefined amount of