Underlying Causes Of World War 1 Essay

What was the Underlying Cause of World War I There were three underlying causes of World War I , Alliances, Militarism, Imperialism, but Alliances was the most significant one. World War I or “The Great War” had began in the summer of 1914 and it was between Europe itself. Many People had expected this war to be short but it had lasted until 1918. About 10 million people had died from “The Great War” which was caused by Alliances, Militarism, and Imperialism. Many people can argue that Alliances were the most significant cause of WWI, but it’s definitely an important topic to discuss. In Document A, there is a map of the European Alliances. The Triple Alliances consisted of the three nations: Italy, Germany, and Austria Hungary; the Triple Entente consisted of: France, the United Kingdom, and Russia. Since the Triple Entente had started an alliance, Germany began to worry because it was surrounded by those three nations so Germany began the Triple Alliance to have protection against those three countries. Alliances lead to widespread war because if one country were to get involved in a war, then the other countries who had no business in being in the war had to get involved because of their agreement and WWI is a great example of that.

Imperialism is a sign of power and many countries don’t want to be seen as weak so in result many countries competed with each other to colonize. Document D could be used to justify how imperialism was a major contributor to the war, “We don’t want to step on the toes of any foreign power, but at the same time we don’t want our own feet tampered by any foreign power...” (Bernhard von Bülow). This quote shows how countries were competing with each other to not be seen as weak . Not only did countries compete for power but they wanted to colonize because it would benefit them in the