Why Did Alliances Cause Ww1

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As old soldiers drank away their health they wondered who really benefited from the devastating war. In 1914, World War I started in Europe. The assassination of the Archduke started a chain reaction from the countries. The ones that formed alliances fought with countries that also made alliances. The US even got involved. Out of the three reasons for the cause of World War I: imperialism, militarism, and alliances; the most important one was the alliances. Even though imperialism played a small role in the war, it still had an effect on its outcome. The money that comes from colonies helps military funding. In addition, the population of the colonies aids the mother countries numbers. A successful example of this is Great Britain. On a German …show more content…

An example of the countries preparing for a war before World War I even started was a bar graph, posted in The London Times History of the World that was edited by Richard Overy in 1999. Statistically, it shows how much each European country spent on its navy and army during the 24 years before the war started and it shows a major increase in the amount all of the countries spent. This sheds light on the fact that every year the government spend more and more money on their soldiers to be prepared for battle. This causes the government as well as the soldiers to subconsciously anticipate a war because it is exactly what they were taught. All of that anticipation helps encourage the soldiers to go war which is why it’s more likely to happen if they prepare for a war that doesn’t exist yet. The speech of Bernhard von Bülow, a German Chancellor, was spoken before the Reichstag on December 11, 1899 and in this speech Bernhard states, “The means, gentlemen, for a people of almost 60 million... to battle is way through in the struggle for existence without strong armaments on land and at sea, have not yet been found. In the coming century the German people will be a hammer or an anvil.” By stating that the people will either be the hammer of the anvil, he’s saying that the country will either be defeated or concore. This is an example of someone predicting an upcoming

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