World War I, also known as the Great War, was the first truly global war. Beginning in 1914 and ending in 1918, World War I affected and changed many peoples’ lives and roles. However, the events foreshadowing the war are almost more important than the events involved in the war itself. It is important to recognize that, without the components that precipitated the beginning of the war, there may have been no war at all. There is no dispositive reason as to why World War I started. Indeed, historians still argue as to why it began; some of the possible reasons World War I arose include the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, alliances, militarism, imperialism and, most decisively, nationalism. On June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb …show more content…
Militarism is defined as strengthening a country’s military in order to make it prepared to fight at any given time. Many of the countries’ leaders and generals recognized that war was inevitable and, therefore, they felt the best thing they could do was to prepare. Prior to World War I, many countries began to gather and enlarge their armies. For example, the arms race, a competition between nations for superiority in the development and accumulation of weapons, between European countries began to become more competitive. Germany sought to develop a colonial empire that would rival that of Great Britain. To do this, Germany began to build naval warships to challenge Great Britain’s Royal Navy. In response, Great Britain began to build more ships. This activity began an arms race that ultimately spread to other European nations (Tucker). This arms race contributed to Germany’s willingness, in particular, to enter the war in 1914. Sir Edward Grey, reflecting on his service as British foreign secretary in July 1914, said, “Under modern conditions, whole nations could be mobilized at once and their whole life blood and resources poured out in a torrent. Instead of a few hundreds of thousands of men meeting each other in war, millions would now meet – and modern weapons would multiply manifold the power of destruction. The financial strain and the expenditure of wealth would be incredible” (Llewellyn). Militarism by itself did not start World War I, but it exacerbated and created a culture where military strength was expected. Militarism also created an atmosphere where war was considered a desirable response to a country’s political and diplomatic