Reghan Statlander Mr. Swanson Hour 5 2/20/2023 Underlying causes of World War I While there were many underlying causes of World War I, militarism, alliances, imperialism, and nationalism, were ultimately the major causes of World War I. These four reasons were the beginning of the tensions that were being built, which caused the chain reactions and led to the beginning of the first World War. Europe was also pretty well set up to go to war, but to no surprise they set themselves up for destruction(Doc A). Alliances were the first spark that lit the flame and caused the first World War to erupt into flames. The first underlying cause of World War I was the major alliances formed between countries. The biggest countries had the biggest alliances with each other. The Triple alliance consisted of Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary. They were surrounded by the Triple Entente consisting of Great Britain, France, and Russia(Doc D). These alliances forced the war to become bigger and bigger over time(Doc E). The alliances also caused each country to turn against other countries and point fingers and who they believed started the tension and who broke the …show more content…
Before World War I started, Europe wanted to control every other country in the Eastern Hemisphere through colonial possessions(Doc P). But this was the only way that countries had a chance to survive the war. This is because it allowed them much more land and natural resources such territories could provide, however there was only so much land countries could occupy(Doc Q). This also caused anger among many other countries including Germany. Germany was very upset towards the British Empire because of how much land they had(Doc O). Therefore we can see that imperialism was a very important reason for how successful each country was in World War I. As each country gained as much land as possible, each country gained more and more pride in their