Causes of WWI

Authors Avatar

Causes of WWI

There are a lot of reasons for the outbreak of the First World War. There are long term causes such as Germany’s defeat of France in the Franco - Prussian war, the development of the alliance system, naval rivalry, colonial rivalry and the rivalry of Russia and Austria in the Balkans. Also I will be explaining the short term causes which are the assassination at Sarajevo and Austria’s determination to punish Serbia.

The Long term causes

Germany’s defeat of France in the Franco - Prussian War and France’s desire for revenge

In July 1870, France declared war on Prussia in part over a disagreement about a Prussian prince accepting the crown of Spain. By September 1870, a French army had been defeated, Emperor Napoleon III captured at Sedan, France declared a republic, and Paris under siege. In January 1871, Wilhelm I of Prussia was crowned Kaiser Wilhelm I of a unified Germany at Versailles, Paris fell, and France surrendered, losing Alsace and Lorraine and forced to pay huge compensation. Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor of Prussia since 1862, and now Germany, wanted to keep France isolated to prevent the recovery of Alsace and Lorraine.

The Development of the alliance system

The Triple Alliance was the treaty by which Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy promised (May 20, 1882) to support each other militarily in the event of an attack against any of them by two or more great powers. Germany and Italy additionally agreed to support one another in the event of attack by France. In an extra statement, however, Italy specified that her undertakings could not be regarded as being directed against the United Kingdom. Shortly after renewing the Alliance in June 1902, Italy secretly extended a similar guarantee to France, successfully cancelling out her part in the alliance.
Italy's partial loyalty to the German-Austrian Dual Alliance was started partly by anger at France's May 1881 seizure of Tunisia, which many Italians had seen as a potential colony. When Germany and Austria-Hungary found themselves at war in August 1914 with the rival Triple Entente of Britain, France and the latter's ally Russia, Italy declared neutrality, subsequently entering the conflict on the side of the Entente against Austria-Hungary in May 1915 and Germany in August 1916 and gaining most of the Austrian territories she had coveted at the peace settlement of 1919.

Naval Rivalry

Join now!

Britain and Germany were the chief rivals at sea. Under Admiral Tirpitz, State Secretary of the Imperial Naval Office from 1897, a long-term shipbuilding programme began. The German Navy Law of 1898 increased the German battleships from nine cruisers to twelve. In 1900 Germany passed a Navy Law which doubled the German battle fleet.
In the meantime, Britain produced her first Dreadnought (literally, the word means fear nothing). Dreadnoughts were large, fast and heavily armed battleships with 12inch guns. They set a new standard in naval armaments and turned all previous battleships ‘out of date’. The naval race became intense. Between ...

This is a preview of the whole essay