Another long term cause of the first world war that is linked to nationalism is militarism. For many years Britain had the most powerful navy in the world. However Britain’s superiority was to be challenged by Germany in 1898 when Kaiser Wilhelm announced his intention to build a powerful German navy. In 1900 the Germany Navy Law ordered the building of 41 battleships and sixty cruisers. A German Naval League was also created to encourage people to support this new naval expansion. However Britain was suspicious of Germany’s actions, especially since they did not have a large empire that required such a navy. In response the British invested large amounts of money in building new larger dreadnought battleships. By 1914 Germany had 17 dreadnought battleships while Britain had 19.
The last long term cause of the first world war was alliances. This was how many countries got dragged into the war. There were two alliances, the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente. The Triple Alliance was made up of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. The Triple Entente was made up of France, Britain and Russia. These countries had an agreement to help each other in times of war so each country had the backing of another. These alliances made the countries feel safer but actually made the world more dangerous as each country knew that if one of them struck then the war would begin.
These long term causes created an atmosphere of tension. The short term cause that triggered the war was the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by a terrorist group of Serbs called the ‘Black Hand’ group as they disliked Austrian rule. A country called Serbia was blamed by Austria for this murder. Serbia was near to Bosnia and it had encouraged the Black Hand Gang and given the gang weapons. What did Serbia want out of this? She hoped that both herself and Bosnia would unite to form a new Balkan state. Austria decided that Serbia must be punished and planned to invade her. Serbia called on her old friend Russia to help her. Now the alliance/entente came in to play. One country from each was involved on opposite sides. The situation could only get worse. Serbia would have been easy for Austria to crush. Russia was a different issue. She had a huge army and Austria would not have coped with an Austro-Russian war. Austria called on Germany for help. The German government agreed to this. Austria made demands on Serbia which was called the July Ultimatum. Austria wanted to dictate to Serbia on internal matters. The Austrians felt confident to make such harsh demands as they were given the backing of Germany. The Serbs felt confident to reject the demands as they were given the backing of Germany.
Another short term cause of the war was the Schlieffen Plan. Germany feared the Triple Entente. It did not want to fight a war on two fronts. Therefore, as it believed it would take Russia six weeks to mobilize for war, it planned to invade France first and then attack Russia. But it had one problem. It relied on what the French or Russians did and the actions of one would provoke a German response and not the other way round. In other words, the Germans had to react to a situation as opposed to controlling it.
When the French called up her army, the Germans had no choice but to carry out the Schlieffen Plan - it had to. This plan involved an attack on France via Belgium which is flat land. For the Schlieffen Plan to be successful, they had to invade France quickly.
The last short term cause was the Treaty of London between Belgium and Great Britain. G.B. had an agreement with Belgium to protect it since 1839. Germany did not think G.B. would obey this old treaty. But G.B. was also worried that if they do not join, Germany would beat France and be very powerful. This was how Belgium and G.B. got dragged into the war. Now it was Germany and Austria-Hungary vs Serbia, Russia, France, Belgium and GB. But Germany still invaded France through Belgium and the war started and raged on until 1918.
