Was Balkan a determining factor leading to the First World War?

1. After the 1856 Crimean War and the 1878 Berlin Conference, Germany as an honest broker, broke the relation with Russia. Though the Reinsurance Treaty asserted friendship between them, this Balkan affair did push Russia to the side of Britain and France

2. It intensified the relationships between the Balkan states with the European powers

1. The 1878 Treaty of San Stefano conceded Serbia from Turkey as an independent state
2. After the Young Turk Movement of 1908, Austria annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina, this ruined the dream of Serbia of grouping the neighboring states to form an union of Serbians
3. This rooted the hostility between Austria and Serbia and paved the way for the nationalist assassination incident in 1914

I think it is possible for you to replace the topic sentence as follows:

1)        The Balkan Crisis accelerated the formation of the two armed camp.

        --        

2. However, Balkan could only explain why there was the immediate cause leading to the First World War

9. In fact, the source of conflicts and deterioration did not solely come from the Balkans, but also came from (C)

ii.        It could not give reasons why Japan and the United States participated in the war too (D)

3. Nationalism, militarism, imperialism and the alliance system

1. Brief definitions
2. They created conflicts among the European powers because all the first three proposed an expansionist policy (examples)

1. For nationalism, believers asserted the control over the other races since they thought themselves as superior people

1. The contradictory status between Pan-Slavism and Pan-Germanism
2. Germany wanted to control France and Belgium since most of the subjects living here were German-speaking people
3. While Russia wanted to infiltrate into the Balkans because she claimed to be the protectors of all Slavs within Russia and also the Balkan states

2. For imperialism, overseas exploitation and conquests were advocated

1. Rivalries were common in British and French colonies that the Foshoda Incident was a typical example
2. And they were both against German influence in Morocco, which then led to the two Moroccan Crises in 1905 and 1911 respectively

3. For militarism, force was regarded as the chief method for solving problems and it directly turned conflicts into military confrontation

1. The Moroccan Crises revealed Germany’s desire to settle problems by sending armed force
2. The 1878 Bulgarian Atrocity and the 1908 Bosnian Crisis both ended by force

3. The alliance system involved many powers in even a local dispute

1. Although the treaty terms required power to follow ally’s actions, their vagueness usually acted as an excuse for some powers to violate the alliances
2. Diplomatic confusion was created

1. The Dual alliance and the Reinsurance Treaty existed at the same time, this gave Germany a more cunning diplomacy
2. She pleased Austria and Russia, while at last she chose Austria as her ally. This led to the further worsening of Russo-German relationship which gradually became the two camps

4. War aims of Japan and the United States

1. Japan

The European powers requested Japan to take part in the war. They promised Japan that Shantung province would be given after the war. Thus, Japan launched a war on German colony in Shantung

2. United States

1. She previously did not want to be involved in the European affair. The opposition groups were mainly the entrepreneurs and businessmen, since they feared that war would bring them unfavourable effects
2. However, when one of the American trading ships were attacked by German submarines in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, US was very angry. Thus, she declared war on Germany

3. Obviously, the reasons of Japan and the United States for taking part in the war were nothing related to the Balkans, thus, Balkan was an insufficient factor explain the causes of the First World War

Conclusion: Since Balkan could not fully explain its role in driving the powers to the outbreak of WWI, Balkan was not the determining factor leading to WWI. Instead, it was just one of the important factors only because she intensified the relationships between the powers and created serious hostility that directly became the immediate cause.