What caused war in 1914?

there gained independence then other nationalities would also demand independence. The Austrian empire was in danger of collapsing and many Austrians were in favour of a preventive war against Serbia to destroy them before they became strong enough to destroy Austria-Hungary.Quickly other countries became involved and the smaller conflict between Austria and Serbia grew. Serbia asked her friend and protector Russia to help and they began to get their troops ready. Germany then sent a message to tell Russia to leave Austria and Serbia to fight alone. Russia ignored Germany’s message so Germany then declared war on Russia. Germany knew that France was allied to Russia and that they would intervene with their conflict, so Germany then declared war on France. Germany attacked France through neutral Belgium, so Britain tells Germany to leave Belgium. Germany refused to leave Belgium so Britain declared war on Germany. The war had know gone from the micro that was the conflict between Austria and Serbia, in to the macro that was a world war.There were many long term grievances between European countries in the years before 1914, these frictions contributed to the outbreak of World War 1.Austria and Russia were rivals before 1914 for influence in the Balkans. Both Austria and Russia wanted more land in the Balkan area. Russia wanted the land because of the amount of Slavs living there, these people had the same ethnic background as the Russians, and so Russia wanted this land. Austrians felt the need for the land because the Balkans was on Austria’s border and they didn’t want surrounding countries to not be on their side.There was rivalry between Britain and Germany because of the naval race between the two countries. Germany wanted to build on their navy and Britain was very concerned by their naval plans. Germany had no reason to expand their navy as they didn’t have a very big empire so they didn’t need ships for that, also, unlike Britain, they had a very small coastline so they didn’t need ships to defend that. Britain thought that Germany must be building their navy for aggression. Germany felt that Britain was overreacting to their plans; they claimed that they needed a big navy to protect their growing trade.Many dreadnoughts were being made by both countries, and the more one country made, the more the other would make, for defence.More frictions arose between countries in Europe during the arms race that many European countries participated in. Countries were trying to make the most of the best weapons they could, it’s purpose was to make the country more powerful, for defensive reasons so that people were too frightened to attack as they have bigger and better weapons. The danger of this was that if a country had these more powerful weapons, they would be more tempted to use them for aggressive reasons.Germany and France had grievances, which dated back to 1871 when Germany took over Alsace and Lorraine, two places that were very rich in raw materials. For this very reason, France resented this loss and wanted Alsace and Lorraine back. They also challenged each other over Morocco. Germany didn’t have an Empire as Germany was a relatively new country, so she hadn’t had chance to build a large empire like Britain and France. Other European countries had already got colonies in Africa, so there was little that Germany could do in Africa.The first instance of rivalry between Germany and France was the Tangier crisis in 1905, France started to increase its interest in Morocco but Germany threatened to help Morocco prevent a French takeover. Britain supported France and they both stood firm against German threats; in the end Germany backed down and no physical confrontation took place.The second time there was rivalry between these two countries was the Agadir crisis in 1911, France sent troops into Morocco to crush Moroccan rebels; Germany then accused France of invading and sent a battle ship as a threat. Britain feared that Germany would attack their naval base in Gibraltar and so prepared for confrontation. In the end Germany withdrew their warship and the situation was sorted out peacefully; however the naval race was sped up as a result of the crisis.Another thing that caused tension within Europe was the Alliance systems. During the run up to the war there were two alliances in Europe – Britain, Russia and France were the triple entente. Germany felt encircled by this alliance so they joined with Austria-Hungary and Italy to form the triple alliance.Alliances were formed for defensive reasons, in a group the countries felt more protected. The only problem with being allied was that if a fellow country were in a conflict, you may need to get involved.Some Historians feel that the amount of tension, suspicion and rivalry which existed in pre-war Europe was bound to lead to war. They believe that had the assassination not taken place another event would probably have caused an inevitable war.