From 1879 as a result of nationalism, militarism and imperialism countries formed themselves into two groups. German ambitions to be a great empire and power meant that it needed help and allies to support it. So Germany and Austria-Hungary agreed to help each other if they were attacked by Russia. So by 1914 Europe was divided into two. This meant that the sides were the Central Powers – Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey, and the Triple Entente – Great Britain, Russia, and France. This meant that a war would involve many other countries, even if it had started off between only two of them, as countries promised to protect their ally. Smaller countries were more aggressive and confident as they relied on their stronger allies.
Inside the Austria-Hungarian there were different groups of people who wanted Independence. They wanted to create their own country with their own customs, laws, and government. In particular, the ‘Slavs’ who lived across Balkans, wanted to unite and form their own country. Austria however didn’t want them to break away from their own Empire, as they feared their Empire would collapse. This meant that Serbia wanted to unite the ‘Slavs’ under its rule, especially those trapped within the Austrian Empire. There were wars in the Balkans in 1912 – 1913. Serbia had strengthened its position and Russia stirred up and supported the ‘Slavs’ in order to have more influence in the region, and to ensure Austria didn’t. Also, if the ‘Slavs’ could break away to form ‘greater Serbia’ it would be good for the Russians because Austria would become weaker. Russia therefore saw herself as the protector of the ‘Slav’ people.
Nationalism is when people from the same race or religion wanted to create their own nation. Leaders would try and make their people nationalists by preaching how amazing the country was. By making the citizens believe that their country was worth depending for and so would defend it well. This meant that the people would be willing to defend their country even if it meant starting a war. Many people in Bosnia were ‘Slavs’ nationalists. The nationalists wanted Bosnia to be independent from the Austrian Empire. Leaders like the German Kaiser believed that by making their country nationalists they would defend well.
Most importantly, what set World War 1 off were the assassins who killed the Archduke Franz Ferdinand on the 28th June 1914. Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austrian throne was assassinated along with his wife by a Serb. The Serbs wanted Bosnia to leave the Austrian Empire and join Serbia as Serbia ruled itself. The first assassin threw a grenade towards the car the Archduke was in but missed him. The Archduke continued driving through the crowds. As the Archduke drove along the riverside a ‘Slav’ nationalist shot him dead. The Austrian Empire blamed Serbia for this and wanted revenge. This set off the spark that led into World War 1. Austria wanted to declare war on Serbia and needed help. When Austria attacked Serbia, Russia attacked Austria because they were allies with Serbia. Germany then declared war on Russia as they were allies with Austria. And so the chain reaction started.
Germany first attacked France, by first marching into Belgium. They followed the Schlieffen Plan as they were being attacked by France on the East and Russia on the West. The plan set by General Schlieffen was to attack France first, before Russia, in a case where the country was being attacked by both sides. Because the German soldiers walked into Belgium, Britain and Belgium both declared war on France because Britain and Belgium were alliances. When Russia then declared war on Germany they had to split the troops in France to fight Russia as they hadn’t expected Russia to mobilise their troops that fast (10 days). This meant that France didn’t have enough troops.
To conclude, I personally think that Germany is the country to blame for World War 1 to begin because they were greedy and wanted a lot of power which meant they started competing with Britain just to show they were better and also because they were jealous of the other countries having better weapons then they did, e.g. they were jealous of Britain because Britain had a dreadnought. This began the fight between the alliances.
