In my view, the second most important cause was the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. I believe that this was important, as it was the small incident that set everything off. Franz Ferdinand was the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, so when the Serbian assassinator Gavrilo Pricip murdered him, it was the excuse that Austria-Hungary needed to declare war on Serbia, and wipe the annoying little country off the map. Unfortunately, it was not as simple as that. When Austria Hungary attacked Serbia, the Alliance system came into play, pulling Russia, France, Germany, Italy and Britain into the conflict. Those two fatal shots from Gavrilo Pricip’s pistol cost each country thousands of lives. Later, in prison, Princip said that if he had known what was to happen, he would never have fired his gun. But it was too late; thousands of lives had already been lost. If Franz Ferdinand had not been assassinated in Sarajevo, something else would probably have set the war off instead, but it could have been a war of far less magnitude and far fewer lives would have been lost.
In my opinion, the next most important cause was the imperial rivalry. This was the competition between countries to get larger empires. It led to both the Moroccan crisis, and also the Balkan troubles. In the Moroccan crisis, it involved Germany trying to gain power in Morocco instead of France, who were already there. With the Balkan troubles, it involved Austria- Hungary trying to take over Serbia, and so causing more friction between the two countries, and making Serbia’s allies’, Russia, more wary of Austria-Hungary.
The fourth most important cause was the Arms and naval race. This was the struggle between Britain and Germany to get more weapons and battle ships than the other country. This resulted in new battle ships being developed and built, and more weapons being made. The Arms race heightened tension between Britain and Germany, and created a distinct divide between the two alliances- the triple alliance and the triple entente- this was not good, as it meant that if war did strike, there would be no one who was on good terms with countries from both alliances. Therefore, there was nobody to try and make peace between both Alliances. Also, because more Ships and weapons were being made, it meant that if a war were started, each country would have more firepower, and therefore was able to cause more devastation and damage to any countries that it was attacking. This meant that more lives would be lost, and more money would have to be spent to repair the damage. Overall, the Naval and Arms Race just increased the magnitude of the destruction caused by the war.
The penultimate most significant cause was the trouble in the Balkans. This was caused by the Imperial rivalry, as it involved countries trying to gain more land, and Austria Hungary’s fear of Serbia becoming too powerful. The trouble in the Balkans was made up of three separate parts. In 1908, Austria-Hungary seized Bosnia, and brought it into its Empire. This made Serbia furious, as they had wanted to bring Bosnia into a greater Serbian state that would unite all Slavs. There was an international conference to discuss the problem, but Austria-Hungary refused to attend. They were backed by Germany. Russia was on Serbia’s side, and was not happy that Austria-Hungary had seized Bosnia. They wanted to do something about it, but could not, as Austria-Hungary’s ally Germany was too strong. This meant that Russia was humiliated, and had become closer to Britain and France, and also Serbia was very angry. In 1912, there was a war. Serbia was fixed on the idea of gaining more land, so formed an alliance with Greece, Bulgaria, and Montenegro. This was known as the Balkan league, and together, they managed to drive Turkey out of the Balkans. This was the first Balkan war.
The second war happened in 1913, and involved Bulgaria rebelling against Greece and Serbia. Bulgaria was defeated, and Serbia gained yet more land. Overall, there were three main results of the two Balkan wars: Serbia was twice as big as before and was confident to try and gain land from Austria, Austria was worried about Serbia’s increasing size, and Russia was determined to back Serbia against Austria. Basically, tension had just got a lot higher.
The least important, but not insignificant cause, was the Moroccan crisis. This involved Germany trying to gain the support of the Moroccans, rather than the Moroccans giving support to and being ruled by the French. Kaiser Wilhelm II went to Morocco and made a speech, but the French and British drove them out. Next the Germans placed the warship ‘Panther’ in Agadir, very close to the key British port in Gibraltar. Naturally, the British did not like this, and very soon, the Germans were moved out again. Overall, the effects of this were that: Germany disliked and distrusted Britain more and more, and France and Britain’s alliance was stronger. I do not think that this cause was so important, because it only involved three countries, and did not increase tension majorly.
In conclusion, I believe that whilst some causes were not as important as others, they all played their part in causing the 1st world war. I believe that you could only remove one cause for war still to happen, you could probably remove the Moroccan crisis, as this was not so important, or you could remove the murder in Sarajevo, as something else was pretty much guaranteed to happen that would set the war off.