Asses the relative importance of the long-term and short-term causes of WWI

Nevertheless events such as the Anglo- German Naval Race and even the Morrocan Crisis 10 years before the war broke out, can not be ignored as both generated certain German allienation from the other Greater Powers. All of this definetly incitated the war as Imperial Rivarly came form long ago and Kaiser Wilhem II seemed to be wanting to bother everyone as he was constantly interferring over issues that had nothing to do with their national security. All of these can be considered factors that affected international relations and certainly worsened them, but can not be classified as direct WWI causes as no one at that point was wanting or in a position to start a war, so they didn’t triggered at all the situation as other factors in 1914.

The Eastern question, that came all the way from the late 19th century, when the so-called “sick man of Europe”, the Ottoman Empire, left a power vacumm in the territory of the Balkans. This old conflict obtains importance because Austria-Hungary saw it as an opportunity to expand and by this; save it’s declining empire. Many historians claim that WW1 was determined by a matter of prestige, and Austria- Hungary, being a former powerful Empire was no exception. On the other hand, Russia’s desire to obtain this land created tension between these to former allies in the Three Emperor’s Alliance back in 1881, this tension created rivalry and would be a lethal factor when Russia decided to protect of Serbia against Austria-Hungary and increase the Balkan Nationalism to turn the Eastern Question towards her favour. Once again, we see the countries’ lack of vision and complete selfishness. Further, Serbia wanted to create a “greater” Serbia therefore also wanted to take advantage of the Eastern Question.

After the assasination of the hier to the Hasburg throne, the Archiduke Franz Ferdinand was assasinated in Sarajevo, Austria- Hungary decided to react by asking for support to her ally Germany because as historian AJP Taylor states; “ it was more than crime. It was a challenge to the position of Austria- Hungary”. The Kaiser’s extravagant and irresponsible response of supporting Austria- Hungary “whatever the decision in Vienna”, in order words, by giving them the “blank cheque” , is claimed to be one of the main short term casues of WW1 as it gave Austria the confidence to lauch an ultimatum to Serbia. From another perspective, Serbia was extremenly irresponsible to accept Austria’s ultimatum the 25th July 1914, an ultimatum so severe that it was bound to be rejected. This is another important short-term cause of the war, as it urged Russia to support Serbia and therefore start rearmament. After this, the Russo- German rivalry came into context without being the cause of the conflict, as Graham Draby states in Origins of the First World War; “a long term factor can affect the course of events after a given point without being a cause of how events came to that point.” 

In conclusion, both long- term and short- term causes played key roles in creating the perfect atmosphere for the powder keg to explote. Niether of these can be dismissed by the “war-is-inevitable” school of thought nor by the other extremes. It is possible that the Alliance system has the same importance as the inflexibility of the world leaders at 1914, who ordered mobilization and therefore the attack begun. This is mainly because, as Graham Darby claims ““long-term factors often often come into play once a war has begun ... account for how events unflod and they often have to find resolution”.  So, WWI is not a straight foward event that has a clear cause and consequence, it envolves a wide range of facts throughout several decades.