Assess critically the causes of world war I

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        10/20/2010 9:44 PM

Introduction

World War I was a conflict which began in Central Europe in August 1914, involving all of Europe’s Great Powers comprising of mainly two opposing alliances: The Triple Alliance (Italy, France, Austria-Hungary and Germany) and the Triple Entente (France, Great Britain, Russia). The causes of World War I, which have been disputed by historians ever since the crisis started, can be traced back four decades to 1870 up until the war started in 1914. The fundamental cause of World War I was the sweeping increase of nationalism in Europe at the time, with militarism being a close second, and lastly imperialism, which also proved to be a prevalent cause of the war, just not as significant as the other two. There were other factors, which contributed to the outbreak of World War I, such as the alliance systems between European powers before the war started, but they were just not as indispensable.

A fundamental cause of World War I was the spread of nationalism, which eventually lead to the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, which was essentially the catalyst of World War I.

There were two kinds of nationalism in 19th Century Europe: The first kind was people’s desire for independence, and the second was the desire for dominance and prestige for independent nations. The first kind led to conflict in the Balkans which eventually got other powers involved and resulted in a lot of instability and tensions between the European powers, and the second kind led to rivalries between the European powers as they tried to dominate each other. Some examples of this were the Bosnian Crisis. In 1908, when Austria-Hungary took over the former Turkish provinces of Bosnia, the Serbians got angry because they felt that the province should be theirs. Serbia then threatened Austria-Hungary with war, so Serbia’s ally (Russia), mobilized its forces. Austria-Hungary’s ally, (Germany) also mobilized its forces to threaten Russia, and war was avoided when Russia backed down. Nationalism was shown with the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. When the two Turkish provinces had been administered by Austria since the Congress of Berlin, Austria annexed Bosnia after tricking Russia, which made Serbia furious because there was a large Serbian population in Bosnia. This event nearly led to a general European war as it permanently damaged relations between Austria-Hungary, Russia and Serbia. In 1911-12, there was war in the Balkans when the Balkan states drove Turkey out the area and fought each other over which area should belong to which state. Austria-Hungary then intervened because they were a growing Slav state and forced Serbia to give up land. This caused high tensions between Serbia and Austria-Hungary. All of this violent tension and armed forces eventually led to the assassination of Franz Ferdinand by the underground Serbian terrorist organization, The Black Hand. This resulted in The Triple Entente and Triple Alliance to start the First World War. Also, as a result of these crises, 3/5 of the South Slavs were now under Austrian rule. With Austria’s difficulty in ruling them, and Germany’s promise of support, Austria wanted to battle Serbia as soon as opportunity arose, which is essentially what led to Germany’s “blank cheque” to Austria after Ferdinand’s assassination, and Austria’s declaration of war on Serbia on 28th of July. According to historian Samuel R. Williamson J.R “The Balkan wars not only revolutionized the geographical situation; they also revived and accentuated feelings of South Slav unity. For the Habsburgs, their biggest threat were the victorious Balkan states which stimulated new self confidence among South Slav citizens because Serbian and Croatian political leaders had started openly talking of a greater Yugolsavian unity. This led to intense political violence [jingoism], such as the assassination of Franz Ferdinand”

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Militarism was the second most important factor in contributing to the outbreak of World War I, because it started military and naval rivalry and a preference for offensive warfare, which made sure that all the European powers were ready for war by 1914. Militarism refers to a rise in military expenditure, an increase in military and naval forces, and a preference for force as a solution to problems. After 1871, secret alliances led to an arms race between the powers. The race was prominent between 1900 and 1914. There was a significant rise in the army and naval estimates ...

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