Analyze the causes of the First World War

HANSOO JANG

H11  

HISTORY

The First World War began between European countries in 1914. The Great Powers who were the countries involved in the First World War, were Germany, Britain, Russia, France and Austria-Hungary. The war first started between Austria-Hungary and Serbia when Archduke Franz-Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and his wife were assassinated in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. However, there were several other causes which accumulated the tensions between those Great Powers. Those causes are called long-term causes and they included the alliance system, militarism, nationalism, imperialism and some small wars that happened before the First World War.

First, the alliances were one factor of the causes of the First World War. The alliance system among the Great Powers separated them apart. The countries of Europe started allying with other countries as for its own protection for future needs and protection in the size of their armies. There were two alliances in Europe: the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente. At first, Otto von Bismarck, who was the Chancellor of Germany between 1871 and 1890, kept good relationship between Germany and Russia. Kaiser Wilhelm, however, changed Bismarck’s plan. Kaiser rather concentrated instead on the ‘Dual Alliance of 1879’ between Germany and Austria-Hungary. This became the Triple Alliance when Italy joined this alliance in 1882. It was also called Central Powers Alliance, because all three countries were all in the center of Europe.

Triple Alliance alarmed other nations in Europe strongly. In 1893, France and Russia formed a military alliance. Ten years later, France made another agreement, but this time with Britain, called ‘Entente Cordiale’ which means friendly relationship. It was not a formal alliance, but they promised to work together. In 1907, Britain made an agreement with Russia, and thus Triple Entente was formed. After the two groups were formed, the tensions between the two alliances increased. It is because, first the Triple Entente alarmed Germany to make Germany feel herself surrounded by France and Russia; second the alliances felt that when one country went to war, the others felt obliged to go to war as well. Therefore, the alliance system, the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente, had an effect of causing a war between the Great Powers. Another factor is the militarism.

Militarism took a great part in causing the First World War. Not only the soldiers were increasing, the guns, shells, bullets and other weapons such as the machine guns and huge field guns were being improved and increased in amount in case of war. So this led the main European powers more than doubled their spending on their armed forces, in the period 1900-1914. For example, Germany’s spending on armaments from the year 1872 to 1912 increased over 300%. The Militarism does not only mean arms race, but also a government’s attitude of mind. Because governments of all the countries in Europe, especially Germany and Austria-Hungary were militaristic, it increased the tension between nations. In arms race, it had a rolling snowball effect. So as one country increased and improved its armies, all the other countries felt obliged to increase their armies to keep the balance of power. Another reason was because the arms race made war more likely. As the countries develop and increasing weapons and armies, they became confident that they could win a future war and more willing to try their armed forces. Another aspect of the arms race, the naval race increased in Germany which feared Britain.

Join now!

Bitish navy was known as the most powerful navy in the world. It was always better than other navies. However, Kaiser Wilhelm, the German ruler, began to build up the German navy in 1900. At first, this would not concern Britain, because the Royal Navy (British Navy) was far too good so it would take Germany many years to catch up.

In 1906, things all changed. Germany invented the super-battleship ‘Dreadnought’ in 1906. It was faster, bigger and had a much greater firing range than any other existing battleships. Britain and Germany had a race to see who could ...

This is a preview of the whole essay