The nationalist feeling was also present in the economic ambit. The Industrial Revolution, that begun in Great Britain at the end of the XVIII century, in France at the beginnings of XIX and in Germany from 1870, caused a great increase of manufactured products, so this countries were forced to be looking for new markets abroad. Africa was the place in where the politic of European expansion was best developed but also where the respective interests of colonies were in conflict quite often. The dominion over African territory caused economical rivalry between France, Germany and Great Britain. Therefore, this conflict was, from 1989 a latent reason for war in Europe.
As a consequence of these problems, the European countries adopted measures in interior and exterior politics between 1871 and 1914 that increased the danger of a conflict; they kept many permanent armies, which were constantly recruiting more and more people. They were realized in peace times so when the army was needed it was a really big one. The conflict which had place between Russia and Japan showed new armament. The advances in other areas of technology and military organization helped the creation of major states able to do plans of mobilization and very precise attacks, which could not be stopped once they had begun.
The leaders of all the countries took into account that the increasing amounts of money spent in arms would lead in some time into national crisis or wars. Because of this, it was tried worldwide to act in favour of disarming in several times. However, the international rivalry was in such a point that it was not possible to achieve any effective agreement in favour of international disarming.
At the same time, the European states established alliances with another powers so they were not isolated in case of a war. This attitude created something that increased the possibilities of a general conflict: the union of the great powers of Europe into two military alliances. They were the Triple Alliance, formed by Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy; and the Triple Entente, Great Britain, France and Russia. These blocs of countries were really strong so changes that were produced into these alliances contributed to create an atmosphere of latent crisis, but not war: that is why this period of time is called the “Armed Peace”.
The alliance systems were supposed to promote peace. All countries were making treaties about non-aggression pacts. Each country would be protected by others in case of war, making it more difficult to be attacked or at least, the countries would think twice before attacking an alliance country. However “the whole trend of European diplomacy was leading in the direction of two power blocs which were likely, sooner or later, to go to war with another” (McDonough, Frank, The Origins of the First World War, 1871 – 1914 pg. 13) Which was quite obvious that if they were doing alliances, and there was a war, the alliances were going to fight against each other to preserve themselves and to take the opponent out of the way.
The Bulgarian crisis played an important role too it left clear how complex the Balkan problem was: it seemed to become biggest than ever. It also showed that if there were problems there, the whole world seemed to suffer some effect. Now almost every European country had something to do with it.
Imperialism was also an important factor. It was like a competence between European countries. All of them wanted to have more and more colonies. France and Britain had many colonies in Africa and Asia. Now Germany and Italy decided they wanted a colonial empire as well. They were jealous of the countries and with good reason, because they had the opportunity of getting to other places where they could get raw materials and cheap labour.
After the unification of Germany in 1871, there was an incredible growth in her economy and industries, because as the rest of empires with colonies. There was no trust between the European powers due to the economic situation of Austria. Also, the resentment of France because of the losing of Alsace and Loraine and the hostilities of Russia before the Austrian ambitions over the Balkans were latent increasing problems. This events made the powers to establish military alliances, which, after a while were fragile and they were only creating more conflict. It was very complex; every problem could lead into another one.
The industrial development and the competence between powers generated tensions and problems in a world in which there were no more colonies or markets to share, complication even more the already awful relations between European countries.
Germany had important aims for war. She wanted economic and military domination of Europe. The aims of Germany were not precisely making happy the rest of European countries; Germany wanted power. Therefore it seemed very attractive the idea of building a Central African Empire. It would give Germany the opportunity of extending her empire as well as more strength in her economy. She was a very powerful country, which at the same time made her a very dangerous country to be opposed to.
To survive as an independent power was one of the main reasons that Austria-Hungary had for entering the war. They did not want to depend of any other country, they wanted autonomy. This also they wanted to destroy Serbia, that was because they were frightened, they though that Serbia might have become a very strong power and they wanted to make sure that was not going to happen otherwise, it could make their position to shake.
The immediate cause which provoked the outbreak of the First World War was the assassination of the Prince Archduke Franz Ferdinand. However there were stronger reasons than that to make a war start in that precise moment. The intense nationalist feeling that grew all over Europe was not as insignificant as it seems, it was creating conflicts which was precisely what Europe did not need anymore. The sense of competition as well was the economic and politic rivalry between the different nations was also affecting the relations between several countries. The process of militarization and the accelerated development in arms were obviously things that were affecting the whole world but also that were like a bomb gathering more and more material could not last very long, until it exploded.