A third reason to World War One breaking out was the Moroccan Crisis of 1905 and 1911. During the crisis of 1905, the Kaiser went to Morocco and tactically and daringly suggested that he wanted Morocco to be independent. In obvious retaliation, the French were furious that he should suggest such a course as they went to a meeting with German officials in Algeciras. In the Crisis of 1911, France tried to take over Morocco. In retaliation to the French, this Kaiser held another meeting in which it was decided that France would take over Morocco, on condition that Germany gained some land in central Africa. The evidence here clearly shows how tactics and faint, but threatening, negotiations were clearly endangering the peace as many countries became more hateful towards each other - because of the need for global and economic imperialism. The Moroccan Crisis was not the most provocative cause of the war, but it is still relatively important as it led to the great increase and tensions between countries in Europe, and all over the world.
On the other hand, a short – term origin to World War One was the Balkan wars. The Balkan wars were two consecutive wars among the various countries of the Balkan Peninsula. The first Balkan war in 1908 saw Austria take over the provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Russia and Serbia were not too happy about that development, so they backed down when they found that Germany was on Austria's side. The clear problem was that it gave a lot more confidence to Austria. Later in 1912, there were small local wars in which Serbia was seen as the most powerful country in the Balkan's, Austria could not handle this and they decided that Serbia needed to be dealt with. All that was needed was a good excuse. The Third Balkan War started with the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife while they were in Sarajevo. The assassination was yet another blow to the triple alliance and an extreme trigger cause, that some argue sparked off the whole war itself. It was an excuse for countries to get at each other’s throats and a suitable opening to the war after all the tension and planning for a war was made. In the popular TV-series, Blackadder, it was once mentioned that the First World War only happened because it was too much of an effort for countries not to have a war. The assassination of the Duke by the Serbian black-hand terrorist group was a stunning opening shot to the war and a great excuse for Austria-Hungary to take on Serbia. That in turn would have led Russia to act and then result in a chain of reactions because of the various alliances - causing more countries to get involved. It is sometimes considered that as the war that had gone terribly wrong, the third Balkan war was in fact the main battle in World War One.
Overall, from all the evidence, sources and ideas that have been interpreted, it seems clear that the main and most important cause to World War One was Militarism. Militarism led to, linked to and included the Arms Race and the Schlieffen Plan. The Arms Race was a race to build the biggest Army, Navy and Airforce by the great powers of Europe. All countries, except Britain and Germany, were trying to build the biggest army the world had ever seen while Britain and Germany were competing to build up the biggest navy. In Germany, they had a small army but people said that it, even though one of the smallest, was the best trained and most powerful out of all armies involved in World War One. In 1900, Russia had the biggest army with 1.1 million but by 1914 it had been reduced to a mere army of 0.8 million, at a time when other countries, except Britain, had built a bigger army. Count Alfred von Schlieffen created the infamous Schlieffen plan. It was a plan that was supposed to protect Germany from fighting the war on two fronts. People were told that 'Under this plan they would quickly attack and defeat France, then turn their forces on Russia which would be slow to get its troops ready for war'. This Plan was a failure to Germany for it suffered many flaws. Firstly, Britain was not brought into the equation and France was stronger than they had expected. Secondly, they also did not expect Belgium, who was a neutral country at the time, to fight back against Germany with its natural flood defences - when Germany passed through Belgium to attack France. The third and perhaps the biggest flaw of all was that General von Schlieffen died before the plan even took place, and General von Montke took his place. As a result of pressure and intensive worry, von Montke strengthened the Southern faction of the German army, which almost certainly ruined its chance of success. The execution and the resulting failure of the Schlieffen plan clearly showed that Germany was willing to take very high risks to dismember France - or any other country for the matter. It led to Britain, Russia and France becoming much more alert, unsure and suspicious of the intentions of their future opponents.
Other contributing, but less important, causes to World War One include Imperialism, Nationalism and Territorial disputes. Imperialism took grew in Germany after 1870, which caused an immense increase in the manufacturing capability of the country and a pressurising need for markets. Between 1898 and 1914 the economic rivalry in Africa concerning the countries France, Great Britain and Germany almost predicted the outbreak of World War One as they were arguing over acquiring territory, economic resources and raw materials. Nationalism was the intertwined and resulting idea that people of the same ethnic origin, language and political ideas had separate states. In 1871 nationalism took hold in Germany making it an independent and unified state. At the same time, Germany was involved in feeding the tensions among other independent states in Europe, which lead to the start of World War One. Territorial disputes were also an ongoing problem between many states and countries as nationalist leaders wanted to grab more land despite the risks.
Historians have been debating the causes of World War One Since 1914. Some like Fischer, Bergmann, Albertan, Gneiss and Taylor all believed that Germany was the reason and the country that caused the war. Fischer believed that '(Germany) was convinced of its own military strength and was ready to use war to achieve its aims' and 'the primary goal was to achieve security... they would fight Britain with every means possible'. Fischer shows here that Germany was intent on a war so as to try to better their country. Bergahn believed that ‘war was a necessity for German survival', which is similar to Fischer's opinion. Other Historians believed along the same lines as Fischer - that Germany was to blame with the thoughts of Weltpolitik, the Schlieffen plan, especially Militarism, and Germany’s imperial aims in creating the tension in Europe. Other Historians believe that Germany should not take the full responsibility for there were other countries that bore some share of the blame. For example, the view that says 'the first World War was the third Balkan war got out of control', in fact tells us that Germany didn't have much to do with starting World War One, as the Balkan wars were only to do with the countries in the restless Balkan.
In conclusion, it seems clear that the First World War was inevitable, and could never really have been stopped. The European countries’ lust for superiority and power led to different causes, some more provocative than others, which created extreme amounts of pressure. This could be compared to the continuous inflation of a balloon, with more and more competition and tension, the more air that is pumped into the balloon, until it would eventually explode, as World War One would eventually break out. Even the smallest disputes could link and lead to bigger and more consequential ones, just like a chain of dominoes.
