History essay why did world war one happen

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Why did WWI happen?

In 1914 the whole world was plunged into a violent war which ruined landscapes, shattered bodies leaving them broken and mentally scarred, and cost 20 Million lives.  Economies were turned upside down and once proud empires were toppled and replaced with new independent nations. How did this ‘Great War’ come about?

One of the reasons why the war started was to do with tension caused by the rapid build up of weapons and navy known as the arms and naval race. This was called Militarism. During the late 1890’s, Germany began to develop a naval force big enough to challenge the British navy. Germany’s decision to become a major sea power made it a bitter enemy of Great Britain. Britain saw Germany who wanted an empire and a strong navy as a threat to its own empire and decided to spend more on increasing and strengthening her own navy. This led to tension causing a naval race which saw Germany and Great Britain go to war in 1914. Also accompanied by the naval race was an arms race. Germany’s army was not the biggest but most historians agreed it was the best trained and most powerful. This increasingly worried Britain and France who decided to increase the pace of their own armament production and Germany responded by also increasing her own army and weapons that were needed to equip them.

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A second reason why the war broke out was to do with tension caused by the alliance system which was supposed to preserve the peace in Europe. An example of the alliance system causing tension was between Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary against Russia and France. During the late 19th Century, Germany took from France the important industrial area of Alsace-Lorraine and to guard from a revenge attack formed an alliance with Austria-Hungary and Italy. German leaders were very worried by what they called ‘encirclement’. Friendship between Russia and France was seen as an attempt to ‘surround’ and threaten Germany.

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