World War 1 - long and short term causes of the war.

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World War I

28th November 1914, the day of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand led to what is now looked upon as one of the most devastating wars in history – The 1st World War.

The war itself is a matter that will be attended to later. But firstly and foremost, the war really began to fire up with other things – things that had been going on for more than fifty years before the war had actually began. They are also referred to and known as “Long Term causes.”

Below there are some concise and detailed paragraphs about some Long Term causes of the First World War:

Long Term Cause 1 – The Rise of Germany:-

At around 1850, Germany wasn’t a country but many separate states. So, the leaders of Prussia decided to unite the states. However, and unsurprisingly, France opposed this and went to war – simply because they didn’t want a stronger neighbouring country. France lost and the Germans ended victorious, taking two of France’s states along with it.

Long Term Cause 2 – The New Kaiser:-

In 1888, the death of Wilhelm I caused Wilhelm II to succeed the throne as he was heir to the throne. Germany had become a powerful country by this. So Wilhelm II decided to take advantage of his extraordinary power and end peace with Russia. In fact, he was so mean; he punched one of his navy crewmen in the stomach to eradicate his anger! As a result

Long Term Cause 3 – The Arms Race:-

After 1897, the German government began to build an enormous navy to challenge the British navy - one of the biggest in the world. Britain had a rule. The rule was that they must have a bigger fleet than the next two biggest in line. For example;

  • Britain has a navy with 20,000 ships
  • Germany has a navy with 11,000 ships
  • Russia has a navy with 8,000 ships

This means that Britain have a bigger fleet than the next two in line:

20    11+8    =    20    19    =    Rule Works

However, if Germany built 3,000 more ships, then they would have a total of 14,000 meaning that when joined together they would have a grand total of 22,000, annihilating Britain’s rule.

20        14+8    =    20        22    =    Rule Fails

So, in reply to this, Britain had to build more ships to beat the other countries’ grand total. Therefore, Britain built even more ships and the Germans replied to this... In fact, this conflict kept on going and going...

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Long Term Cause 4 – The Two Alliances:-

Germany signed a treaty of alliance with Austro Hungary in 1879. Then France joined forces with Russia, promising each other that if one of them went to war, they would help the other out. In addition to this, Britain then joined forces with them to fire things up even more. Below is a diagram from the Internet showing the alliances and when they occurred:

 

So, before the ...

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