Origins and Causes of World War 1

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ORIGINS AND CAUSES

LONG-TERM CAUSES

Alliance System

  • Countries viewed alliances as being a meant to protect themselves against any threat to their security, particularly Germany who feared encirclement, with Russia on the East and France/Britain on the West. The alliance system was undoubtedly one of the many long term causes of war.
  • Firstly the alliances were made in secret and so produced much distrust amongst the European powers. Their general suspicion prevented their diplomats from devising a suitable solution to many of the crises preceding the war.
  • Secondly the alliances were always made on a war-footing and so heightened the war tension and led to an arms race among the European powers.
  • For example, within four years of the Triple Entente in 1907, German had built nine dreadnoughts and consequently Britain built eighteen. Thus all the European powers were made ready for war in 1914.
  • Thirdly, since the European powers had made alliances with one another, a small dispute concerning one power was likely to become a war involving all powers.
  • Fourthly the alliances were originally strictly defensive but by 1910, many alliances had changed the character of these alliances. The Austro-German alliance of 1879, for example, was so modified that it had become an aggressive alliance.
  • After the Bosnian crisis in 1909, the German government promised to give military aid to Austria-Hungary if Austria invaded Serbia and Russia intervened on behalf of the latter.
  • As alliances had become instruments of national aggression, the chances of war doubled. Furthermore, after the formation of the Triple Entente, Germany began to feel the threat to her security.
  • This led to Kaiser Wilhelm II pursuing a more vigorous foreign policy in an attempt to break the unity of the Entente powers. This resulted in a series of international crises from 1905 to 1914.
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Militarism

  • Between 1900 and 1914 there was a particularly serious arms and naval race between the powers with there being a significant rise in the army and naval estimates of these European powers in these years.
  • Indeed Germany and Britain were the chief rivals at sea, with both countries building a significant fleet of dreadnoughts and cruisers.
  • Increased military and naval rivalry led to the belief that war was coming, an increase in military control of the civilian government as well as increased cooperation among the military staff of the countries of the same camp.
  • For example, all the ...

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