Assess Critically Three Causes of World War 1.

The First World War officially began in August of 1914, when Austria declared war on Serbia and Russia on Austria then Germany on Russia until the whole continent almost became inevitably involved. But most historians suggest that the war began many years before that and it had been building up until it would finally break open and explode. The spark that set off and triggered the war was the assassination of the Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand and his wife who were heir to the Austria-Hungarian Empire. As American historian Sydney Bradshaw Fay suggests the First World War was caused by imperialism, nationalism, and tangled alliances. But clashes and arguments that eventually caused the war can be traced back to the early 1800’s.
One of the most significant causes of the First World War was tangled alliances; Europe was divided into two main groups, the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente. The war spread quickly once alliances were involved. The first and one of the most significant alliances which did indeed influence the war to a huge extent was between Belgium and Britain agreeing that Belgium was a neutral country. Because Germany was a growing superpower in Europe and felt boxed in between France and Russia; this lead to the Dual Alliance between Germany and Austria-Hungary. Italy eventually joined Germany because they felt threatened by France and the Alliance became known as the Triple Alliance. The other big player in alliance was the Triple Entente, it first started out as an alliance between France and Russia whose common enemy was Germany, but Britain joined. Now the whole of Europe was involved in some way to do with alliance and once war started it would not exclude many countries.
Imperialism was another contributing cause to the war, because European nations where nationalistic in general each country wanted to exert there influence all over the world and take over overseas colonies. Some of the first conflicts occurred when the Europeans took notice