Cause Of World War 1 Essay

Causes of World War One

The two main causes of the First World War were Imperialism and Militarism; however the direct cause of World War One was the assassination of Archduke Franz-Ferdinand at Sarajevo on 28th June 1914. The Black Hand, a nationalist organization in Serbia, supported the assassination. It was a secret military society with the mission of uniting all the Slavic States. By assassinating the Archduke (the presumed heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne), and a rejection of the ultimatum proposed by Austria-Hungary, they ultimately led to the First World War. A month after the assassination Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and started the First World War.

Imperialism was one of the main causes of the World War, and many Marxists claim that the European States went to war in order to protect the capitalist market and raw materials. Britain at this time was one of the superpowers of the world, ruling around one-sixth of the world. Darwin is quoted saying, “The
The naval race between Germany and Britain created major tensions in the continent, similar to those of the Cold War. The United Kingdom had the biggest navy in the world prior to this, but on Wilhelm II’s orders and enthusiasm the German Navy began to expand drastically. The British defense policy at that time was to make sure that their navy was at least twice the size of the next two largest navies. Also, over 85% of men of military age in France and 50% in Germany had served in the army or navy, another feat of the military at that time. In 1880 Germany had 88.000 tons of military shipping, Britain 650,000; by 1910 the figures were 964,000 and 2,174,000 respectively. When the British navy launched the HMS Dreadnought in 1906, matters were made worse, since this ship was fast, armored and had powerful guns making the older battleships obsolete. To sum up, one of the major causes of the First World War was the mere show of