Cause Of World War I

World War 1 was an occurrence after the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria by a Serbian nationalist in 1914. This wasn’t the main cause of the war, it was only the last straw that broke the camel’s back. The main causes of the war are deeper than on the surface. They include political, territorial and economic conflicts. There has been a lot of tension between the powers in Europe since the shift of the balance of power. The unification of Italy and most especially Germany also made the tensions increase. Before the occurrence of World War 1, there were lots of alliances made between states of the European continent which tied them to one another. Alliance is an arrangement between two or more countries, groups etc.
Imperialism is when a country increases their power and wealth by bringing additional territories under their. Another definition of imperialism is a policy of extending a country’s power and influence through colonization, use of military force or other means. In other words, it is the taking over of another territory through any means. The continents of Africa and Asia before the war were colonies under European countries. This was basically because of the rich raw materials that were present only in this areas. The domination of plenty colonies made competition increase and the desire to build an empire abroad amongst the European countries. Britain was a number one colony possessor. Britain had accumulated a lot of territories both in Africa and Asia. Some including; Nigeria and India. This increased Britain’s’ power and other European states wanted to emulate Britain. The tension for not just colonies but also trade routes increased amongst the emerging economic powers and the super powers. At this stage, Germany was a growing power and wanted to accumulate as much land as Britain and France. One of the conflicts that had to do with trade routes was that of the Berlin-Baghdad railway. This railway was supposed to be able to link Germany to Mesopotamia but Britain’s blockade prevented this creating further tension. Eventually an agreement was signed on this particular railway
The German army officer Alfred Vagts described militarism as the “domination of the military man over the civilian, an undue preponderance of military demands, and an emphasis on military considerations”. During this period, generals played a key role in not only military issues but also took the role of advising political heads, influencing domestic policies and asking for increase in spending on defence. The increase in military spending by one country threatened the other countries making them all alert and also increasing their own spending on defence. This resulted into what is known as arms race. This is the increase, expansion and modernisation of military force. The stronger your military, the more power and influence you command. Any state who had weak defence system was considered weak. To avoid being seen as a weakling, governments did all they could to stand strong. Although the increase in arms in the countries varied, it still made others cautious. For example, in Germany, military expansion was a suggestion of the king Kaiser Wilhelm 11, who wanted to retain his country’s “place in the sun”. Britain on the other hand was under pressure from the press as well as pressure groups proclaiming that Britain was weak and unprepared for war. This made the government produce more ships and increase its military spending. Due to this increase in military expenditure the amounts spent on defence increased rapidly. (In 1870, the combined military