In 1914, Europe was divided into two, the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente. A catastrophic war broke out between these two European powers due to many factors which resulted in great amounts of tension. It proved to be one of the most brutal and horrific wars the world will ever fight, with an estimated thirteen million deaths. The four main reasons why WW1 broke out were The Alliance System, Imperialism, The Arms Race and the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. Overall, the most important cause was the assassination of Franz Ferdinand.
One cause of WW1 was the alliance system, which involved two main forces: The Triple Entente, consisting of Britain, France and Russia and The Triple Alliance consisting of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. Each member of an alliance promised to help its allies if they were attacked by another country. Each nation supported the others in its alliance to create a more balanced and powerful force. For example if one nation had a weak navy but a strong army then it could ally with a nation that had a strong navy but a weak army; the two would balance out.
This led to the outbreak of war because it created it atmosphere of fear, suspicion and mistrust. Many secret arrangements were made between allies, which resulted in small-scale crises. The Moroccan Crisis in 1904 is an example where Germany, in fear of secret arrangements being made by Britain and France, made a secret alliance with Morocco, promising to defend them if France invaded. In this instance, Germany was pushing for conflict to test out the loyalties of France.
The result was great amounts of friction between the two alliances. Germany was very afraid of the hostile countries surrounding it on its eastern and western borders, even though the Kaiser desired Germany to become a worldwide power. Austria-Hungary, a nation struggling to contain rebellions was bordering with Russia, who supported these rebels. By doing this the