The Immediate Cause Of World War I

World War 1(WW1), which is also recognized as “The Great War”, was a global war, mostly centered in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. While there was a chain of events that led to the fighting, there were many causes of the war, some of which remain unexposed today. There were immediate and underlying or fundamental causes of WW1. The distinction between an underlying cause and an immediate cause is that an immediate cause is a specific short-term, even that directly leads to another event or series of events, and an underlying cause develops over a long period of time and indirectly leads to a specific event and it may be difficult to discover or reveal them. The Immediate cause of WW1 was the assassination of French Duke Ferdinand and his wife at Sarajevo, (the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina) on 28th June 1914. However, the
question remains, what were the main causes of WW1. Prior to WW1, countries in Europe could not maintain a balance in power, which generated conflicts and rivalry in their foreign policies to the extent that militarism, alliance system, imperialism and nationalism forced a war. Militarism was a cause of WW1 because it increased military rivalry and escalated tension between countries.
The naval arms race were mainly between Germany and Britain. Germany had an industrialized nation and as well an industrialized military. Germany spent a lot of money improving their military and other countries saw this as a threat, so they decided the improve their naval arms to counter The Schlieffen Plan. This led to the belief that war was coming. Britain who were the main rival of Germany decided to upgrade her military force by building the HMS dreadnought (the word means fear nothing),which was a very large, fast heavily armed battleships with guns. In response, Germany built a similar battleship, increasing tension and nerves. The German ruling group felt that the only way they can become a power was only through war. Militarism fathered a dangerous child, the arms race, that pushed European nations to equip, modernise and expand their military forces. As a result of the armaments race, all the European powers were prepared for a war, since it was characterized as a test of
strength. The alliance system was a cause of WW1. With the agreement of major powers coming together for assistance of each other, any conflict had the potential to turn into a World War. The Triple Entente which included Great Britain, France, Russia and The Triple Alliance which consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, were the two main alliances. The Triple Entente alarmed Germany, and she felt surrounded by the alliance, this made a worried uneasy atmosphere and she began to build up her empire ready for any attack. This alliance system expanded the participation of conflict. Also,other countries were only involved in joining these conflicts because they had a belief of using their military and weapons to solve political problems. In effect of alliance, each country wanted to be a step ahead of each other, and this resulted to a war.