The Main Causes Of World War I

Alliances also were a major impact on the ignition for World War 1. The chancellor in Germany, Bismarck, wanted peace with his neighbours instead of France to maintain the status quo for a safer Germany. Bismarck created the Three Emperors League in 1873 between Russia, Austria-Hungary(AH) and Germany – to retain peace with the neighbouring countries. However, it caused tension with France and later on Russia left due to their own dispute involving the Balkan War. In 1879, a dual alliance was formed with Germany and AH, since Russia departed before. The 3 Emperors Alliance was formed in 1881, which was an alliance that supposedly followed up to the Three Emperors League which later dissolved as well after Russia departed again. Bismarck tried
Due to Austria-Hungary’s (AH) annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1908, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was murdered along his wife Sophie on 28 June 1914 in Sarajevo. The murderer was a Serbian nationalist, Gavrilo Princip, who was a member of the secret military society known as the Black Hand. This performed stunt occurred because of the desire for independence in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BH). Since the 19th century AH had increasing tensions with Serbia (such as the pig war, Bosnian crisis, and Balkan wars) they were granted a ‘blank cheque’ from neighbouring Germany in 5-6 July. July 7th, an intentionally unbearable ultimatum was given to Serbia to give them humiliation and to purposely initiate mobilization with only 48 hours to reply. Surprisingly Serbia agrees to most terms, but AH still relinquished diplomatic measures with Serbia and declares war two days later. Tsar Nicolas II accepted Russian generals to mobilize on July 30th. Few days later, Germany declares war on Russia, then invade Luxembourg as a circumstance in the Schlieffen Plan regardless of its neutrality, then invades Belgium and declares war on France. Britain declares war on Germany and AH declares war on Russia. Historian Fritz Fischer believes it only Germany’s fault which caused the July crisis and military expansion to be catastrophic enough to form a
In Russia, it had its industrial growth during the 19th century, but it still lagged behind most of western Europe in the early 20th century. This was due to the under developed economy since Russia was a power mainly in agriculture other than its size. Although it still received foreign investments mainly from France for economy growth it still was a disadvantage for the workers (peasants). Problems arose such as political agitation, urban growth, social disruption, and demand for workers’ rights. Peasants who were working in the city were working 15 hours a day on average in horrendous and risky conditions. Russians in general weren’t satisfied politically since the government was run autocratically by Tsar Nicholas II. In the year of 1904-5, Russia lost a war against Japan attempting to expand which was unsuccessful and lead to the Russian revolution. In France, it was experiencing rapid economization during the mid 1800s causing workers to move next to industrial areas (cities) for work. This clashed in 1870s when Napoleon III lost a war from Prussia with Alsace-Lorraine which caused nationalism and tension. Industrialization and modernization was working for and expanding in France due to employment of 1 quarter of its population after the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine. Rail-ways, internal