What Caused The Great War Essay

With many nations experiencing their own technological and industrial revolution, it was easy to understand the sheer destruction caused by the Great War. Countries felt the affects in nearly all aspects of their life during this time, from physical to economic eradication. Just over one-hundred years later, it is still crucial to discover what led to the first World War. An important aspect in understanding what caused WWI is the political and economic policies of European nations during this time. Driven by nationalism, these policies sprung out of the past French Revolution of political democracy. People that held alike ethnicities, languages and political ideas felt they had the right to develop their own nation, yet many of these groups that desired an independent nation were put under control of local rulers or even other nations. An example of this could be found within Germany. The
Nations began to undergo their own industrial revolution and expanded on their technological advance with the surplus capital they held. Natural resources and raw materials topped the list of necessities nations needed to keep developing their domestic manufacturing, ultimately leading to imperialistic policies. A prime example of imperialism was witnessed with the division of Africa amongst European nations to gain resources and materials they could send back home to profit off of. The colonies encountered conflicts frequently, only adding more fuel to the fire of economic tension of European nations. They also began using the majority of their budgets on military spending, stockpiling their armaments to a point where each nation considered it a matter of common sense to arm itself . European nations hoped the fact that everybody was equipped would deter the probability of war. Yet, with this battle for financial and military superiority, also came the heightened risk for all out