What Was The Main Cause Of Ww1 Essay

There are differing historical perspectives regarding the causes of World War One, these causes include, imperialism, militarism, alliances, and nationalism. Imperialism was a major contributing factor to the start of WW1. Tensions between Germany, Britain, and France grew throughout the years prior to WW1 due to the vast amount of land France and Britain had acquired. Imperialism also led to certain political alliances such the triple entente and the triple alliance. Germany was also very worried because Great Britain owned a quarter of the world’s population which was a bad thing for every other country in Europe. Due to the vast expansion of certain European nations, Germany decided to build up their army and navy to combat the development of these nations which then leads into another main cause, militarism. When Germany started to develop and expand their army, many nations followed suit. Nations would compete with each other to create the largest and most effective military, this is referred as an “arms race” . By the year 1909 Great Britain, Germany, and Russia had each spent over 300 million USD on military
and defense. This outlandish spending made many nations in Europe wary and cautious of each other which hurt relations, alliances, and the overall morale of European citizens, because many foresaw a large war in the not so distant future. Throughout WW1 there were two primary alliances, the triple entente consisting of Russia, France and Britain and the triple alliance consisting of Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary.
Now the alliance system didn’t spark the war, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand did, but these alliances allowed for a world scale war to happen. Austria-Hungary would have never gone to war if they didn’t have Germany as an ally, because they would be decimated right away, but with the assistance of Germany and Italy they were comfortable with going to war. If the alliances weren’t in place, the most we could expect would be a small war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, but due to the alliances being in place, it turned into a world
war. Nationalism led to many conflicts between European countries. Nationalism is the reasoning Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, which was the “direct cause” of the start of WW1. Nationalism and militarism also have a direct link. If the public outcry for a strong military wasn’t so significant, there is a fair chance that an arms race wouldn’t have occurred, or at least a toned down arms race would have occurred. It is also believed that if nationalism wasn’t such a cornerstone of early 1900th century Europe, a large war would have never materialized because nations and their populations wouldn’t have been motivated to fight over their country's pride and ideals. So why. Why talk about something, that people have discussed, analyzed, investigated for decades. I feel like it’s important to gain lessons from everything in life and I achieved that by writing this paragraph. It’s important to discuss history, to reflect on the past, and to learn about what people and nations were like before, so we can learn from their failures and from their achievements.