The Great War (now known as World War 1) took place for 4 years from the 28th July of 1914 to the 11th of November 1918. There were two sides to the war, The Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary) and The Allied Powers (The British Empire, France, The Russian Empire, Belgium, Italy etc.) There were about 16 million deaths and 21 million casualties. The Allies won the war and forced the end of the German Empire and the Treaty of Versailles to be signed. The build up and causes of the war can be split into four themes: Imperialism, Militarism, Alliances and Nationalism.
Just before World War 1, many European countries wanted to expand their empire, because colonies can provide them with a lot of cheap raw materials and wealth. This created a fierce competition to take over other countries and especially in Africa at that time. Competition created tension between countries, and Germany felt unhappy and angry because they did not manage to get as much colonies as other countries.
Another reason of how imperialism caused World War 1 is the Bosnia Crisis in 1908. Austria-Hungary was greedy and wanted more power, so they took over Bosnia. This made the people very angry, because they wanted to be a free country where they were not mistreated because of their nationality. This led to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
Alliances played a big role in World War 1, because without it the war might have been just between two countries or it may not have happened at all. Alliances caused a lot of tension and suspicion between countries, because countries grew suspicious of the intensions of the alliances. Two alliances were formed before World War 1: the Triple Entente (consisting of Britain, Russia and France) and the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy). The first alliance was made between Germany and Austria-Hungary, and because it was made discretely, when the