What Were The Causes Of Ww1

World War I was a series of unfortunate events for everyone involved. It's made out to be this great war that we must learn about, but once we do, we soon find out that it was just a string of very small events that led to such a big and preventable war. The three biggest causes of WWI are the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the Balkans, and Militarism. The leading cause of the beginning of WWI was the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. It happened in June 1914 by a group that went by the name of the Black Hand. With a failed first attempt to kill him and his wife they walked with caution for the remainder of the day, until a successful second attempt managed to kill him. With him and his wife dead everyone went into panic,
why would someone do something like this? The people of Austria-Hungary needed answers. Black Hand is a Serbian group who wanted their land back that was taken from them, going hand and hand in imperialism also. The act made Austria-Hungary tense and ready to fight so they declared war on Serbia, ultimately testing new and old alliances. The next cause is the Balkans. The Balkans is a bunch of countries in the 1800s that wanted some sort of freedom ( Serbia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, ect…). Some important background information to have is all of these countries have alliances against Russia so if and when they attack, they will have backup. The thing is though, the Balkans is right in the middle of all of this and already have land owned by Austria- Hungary. In 1870 Greece and Romania were able to rebel for freedom so the rest wanted to too. By 1875 Serbia, Bosnia, and Bulgaria wanted out of the Ottoman Empire for obvious religious reasons. At the same time Russia was trying to find a way to warm water so they could send their ships more places. The Bulkans met up with Russia and set an alliance that stated if they can get out of the Ottoman Empire, they can pass through anytime they want to get to warm water ports. Of course Russia agreed but it strictly went against the alliance with Austria-Hungary. In the end Serbia became independent, Bosnia was under the Austria- Hungary Empire, Romania went to Russia, and poor Bulgaria stayed with the Ottoman Empire. Lastly, we have Militarism.
The exact definition of militarism is a belief or desire that the people of a country should be loyal and maintain a strong military connection. Militarism can be the leading cause of many wars and the argument is still used today. In places like North Korea, Soviet Union, America, and Germany militarism is a very popular belief. Militarism has always been one of the most dominated things in a country and if you have a strong army you are credited a lot from it. It was a constant battle with armies in the years before WWI. You have Germany, Russia, Britain, France, and many others trying to get their biggest armies together. Everyone felt a sense of distrust between them so that caused more a reason to get a bigger army. This was known as the “arms race”. While everyone was gathering armies, Britain built an army like no other. With new advancements nobody could top them and it frustrated many. France, Germany and Russia suddenly began to panic and wondered what they could do to get more men in. Some had bases set up so when and if they are called they could be ready immediately, others had millions of people reserved for it. Once Britain hit the top they were infamous for the quality of their military. While they were basking in their glory Germany was making a quick comeback. Now with this on Britians shoulders, they had to act fast, so they decided to be sneaky and make the Triple Entente Alliance with Russia And France. It was a constant battle between whose army was better and eventually it got to the point where people got defensive about it and started getting
violent. World War I was caused from an assassination, the Balkans, and people being prideful in ones military. The aftermath of WWI was many things were sent back to the drawing board. People were tense, dishonest and scared for obvious reasons. Politically, things were falling down and many other countries were affected by the war also. Things were uneasy culturally and economically and everything died down once it was over. Otherwise known as the “Great War” it left nine million soldiers dead and twenty one million wounded. It also left over five million citizens wounded, or dead. This war shows how powerful pride in one's country or the military can be and it also shows not to mess with other countries beliefs, or it might just start a war.