Ww1 Dbq 1 Analysis

Most people are familiar with World War I but a lot of them do not know how it started. WWI sparked in 1914 and ended in 1918. It was between Britain, France, Russia, Germany, Italy, Austria-Hungary, and the United States. The Underlying causes of the war was Militarism, Alliance, and Nationalism. Militarism is one of the causes because it created tension within the countries. It is a policy of glorifying military power and keeping an army “on the ready” for war. According to The Origins of the First World War by Emilie Zola, she states that “War is life itself…It is only warlike nations which have prospered” (Doc. 1). This shows that war was incredibly important to people and made people believe that their country will do well if they clash with others. “We realize that without power, without a strong navy there can be no welfare for us” (Doc. 8), this also displays that people think that a strong military would benefit their country. Militarism caused countries to collect an abundance of armaments, drove people into war, and encouraged them to fight and that is why it contributed to the start of WWI.
Otto von Bismarck created the idea of alliances because he did not want to fight a war on two fronts and he wanted other countries to help him: “When negotiations failed, he developed an alliance with Austria-Hungary and Italy which became known as the triple alliance. In response, France and Russia and Great Britain formed an alliance known as the Triple Entente” (Background essay). Both alliances created plans because they were paranoid that the other alliance would start a war. Alliances influenced WWI to occur because it made countries bolder in the war since they had other countries to support