Ww1 Essay

The First World War began in August 1914. It was directly triggered by the assassination of the Austrian archduke, Franz Ferdinand and his wife, on June 28, 1914 by Serbian revolutionary, Gavrilo Princip. This event was, however, simply the trigger that set off many declarations of war. The actual causes of the war are more complicated and are still debated by historians today. But there were two important causes that are truly believed to be the factors of World War One. The two underlying causes that led to World War One were Alliances and Militarism because there were rivalries between nations, alliances between countries caused direct declaration of war, and arms races had commenced. A number of alliances had been signed by countries between the years 1879 and 1914. These were important because they meant that some countries had no option but to declare war if one of their allies declared war first. An example of this comes from a Chicago Tribune article labeled “The Crime of the Ages. Who did it?” Where all of the nations are declaring war on each other because of their allies, causing a chain reaction of war declarations due to the start of it when Serbia had war declared on them by Austria-Hungary. (Doc. 4) Now Europe had much tension as the battle line was drawn with Central Powers being Germany and Austria-Hungary on one side and Allies consisting of many nations like Great Britain, France, and Russia with Italy joining later. Italy had been a member of the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary. However, the Italians joined the other side after accusing their former partners of unjustly starting the war. (Doc. 3) The cause of all this havoc was the rivalries between nations in Europe that sparked the war. The tension between countries was matched by tension within countries. Especially in southeastern Europe, in an area known as the Balkans. Ethnic groups revolted as Austria-Hungary and Russia stood by. The region was a “powder keg”