World War One Research Essay

World War One did not have a one and only cause, but it is the result of alliances, militarism and nationalism which led to the tension throughout Europe. The war was finally set off in a chain reaction started by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary in June 1914.

Nationalism was a prominent movement that had spread itself across Europe. “Nationalists believed that their own nation’s needs must be met before that of other nations.” The people’s strong beliefs became out of control as they became so proud of their nation that they went out of their way to help it become “richer and more powerful then any other country”. The group of young ‘terrorists’ who had assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were also nationalists. They had been used as scapegoats by Serbian leaders who believed that Ferdinand would continue the persecution of Serb once appointed to the throne.

By the start of the 20th century, Germany and Britain were going head to head in an industrial race for weaponry and other war structures in an effort to increase their stocks of weaponry and other instruments of warfare. “Britain controlled the largest empire on earth and also had the largest and most powerful navy on earth.” The Germans had become envious of Britain’s extremely large navy and began producing their own navy ships. “Economic and imperial competition and fear of war further escalated the tension contributing to the outbreak of war.” This was the start of an arms race between the two countries leading to further tension in Europe. ‘Germans believed they had to make themselves so strong that nobody would dare attack them.” European countries became more untrusting of each other and militarism became more and more prominent as counties longed to be independent and more powerful then any other nation if a war broke out.

Alliances was one of the major causes to World War 1 and over time, countries throughout Europe made mutual defence agreements that would pull them into battle. “If one country was attacked, allied countries were bound to defend them.” The Triple Alliance which was made up of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. The Triple Entente’, formed by Russia, Britain and France. The main aim of these two groups was to maintain peace throughout Europe but instead conflicts grew and a war was predicted to happen.

The Slavic people in Bosnia and Herzegovina no longer wanted to be part of Austria Hungary but instead, they wanted to be part of Serbia. “The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife was the perfect excuse for Austria-Hungary to declare war against Serbia.” This forced Russia to begin mobilizing due to its alliance with Serbia. Germany seeing Russia mobilizing, declared war on Russia. France was then drawn in against Germany and Austria-Hungary. Germany attacked France through Belgium pulling Britain into war. The pressure had been building and growing over many decades and it was finally sparked by the assassination causing this domino effect of alliances. “The alliance system was as much at fault as anything.”

The Great War was predicted decades earlier, yet no one had tried to prevent it. All these small problems had collided to form a war that resulted in the death of 16 million soldiers and leaving 21 million casualties. The war has shown us that human’s greed and hunger for power can destroy us all. There is, and will never be, a single reason that can be blamed for the Great World War.