Causes of WWI

Introduction
World War I was caused by a combination of increased nationalism throughout the world, an age of imperialism, an arms race between countries, and social tension throughout Europe. However, all these issues can be traced back to the industrial revolution. When countries began to industrialize and join together as a people and feelings of nationalism arose. Also as nations gained wealth and power, they felt the need to imperialize in order to gain more power, resources, and consumer markets. This caused tension between countries in places like Africa where many nations wanted land. Following the industrial revolution, countries were able to mass produce weapons which lead to an arms race in which countries tried to produce as many weapons possible. Finally industrialization lead to social tension because the working people in industrialized nations gained suffrage and were no longer content with their social status. All these reasons on the eve of WWI severed alliances and allowed the war to spread so far so fast.

This picture personifies the European Powers preparing for war.  

Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/424464333602368551/ 

Nationalism 

Nationalism was one of the major causes of WWI and a huge source of strain on the affairs of the European powers. Germany's nationalism was driven by the fact that they felt they should be the dominant power in Europe. They allied more closely to Austria Hungary, in an effort to take control of South Eastern Europe. Due to their nationalistic mindset, Germany presseured Austria Hungary to declare was on Serbia once Franz Ferdinand was killed by Serbian nationalists (so they could obtain the SE block), which kickstarted WWI. The assassination of Franz Ferdinand was the spark that started WWI and was caused by nationalism. Austria Hungary annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina to prevent it from becoming part of Serbia, which was trying to expand at the coast of Austria-Hungary. To retaliate, a member of a Bosnian-Serb terrorist nationalist group, the Black Hand, assassinated the Archduke and his wife. This action exploded into the Great War in about a month.

Archduke Ferdinand Source: http://hd.housedivided.dickinson

Gavrilo Princip, his assassin Source: http://serbianna.com/blogs

Imperialism 
Imperialism made alliances much more complicated and made the war more crippling. Imperialism brought countries together that wouldn't normally interact, such as Russia and Japan in the Russo-Japanese war of 1905, which was fought over colonies in China. That was helped form the Triple-Entente by allying Russia with France and Britain. Imperialism also created resentment between the European powers, which generated more complicated alliances. The Germans felt that they were entitled to foreign colonies, and they pursued their goal by challenging Britain's maritime dominance. This provoked a naval arms race between the two countries. Germany created another crisis over imperialism by interfering in Morocco, a country where France was establishing a protectorate. These actions forced Britain to ally with France first (1904) and then Russia (1907), forming the Triple Entente. Also, it has been said that Germany was motivated by imperial aspirations to invade Belgium and France. Those invasions ultimately activated alliances and started the war. Thus, imperialism directly contributed to the outbreak of the war and alliances that made the war so devastating.

Cartoon exemplifying British imperialism

Source: http://philosophersforchange.org/2015/02/17/the-new-imperialism/


    

           


External Links

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/origins_01.shtml Here is an in depth article about some of the causes of WWI from the BBC 

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CB4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.schoolhistory.co.uk%2Fgcselinks%2Fwars%2Ffirstwwlinks%2Fworksheets%2Fcausesofwwi.ppt&ei=3AEUVZW_A-OHsQSyiICQBw&usg=AFQjCNG7g91ZumhSNsogqMIGu4mM1XQZjA&sig2=PICsc5uAKMzmE3jVCdfB2Q&bvm=bv.89217033,d.eXY Here is a link to a powerpoint about the M-A-I-N-(S) causes that were outlined in the video

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/history/euro-hist/world-war-I-tutorial/v/empires-before-world-war-i Here is the Khan Academy series on the subject complete with a quiz

Works Cited 
"World War I." Europe Since 1914: Encyclopedia of the Age of War and Reconstruction. Ed. John Merriman and Jay Winter. Vol. 5. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2006. 2751-2766. World History in Context. Web. 25 Mar. 2015.

The 4 M-A-I-N Causes of World War One in 6 Minutes. YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRcg_t2oJkc>