Causes of WWI

Causes of WWI  -Ben Pinheiro and Elkanna Roberts

The System of Alliances

The direct cause of World War I was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian Nationalist on June 28th 1914, however there was another major reason that caused the world to erupt, which was the alliance system. The first major alliance system was the Triple Entente, composed of France, Britain and Russia. The other alliance, named the Triple Alliance, composed of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. The System of alliance meant that conflict between one country from each side will involve all the other countries when Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. This caused a conflict between Serbia and Austria-Hungary to expand to include many of the major European powers squaring off against each other, thus starting the first world war.

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Militarism

In the years before WWI, the European powers had been increasing their military spending significantly. Britain and France’s spending increased by around 100%, while Germany and Austria-Hungary’s increased over 150%.  All of the powers, except for Britain, had conscription, which is forcing people to join the army. In France, 85% of men who could fight served in the army. In Germany, 50% of men fought. In these two countries, the size of their army more than doubled in the 40 years before the war. With the building up of military came growing distrust between the rivaling alliances.

Nationalism

Nationalism brought Germany together by blood and iron. It brought France together by the quest for revenge against Germany. Nationalism also bought violence to Austria-Hungary because the Slavic nationalist group grew increasingly unwary, their efforts were backed by Serbia and Russia. The reason nationalism played a big role in World War I was that europeans believed they had military, cultural, and economic supremacy over any other country, and this was due to to the media overpraising events about national events and making inflammatory stories about rivals. Nationalism told citizens that everything their country did was justified and righteous without blame. European countries also had not faced a significant military loss in over a century, making their citizens believe they were basically invincible. These assumptions, not without cause, were part to blame for the vulnerability of Eastern European countries by Germany. Germany was a new country formed through the strength of nationalism for country and military, however because of the false stories told throughout Europe, Germany was not seen as a threat because they were cold, cruel, and calculating.

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The Crises Before 1914

A series of crises before 1914 caused tension to rise between the powers in Europe.

The First Moroccan Crisis

In 1905, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany visited Morocco and denounced French authority there. His plan was to test the strength of the Entente alliance. The international crisis that Wilhelm’s actions caused was resolved a year late during the Algeciras Conference. Edward VII called Wilhelms actions “the most mischievous and uncalled for event which the German Emperor has been engaged in since he came to the throne”.

The Second Moroccan Crisis

The second Moroccan Crisis took place when Wilhelm sent a German gunboat to a port in Morocco to protect its citizens living there. They said that the French were ignoring the terms of the Algeciras Conference that resolved the First Moroccan Crisis. There was a period where war almost broke out until the Germans agreed to leave Morocco with the French if Germany got the rights for the Congo. A lot of German people felt that their government backed down in this crisis, and that was humiliating to them.

The Annexation of Bosnia

After tricking Russia during negotiations, Austria annexed Bosnia. Serbia was very mad about this because there was a large Serbian population living in Bosnia. This caused a crisis between the European powers and brought them to the brink of war. When Germany was in favor of the annexation, Russia gave in to their power. However, Russia was determined that they would not be humiliated by other powers again.

A hardening of attitudes, lack of trust, and overall rise of tension between European powers were all the results of these crises. Along with this, the Moroccan Crises strengthened the alliance between Britain and France, and the Bosnian Crisis strengthened the alliance between Austria and Germany.

Works Cited
Tonge, Stephen. "Causes of the First World War." A Web of English History. N.p., 
     24 Oct. 2014. Web. 18 Mar. 2015. <http://www.historyhome.co.uk/europe/ 
     causeww1.htm>.