Causes of World War 1

Causes of World War 1

1. Militarism, Nationlism and Imperialism

   • Certain countries felt a desire to expand their territories. They also believed they were the best. This led to military complications.
     • Boer War
       • Germany opposed Britain in South Africa and helped the Boers
         • This made Britain think that Germany wanted to destroy the empire
     • Dreadnought Crisis
       • in response to Germany increasing their navy, the British grew their navy to rival the Germans.
     • First Moroccan crisis and Agadir
       • Kaiser Wilhelm promised to support Morocco against France
     • The Balkan Wars
       • Serbia had annexed many countries in the Balkans. Austria-Hungary was it's next target
   • This led to the increasing tension in Europe

2. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

   • Austria-Hungary had taken over Bosnia and Herzegovina, much to Serbia's annoyance
   • The heir to the Austrian-Hungary thrones, Franz Ferdinand, went to Sarajevo to inspect the army
   • A group of young Serbs decided to assassinate him. The initial attempts failed, but Gavrillo Princip was able to shoot the Archduke and his wife, before being arrested
     • This led to the declaration of war, and ultimately led to Britain being dragged into the fighting

3. Aggresiveness

   • Some countries such as Russia, and faced some embarrassing defeats. They wanted to prove themselves again, and were just looking for a fight.
   • Germany had a bad relationship with Britain and France, and when the opportunity came, they decided to rival their enemies

4. Alliances

   • Serbia had an alliance with Russia, so when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Russia joined the war
     • However, Austria-Hungary had an alliance with Germany, so Germany decided to attack Russia
       • Germany decided to launch the Schlieffen plan, they attacked France before attacking Russia
   • Germany ended up attacking Belgium whilst attacking France
     • this led to Britain joining the war as, they had an alliance with Belgium