The Main Cause of World War I: Imperialism or Alliances?

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The first world war, also known as the Great War, was called great, because never has there been a war before with such scale that has caused so many lives and destruction from 1914 – 1918. The industrial revolution, the rise of the masses and sweeping changes in society added up for all the tension between European nations. On the summer of 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo, marking a start, but a single bullet must not only be the reason to begin a war. Countless historians still debate what the main cause is for World War 1. Was it imperialism, militarism, growing nationalism, or connected alliances? They may have all contributed to world war 1. However two main causes heavily influence the start of the war, and that is Imperialism, that has set upon jealousy amongst other nations, and the growing alliances between the allies, which were Russia, Britain and France, and the central powers of Germany, Austria – Hungary and Turkey. These two main causes greatly impacted the first world war, which people thought would have ended on Christmas of 1914, but has continued far long enough for years, that would change history.
With the turn of the 20th century, power and expansion went hand in hand in Europe, in the form of Imperialism. Imperialism meant controlling other countries and taking over by military, economic, and political forces (52). During 19th century, the industrial revolution changed all systems of European nations. Due to the industrial revolution, many European countries needed a lot of resources but their own resources were not enough. Therefore, they conquered other countries and brought numerous amount of raw materials from their colonies. The powerful European countries took over a lot o...

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...ons, but it would have not involved other nations if they kept to themselves without their alliances.
Over 50 years of growing alliances, nations thought that this would bring them into a sense of safety, but rather it has done the opposite. Little did they know that their ties would drag them into a full-blown scale of war?

Works Cited

Brendon, Vyvyen. The First World War, 1914 -1918. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2000. Print.
Darby, Graham. The Origins of the First World War. London: Longman, 1998. Print.
Fitzgerald, James, Alf Pickard, and David Stewart. The Great War: Source and Evidence. Melbourne: Thomas Nelson, 1995. Print
Hamilton, John. Events Leading to the War. Minnesota: Abdo Pub Co., 2004. Print.
History: The Origins of the First World War
"The Great War. Prologue." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2014.
World War I Primary Sources. Ed. James D. Torr.

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