The Break Out of World War One

The Break Out of World War One

In this essay I am going to explain why world war one happened. There

are many causes, both long term and short term for example the rivalry

between Germany and France because of the Franco Prussian war, and the

assassination of archduke Franz Ferdinand. It is hard to tell which is

the most important cause, because lots of countries had tensions with

each other, and the war took place because of all these.

One long-term cause of world war one was the fact there were two

established Alliance systems- the triple Alliance and the triple

entente. This was where countries all over the world were backing each

other up, each member of the alliances promised to help its allies if

a country belonging to the other alliance attacked them. The Triple

Entente consisted of Great Britain, France and Russia (formed in1907)

The triple Alliance consisted of Germany, Italy and Austria-hungry

(formed in 1882). This was an important cause because without it there

probably would not have been a 'world war' just war between individual

countries, because many different countries were backing each other,

the opposition feared, and made their alliance bigger. This helped

cause war because if one country got into bother the others got

involved.

Another long-term cause was the rivalry between Germany and France;

this was because in 1870-1871 there was a war between the two

countries. In this war France had lost the territory of

Alsace-Lorraine to Germany and vowed to one day get revenge and take

the territory back. Therefore there was a lot of extra tension between

France and Germany, which helped spark off a war.

In 1871 Germany became a nation. The new leader was a man called

Kaiser Wilhelm 11. He was an ambitious man and wanted Germany to be as

strong as Britain both militarily and industrially. This was a main

long-term cause because between 1871 and 1914 Germany had been

catching up with Britain as a major industrial nation. This created

tension because Britain felt threatened that its position as a major