Causes of World War One

Causes of World War One

There were many reasons as to why WWI began. The long term causes were

imperial and economic rivalry between Britain and Germany. Britain was

jealous of Germany because Germany's strength was growing- it was

producing more iron and steel than Britain. Germany's navy was growing

and its empire was expanding. Germany was jealous of Britain's empire

and wealth. It also feared the fact that unfriendly countries (France

and Russia) were on its eastern and western borders.

Because of all this rivalry, Britain decided to make an alliance with

France and Russia. This was called the ''triple entente''. This meant

that if any country tried to attack them, the rest of the entente

would back them up. Germany already had an alliance called the

''triple alliance'' with Italy and Austria-Hungary (then 2 countries.

Most historians agree that by 1914, Britain and Germany were looking

for an excuse to start a war and settle things once and for all.

No-one expected a long war, just to see who was the strongest. On June

28 1914, they found their excuse. This was the 'spark'. The

Austria-Hungarian heir ARCHDUKE FRANZ FERDINAND was assassinated by a

Serb nationalist GAVRILO PRINCIP.

Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia and declared war on them. Russia said

they would defend Serbia which prompted Germany to order Russia not to

help Serbia. Russia declined so Germany declared war on Russia and

started to move its army towards France and Belgium. The French army

was put on alert ready for a German invasion. France already disliked

Germany and wanted revenge after, in 1871, France lost two of its

regions (Alsace and Lorraine) to Germ...

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...wards or forwards until well into 1918 which caused

even more casualties.

During ww1, 20 million people had died. 9 million died in combat.

There were lots of casualties because ww1 was a total war which meant

it affected soldiers as well as civilians. There were over 200,000

dead soldiers in the British Empire of which 1/3 were Indian.

WWI was often known as the ''great war'' or ''the war to end all

wars'' because the stupidity and violence of the war was so horrific

that people thought nothing like this would ever happen again. The war

then ended with the signing of the ''treaty of versailles''thesis one

of the reasons why the war went on for so long. Despite world hope

that the end of the war would restore peace on a permanent basis, WWI

actually provided the basis for an even more devastating

conflict-WWII.