Causes of the First World War

Causes of the First World War

“The real reason for the whole thing was that it was just too much

trouble not to have a war,” captain Blackadder pointed out. Europe was

building up tensions at that stage and all the central powers were

getting ready incase of a war. But the war couldn’t have break out

just because of this, something or someone must have sparked off the

war.

The war started at such a short time, at first millions of people

wanted to join in the army and thought it was the time for them to

have an exciting adventure. People all thought the war would be over

in a short time and nobody thought it would last for 4 year or the

horrors of trench warfare. Millions of people died in the First World

War, what caused these to happen so fast?

Britain always had the most powerful navy in the world to protect his

empire. But Germany was united into one powerful country and its

leader, Kaiser Wilhelm announced in 1898 that he is going to increase

the size of Germany’s navy. Britain launched his first Dreadnought in

1906 and soon, Germany started to build Dreadnoughts as well and a

naval race started between these two countries. By 1914 Britain built

29 Dreadnoughts all together and Germany built 17. This competition

caused a great tension between Britain and Germany. But Britain is

particularly concerned about the growing Germany; maybe it was the

best to show Germany their power so the Germans wouldn’t dare to

attack them.

Britain’s empire covered a quarter of the world. As Germany was

growing strong, Kaiser Wilhelm also was eager for colonies and wanted

to expand his empire like Britain and France. Britain sensed the

dangerous of Germany and was very worried. Germany has already

overtaken Britain by producing more iron, more steel, more coal and

even more cars.

France is also distrusted of Germany because the Franco-Prussia war.