Investigating the Causes of the Outbreak of World War I

Investigating the Causes of the Outbreak of World War I ‘“The First World War was the result of a badly mismanaged Balkan

crisis in the summer of 1914 rather than the product of long-standing

rivalries between the great powers.”

The Balkan Wars between 1912 and 1913 were proven to dramatically

increase tension between the major powers in Europe at the time (being

such countries like Britain, France, Germany, Russia,

Austria-Hungary). The Balkan countries wanted to completely drive

Turkey out of Europe, thus the formation of the Balkan League

(consisting of Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Greece). The tension

was already rising due to the development of the Schlieffen Plan by

Germany, and of course the ongoing rivalry between the Triple Entente

(Britain, France, Russia) and the Triple Alliance (Germany,

Austria-Hungary, Italy).

Long-standing rivalries were one of the major causes of the First

World War. One of the major rivalries was certainly between France and

Germany. This was originally brought about by the war between them in

1870 where the newly unified Germany took Alsace Loraine from the

French. Germany also had a rivalry with another third of the Entente,

Russia. Germany had created the Schlieffen Plan to initiate if Russia

were to mobilise, meaning both France and Russia would be attacked by

Germany, thus breaking the encirclement, which they originally had.

Serbia and Austria-Hungary also had the incredibly strong rivalry and

this was proven by the assassination...

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...n powers were

not going to take oppositions to their alliance decisions very

lightly. The Germans wanted to get rid of the rise in Socialism (which

eventually formed communism) in Russia. By achieving a victorious war,

this would boost the popularity of Germany, and show Europe that even

though a new country, they should not be taken as a weak one. This not

only shows how the crisis in July 1914 was so badly mismanaged, in my

opinion it is clearly proven by the implementing of the Schlieffen

Plan, when Russia fully mobilised its army when only given permission

to half mobilise. By directly attacking the encirclement, Germany had

signed the piece of paper which would ultimately lead to war – this

happened in 1914 because of the consequences of an incredibly badly

mismanaged crisis between the Balkans and Western Europe.