The Cause of World War I

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The Cause of World War I There is not just one reason alone why the WWI started, one moment two countries would be fighting and then straight after another country could be fighting. Europe was pretty much at each others throats from 1871 until the war started in 1914. The many long term causes were building lots of tension between the complex alliances and eventually the tension would grow so big and would only need one thing to spark off a world war. In this essay I will discuss the main long and short term causes of The Great War and what effect they had. The 'Triple Alliance' and 'Triple Entente' First of all, the main powers in Europe were Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia. The aim of these countries was to keep a 'balance of power' to prevent large scale wars. There were two main alliances during the WWI. In 1882, Germany, Austria-Hungaryand Italy signed a document stating they would give each other military support if there was a war. This was called 'The Triple Alliance.' The second alliance was 'The Triple Entente.' This included Great Britain, France and Russia. An alliance was formed in 1894 between France and Russia and in 1904 Great Britain decided to come out of 'Splendid Isolation' and join the 'Entente Cordiale. These two alliances could help prevent war but could also create a total war, if one country had argument the other two may have to join in, but now Germany was in the middle of what it had been trying to avoid for years, isolated by two potential enemies. Map of countries in the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance Long term causes The Scramble for Colonies ... ... middle of paper ... ...: * Serbia to take full responsibility for the murder, though Gavrilo Princip was not Serbian but Bosnian. * The right to police 'anti-Austrian' groups within Serbia. * The right to prosecute these and other conspirators in Austrian courts. Serbia was given 48 hours to accept the ultimatum, declining it would mean war. After talking with Russia Serbia declined the ultimatum and Austria declared war on Serbia. In conclusion, the complex alliances caused the small troubles in the Balkans to turn into a World War. Austria gained support from Germany whilst Serbia gained support from Russia and France, and Britain only came into the war when Germany invaded Belgium, while in the Schlieffen, trying to get to France. So you can see how a few gun shots led to the largest and bloodiest war ever!

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