World War 1 Causes

“The Causes of World War One”

World War One was originally referred to as the “Great War.” The war took place from 1914 through 1918. Thousands if not millions of lives were affected by the war. Though World War One has primarily negative impacts there were few positive outcomes. African Americans finally got jobs whether it was fighting in the war or working in factories. Women also became nurses in the war and got to experience making their own income instead of relying on a man. Many innocent lives were lost in World War One because of four main points. World peace was disrupted by militarism, allies, imperialism, and nationalism causing World War One.

Militarism was a major factor causing the “Great War.” Militarism, according to Houghton

Every country focused on gaining as much support as they possibly could. There were two main alliances in World War One and they were the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt states, ‘‘The Triple Alliance formed in 1882 and included Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy,’’ (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 845). The Triple Entente formed in 1907 after learning of the Triple Alliance and included England, France, Russia and would later be accompanied by Japan and the United States. The formation of these two alliances only worsened the mistrust and rivalries. On June 28, 1914 the heir of the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated at point-blank range. This assassination was the last straw between both sides of the allies and negotiations were out of the picture. Allies were basically a sense of comfort that if nothing else, at least a country would have help in the time of war. This new found sense of comfort made the citizens of a country feel safe and also the government

According to Google's definition imperialism is, “a policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force.” Going along with militarism and allies, imperialism sparked major rivalries. Everyone in Europe wanted more land so the rivalry that came with getting the land helped set off the “Great War.” Imperialism is closely related with militarism but they are not the same. Imperialism mostly means that a country's power comes from their military. Imperialism led to arms race which was when a country stocks up on weapons. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt states, “The European countries believed in order to be great they must have the most powerful military,” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 842). Arrogance had a great deal to do with the previous statement because everyone wanted to succeed regardless of how many lives would be ruined in the chaos of the war. While everyone had a sense of pride in their country and ultimately wanted to win in the war, they didn’t realize how many people would be needed in order to accomplish this. Thousands if not millions of soldiers were drafted to fight in the war effort. European countries competed for oversea land and there was no trust associated between countries at this