World War One: The Key Causes Of World War One

¬¬World War One, called The Great War at the time, was a global war centered in Europe that began on July 28, 1914 and ended on November 11, 1918. The war was fought between two major powers, the Allies and the Central powers. The Allied powers, based on the triple Entente, consisted of the United Kingdom, the Russian Empire, France, Italy, Britain, and the United States, while the Central powers consisted of Austria-Hungary, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire. World War One was one of the bloodiest events in human history, with over sixteen million casualties and twenty million people wounded over the four years that it was fought. There are many underlying reasons for this bloodshed but some of the biggest, most significant ones include alliances, nationalism, and imperialism.
Alliances were the reason that so many countries were involved in the war, and why it escalated into a global event. For instance, one of the key events that sparked the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Gavrilo Princip, a member of the group called The Black Hand, killed Ferdinand and his wife in hopes to make Serbia independent from Austria-Hungary. Basically, Austria-Hungary wanted Serbia to punish the people responsible for the assassination and Serbia refused, so Austria-Hungary declared war on them. Since Serbia was an ally to Allied powers and Austria-Hungary was an ally to the Central Powers, this single event set off a chain reaction that resulted in all the countries associated with these major powers being involved in the conflict. A single country going into battle can drag the rest of its allies with it, and with so many alliances a small event can spread into a full scale fight, such as the World Wars.
Nationalism was anothe...

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...ntrol what. This led to competition to try to control the most foreign colonies, and in turn, sustain their economy. And whenever there is competition, there are tensions formed, as was the case between the powers prior to WW1, driving the nations to war.
The most significant causes of World War One include alliances, nationalism, and imperialism, but there are multiple other reasons that led to the tensions that created this war. This was one of the biggest, bloodiest wars in history, as almost the entire world was involved in some way. At the time it was called “the war to end all wars”, but unfortunately that was not true; it was just so giant compared to previous engagements that people couldn’t see how it could possibly progress past the state it was in. This war was inevitable with the pride of the countries involved; they were bound to clash heads eventually.