World War 1 took place primarily in Europe from 1914 to 1918. “Over 40 million casualties resulted, including approximately 20 million military and civilian deaths. Over 60 million European soldiers were mobilized from 1914 to 1918.”(Wikipedia) “The act which is considered to have triggered the succession of events which led to war was the June 28, 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb citizen of Austria-Hungary and member of the Young Bosnia. The Unification of Germany and the changing balances of power among the European Great Powers in the early part of the 20th century also helped cause the war.”(Lee 22) “The war was ended by several treaties, most notably the Treaty of Versailles, signed on 28 June 1919, though the Allied powers had an armistice with Germany in place since 11 November 1918.”(Lee 5) One of the most striking results of the war was a large redrawing of the map of Europe and all this was caused by an assassination, but what really caused the war.
The long-term origins to World War One started back in 1870 with the Franco-Prussian War. “In the Franco-Prussian war, France lost to Germany which lead to the two countries never being in an alliance with one another. Once the war was over it lead to the forming of the triple Alliance which was one of the main alliances during the first world war. The Triple alliance was made up of the countries - Germany, Austro-Hungary and Italy, and it was first formed because Germany needed help to guard Alsace-Lorrain from France as France wanted to get back its stolen land.”(Chaacker)
“Another of the long-term origins to World War One was Weltpolitic. Weltpolitic was a policy Kaiser Wilhelm the second, who believed that Germany had a right to become a global imperial power and should develop an army and navy to support its colonial objectives. Kaiser Wilhelm's personality and his policy of Weltpolitic were seen as...