Ww1 - the Causes of Ww1

Ww1 - the Causes of Ww1

World War 1, which occurred from 1914 to 1918, is one of the largest wars in world history. The major causes of World War I are nationalism, imperialism, militarism, alliances between European nations, and the conflict in the Balkan Peninsula. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the immediate cause of the war, so in my opinion, conflicts in the Balkan Peninsula had the most impact on the start of World War I.
First of all, after the industrial revolution, imperialism, a policy in which a strong nation seeks to dominate other countries politically, economically or socially, led to competition among nations. Competition for colonies stirred mistrust among European nations while mutual animosity spurred European countries to engage in an arms race. Nationalism appeared along with this competition. Nationalism is the belief that people should be loyal mainly to their nation; that is, to the people with whom they share a culture and history rather than to a king or empire. The nationalistic conflicts in the Balkans led many groups to demand independence. Also, since the competition among European nations was so severe, they started to prepare their own military sources to protect themselves. Militarism, a policy of glorifying military power and keeping a standing army always prepared for war, built tensions among them. As they prepare for war, the citizens of each nation felt patriotic to their nation due to militarism. Nationalism and Militarism were products of imperialism and those three factors increased tensions among European nations.
Next, two military alliances between the Balkan nations and their neighbor nations contributed to World War 1. The Triple Alliance was a military alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy to isolate the French, which grew to include Russia. After Germany cancelled its alliance with Russia, Russia allied itself with France; later, Britain joins them because it is threatened by the German navy becoming...

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