Frank Manara DBQ ESSAY
At the turn of the 20th century. Europe seemed to be peaceful and prosperous. But behind the scenes the militarism , the growing of alliances , and the killing of the arch duke. All led to negative impacts which eventually led to the great war WW1 (1914 to 1918).
The great powers were militarizing rapidly at the turn of the 20th century. they were upgarading and increasing the size of their miliatary's. New technology like airplanes, submarines, tanks, machine guns and poisonous gas were all developed around this time. this made war much more deadly . all these countries wanted to add these weapons to thier arsenal's. then as time went on they all got antsy and anxious to start to use thier weapons. In (doc 1.) it shows how the european powers spent money from 1870 to 1914 and for most countries on the list they spent most money right before the war broke out. it's important because these countries spent money on these new technology's but with worrying about that the infrastructure would be neglected. Schools and hospitals took a tole . which hurt thier country's people especially when the war started.
In europe in the early 20th century countries started joining alliances . If thier friend country got into war the other country's in thier alliance would back them up. Around the start of WW1 thier were two major alliances in europe the triple alliance or allied powers which consisted of England, France, and Russia. And then thier was the triple entente which consisted of Germany, Austria- Hungary, and Italy. These countries were all locked in if a war broke out. In (doc 2) it shows the map of europe right before WW1 this map showed the alliances. It is important because when conflict breaks out in 1914 before you know it the majority of europe is engaged in war in a matter of months. In my opinion this was the biggest cause of WW1.
The next...