Underlying Causes of the First World War

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1. In the designated chronology of the First World War, the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo is widely accepted as the spark that caused the war. However, that explanation fails to consider the long-term factors in the years before the Great War. The assassination of political figures has happened many times throughout history and no wars have been started over them, yet many people believe that the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo by itself was the initial cause of the first major war of the 20th century. But if you think about it, why would the murder of an Austrian, in Bosnia, by a Serbian, have the impact that it did? It doesn’t make complete sense; the United States didn’t issue a war against actors when President Lincoln …show more content…

It is similar to an economic speculative bubble, but instead of chance of easy money it was really a chance of war. Many of the countries in the region needed to build up their defensive forces (which often look like offensive forces) and form alliances so that they may defend themselves against all the other countries building up their forces and forming alliances. In the end the speculative bubble only needed a small spark of paranoia to divide Europe into half. Most smaller wars have a speculative war bubble as well, but it never gets as big as a world war bubble because of the heavy prevalence of alliances. The alliances give the bubble a sort of elasticity that allows for it to build much larger before the catastrophic pop. With all the tension in the air, it was obvious that a war was going to break out and the speculative bubble of war was about to burst. However, the notion of the start of the first major war in the 20th century was solely started by an act of terrorism is deemed misleading and incomplete. It is, however, when you look at the long term factors and relationships between nations preceding the Great War, it’s clear that the assassination wasn’t the start, but it was the moment

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