Nationalism In Ww1 Essay

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The Great War

At the end of the 19th century and early in the 20th century, many saw warfare as a necessary component of modern statecraft and even saw war as the marker of the coming of a new age. Three main forces that prompted World War I were: militarism, nationalism, and imperialism. Militarism is the idea wherein a country is able maintain strong military capabilities and be prepared to aggressively defend or promote national interests. Imperialism is defined as an empire created by a country that rules and governs the people to create a civilized society. Lastly, nationalism is the notion wherein a countries own need must be prioritized before any other. Heinrich von Tretschke, Henri Massis, and Alfred de Tarde, wrote articles to voice out their pro-war spirit during World War I. They believed nationalism was one of the main arguments that led European nations to go to war at the turn of the century.
At the beginning of the 20th century, an arms race had begun. One of the main arguments that sparked World War I was militarism. Militarism simply means increasing military and naval forces that is prepared to defend one’s nation. Focusing on one of the European nations involved during the war, Germany not only grew its military and naval influences but their strength as a nation to create allies among neighboring countries as well. Between 1909 and 1911, Germany built Dreadnoughts, large fast and heavily armed battleships, in order to compete with Britain. At the same time, they widened passages from Baltic to the North Sea. From 1913 to 1914, they increased its army size by adding 170,000 more men (Hunt et. al., 825-839). As Germany increased its military and naval forces, it also increased control over the people that resu...

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... sense of nationalism to its people. It brings people closer together and unifies them to believe in one thing and that is to win the war against the enemies. At the same time, it claims that the idea of war influences young people to defend their country and are willing to make sacrifices in order to support and achieve the goals no matter what the consequences are, as long as they are fighting and standing by their country.
Overall, the cost of war was something that each European nation had to endure in order to acquire the freedom that they all longed for. Although there were casualties, nonetheless, it brought out a sense of nationalism, militarism, and imperialism among every nation that brought them together in order to accomplish one goal and that is to be able to form a united nation and to create allies strong enough to have each other in times of need.

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