The Great War: Causes Of The World War

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Taylor Scott Period 1
World War I Causes

World War I, also known as the Great War was one of the most revolutionary wars in modern history. The war started in 1914 and ended in 1919 and included many advancements such as tanks and mustard gas. The Great War was one of the most deadly and gruesome wars ever. There were many different pivotal things that led to the breakout of war in Europe and eventually the world. One could see alliances escalating the the amount of countries in the war, an extreme amount of nationalism, and tensions over colonies and technological advances. All of these ultimately led to commencement of World War I.
First, and possibly one of the most crucial of all the reasons, was alliances. The Great War started off slowly, but it started a chain reaction that slowly brought most of Europe into it. The two sides in this war were the Allied forces which consisted of Britain, Russia, the United States, and a few more while the other side was the Central Powers which had Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey. It started with Austria-Hungary and Serbia entering war first after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. After that, the rest of the countries took up arms beside those whom they were allied with at the time. This was the main reason that the war got as large as it did and also how it escalated so quickly.
The next main cause for the war was that there was a large amount of overwhelming nationalism coming in abundance from both sides. Germany (the Germanic Empire at that point) was one of the most nationalistic countries. They would teach children from around 1st grade all the way to the point where they could enlist in the war that there is nothing more honorable or...

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...a huge change to the way wars were fought and also prolonged the war for a whole five years.
All in all, the Great War was caused by a multitude of reasons including the many alliances that brought other countries into the war, a great amount of nationalism, and also tensions over colonies and technological advances. Many people can attribute the alliances for advancing and growing the amount of countries into the war. Nationalism is something missing in this time period in America, but it was still a leading factor in everybody entering the war and advancing it in the way that it did. tensions in colonies that fed the greater powers with valuable resources crucially changed the way that they felt about each other and helped to start and escalate it. The Great War was brutal and was started by many factors that added a great deal of tensions all around the world.

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