The Causes of World War I

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"Wars are caused by miscalculations of the aggressors, and the failure of politicians and diplomats to exercise crisis management" a statement that with respect to World War I is generally true for many of the European empires including those of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia and other nations throughout Europe. World War I or the Great War as was called by it's contemporaries, had been long in the stockpiling; the spark was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, the series of actions that fueled the war was almost a half of a centuries worth of secret treaties and alliance systems along with power struggles of some empires, such as that of Germany for " a place in the sun."

The roots of the First World War can be traced back to the unification of Germany, concluding in 1871, and was carried out by Prussia, under the oversight of Prussia's first Prime Minister, Otto von Bismarck. During this time Bismarck, for having achieved his life's aim at unifying the German empire, put his expansionary plans to an end, and made his chief desire to maintain German stability and the absence of Germany from any major military campaigns. He therefore set about building European alliances aimed at protecting Germany from potentially threatening nations.

1888 was the year of three emperors in Germany, in March the elderly Wilhelm I died, his successor Fredrick III died shortly there after, reigning only 99 days on the throne, and on June 15, Fredrick's son Wilhelm II took the throne as Kaiser. Unlike his grandfather, who relied heavily on the influence of Bismarck to manage Germany and German affairs, and who rarely intervened, the new Kaiser was determined to rule his empire the way he believed it s...

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...n it's ally Serbia and Austria-Hungary as it's justification, infuriated Germany enough to invade neutral Belgium in the attempt to subdue Russia's ally and Germany's long time adversary, France.

These essentially misjudged and miscalculated events that were comprised in the years preceding the war could have only been realized in hindsight. If the politicians and diplomats had realized that the ensuing problems would escalate to such a major war, they may have been able to avoid war all together. But the failure of these politician and diplomats to recognize the problems that were brewing throughout Europe, and implement "crisis management" left them in a situation were war was the only release valve for the tension. Many politicians did not realize the byproducts of having a war, much less a world war, and this, I believe was a miscalculation on their part.

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