Exploring Causes of the First World War

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Exploring Causes of the First World War In the summer of 1914 a massive war was started between the great powers. In this essay I will investigate the causes of World War 1 and try to work out which country or countries were to blame for starting it. In the 1800's, Britain was by far the leading nation. It had an enormous world-wide empire and powerful navy to protect the large amount of land overseas that it owned. Britain manufactured many different goods, which were exported to other countries, including Germany. Before 1900 Britain was the world's leading industrial power, with it's main rival being France. Britain was by far the leading European power, but it feared other countries building up a larger navy and catching it up, especially Germany. Britain knew that Germany had caught up with it in industrial production and that Germany's leaders also had strong ambitions to build up a world-wide empire, like Britain already had. In 1914 Britain had an empire of 27 million km and Germany only had 2.5 million km, but Britain was still worried. In 1870 there was a war between Germany and France called the Franco-Prussian war. The Germans captured a piece of French land called Alsace-Lorraine. The French wanted the Alsace-Lorraine back and were still worried that the Germans may attack again. Previously the French had had a fairly small army, but they expanded it and built strong fortresses on their border with Germany. In 1908 Kaiser Willhelm, the king of Germany and the ruler of the German army announced that he intended to develop the German navy. Germany started to build more battleships. Because Britain was worried about Germany catching it up and having a larger navy, Britain also started to build more battleships. In 1906 Britain launched HMS Dreadnaught, a new battleship, which could get up to speeds of 21 knots. It was faster and more powerful than any other warship. The Germans copied the British and started to build their own Dreadnaughts.

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