Factors Leading to World War One in 1914

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Factors Leading to World War One in 1914 By August 1914, the major powers of Europe began a war that would lead to the deaths of over 9 million. The threat of war had been brewing for a long time. Historians point to short time and long time causes. In short term, the road to war began in Sarajevo 28 June 1914 when the archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife went on a state visit. They were attacked when a group of Serbian terrorists tried to throw a bomb into their car. Luckily for the archduke, the attack was unsuccessful. In the heat of the moment, the driver made a vital mistake which would lead to the death of his two passengers. Once the driver had made a wrong turn, Gavrilo Princip, a member of the Serbian group, unsuspectedly came across the archduke and his wife. Therefore, without haste stepped upon the car and with just two bullets shot them both dead. Historians have suggested four long term causes. The most important was nationalism. Nationalism was a belief of political independence. Another cause was imperialism. Countries who thought they were better than others wanted colonies. Out of all the countries, Germany were the ones that wanted an empire. Not only did Germany want an empire, but they wanted the biggest and best empire in the world. They feared that they could be attacked from either of their bordering countries, France and Russia. On the other hand countries France and Britain wanted the opposite. They both wanted to avoid a world war but France also feared that they would lose land to Germany. Britain’s ambition was to just keep the peace, while France wanted to steal land from Germany. Countries also began to build up their armed forces, in particular France. They built big, intimidating artillery pointing at the Germans which would stop any attacks from them. The Germans found out a key fact about the artillery, it was all set in cement. The Germans then constructed the Schiffer plan which consisted of going through Belgium

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