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Contribution of alliance system to the first world war
Causes of World War 1
Contribution of alliance system to the first world war
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More than 500,000 casualties resulted from just the use of 100,000 tons of poison gas during World War I. The war lasted for four years beginning in mid 1914 and ending in late 1918. This huge war consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy as the Triple Alliance, as well as the Triple Entente which represented France, Russia, and the United Kingdom. The events that lead up to World War I have several causes, however the causes that stand out the most are the act of imperialism, millions of money spent on military, and the most underlying cause of alliances forming during the late 1800’s.
European countries believed that they controlled the world due to spreading imperialism all around the world by having a plethora of colonies mostly
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everywhere. Imperialism seems to one of the causes of the start of World War I through the act of conquering land in different areas of the world as well as spreading one’s ideas to the newly conquered land. As a result, countries begin to develop issues with one another due to leaders wanting their nation to rise to the top and gain more power. Britain, for example, has the largest area of colonies containing 12,740,000 square miles, implying Britain’s want to increase it’s size of territory (Doc. F). Also, Germany's propaganda cartoon shows that the British control all of the seas around the world (Doc. E). Therefore, proving that Britain wants to be able to control most of the territory and seas around the world. As a result, countries try to prevent the rule of Britain by issuing wars against the British leading up to the start of World War I. The years leading up to World War I, growth in armaments increased substantially throughout the years from 1890 to 1914. According to Document C, countries in Europe began spending more than 40 million pounds by the year of 1910 (Doc. C). The sudden increase of money spent by Europe implies that countries were preparing itself for going into war with another country. However, one’s reason to spend millions on military may be to prevent being “tramped by any foreign power” (Doc. D). Document D states that Germany must be able to defend itself by improving its military or face the consequences of being overtaken by a foreign country due to having a weak military. As a result, Germany spends more money on military out of the six countries involved in World War I. The Germans spent about 115 million pounds in 1914, the same year as the war began. Therefore, Germany must be preparing for initiating into a war because 115 million pounds is way more than enough to just simply defend against a foreign country. Last of all, the alliances formed a few years prior to the war suggests that alliances are the underlying cause of World War I.
In fact, the reason alliances form together is to help out allied countries whenever one shows signs of struggles such as Russia quickly joining in on the fight to help out Serbia when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia for the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand. Russia and Serbia had ties with each other, therefore Russia joined the battle to help out an ally. However, in the process several other countries hopped in on the fight due having alliances with the countries participating in the war. In addition, McCutcheon’s illustration depicts that alliances is the reason World War I commenced through images of men representing a certain country while blaming another country by pointing fingers while an even larger hand points at the peace of Europe being eradicated (Doc. B). As a result, the alliances created a devastating war which ended up putting Europe in a terrible state, however it is important to consider that Europe would have never been in this condition if the alliances had never formed at all. Therefore, proving that the forming of alliances is the underlying cause of World War
I. Although World War I created many issues for Europe and the rest of the world, it shows that wars such as World War I should be prevented in the future to allow all the countries to remain at peace. Overall,
Such alliances are the very things that laid the foundation for the conflict of World War I because every country had multiple reasons for joining their respective alliance, mainly for revenge, distrust, or
The underlying cause of World War 1 were the alliances within Europe. An alliance meant that if one country goes to war than the country associated will also fight. All the countries were picking sides before the war started. Otto von Bismarck, the Chancellor that led the unification of the German states, did not like the fact that Germany was between Russia and France. “Bismarck formed the Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy in the year preceding
The origins of World War One The Fritz Fisher thesis Fritz Fisher focuses on the Kaiser, Gottlieb von Jagow, Bethmann Hollweg and Helmut von Moltke. These four were the German leading figures at that time; Fischer is convinced that these people were responsible for the outbreak of World War One. Fischer’s three main claims were: 1. Germany was prepared to launch the First World War in order to become a great power. 2. Germany encouraged Austria-Hungary to start a war with Serbia, and continued to do so, even when it seemed clear that such a war could not be localized.
The first and possibly most important cause of World War I may have been the allying of the countries involved in the war and the posturing for action which they participated in. Although many treaties were signed and many alliances made previously, the start of the time line of WWI may be traced to the Dual Alliance signed by Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1879, to which Italy joined in 1882 forming the Triple Alliance. It was an agreement that was one of military protection, stating that if a...
Great War, also known as The First World War, lasted for four year (1914 to 1918). It brought a huge development of war technics and weapons. More number of countries had been involved in the Great War than any previous war. It involved the mobilization of the whole nations, not just an enormous army that turned the war into a “total war”. (Clare 6) However, historians are still arguing about the major cause of the World War I. The major cause will be one of the four long-term causes of WWI, which are Militarism, Alliance, Imperialism, and Nationalism. In my opinion, the two major causes would be Alliance and Nationalism. Alliance is an association between two or more countries for mutual benefits that formed with different treaties, while Nationalism is feeling and principles of patriotic.
There were many factors that led to the initial outbreak of World War I in Europe. A constant struggle to gain the upper hand in the “balance of power” existed, and it resulted in the formation of many alliances between European nations. For the most part, these agreements stipulated that the nations would aid one another if one of them were to be attacked by an enemy. Eventually two distinct sides formed: the Allies and the Central Powers. The former consisted of Britain, France, Italy, and Japan, while the latter was made up of Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and what was left of the Ottoman Empire.
"He Kept us Out of War" (World War I Quotes). This quote was a democratic slogan stated during the election of 1916 on behalf of President Woodrow Wilson. This slogan makes an attempt to refer to the good leadership qualities and decisions that President Wilson made to keep the United States of America out of the war and that is why he should be elected again to serve as President. Though this made a valid argument to show that Wilson was smart to keep us out of war, many events took place that continued to anger the U.S. which eventually made them declare war on Germany on April 6th, 1917 (World War I). In doing this, they broke their policy of non intervention. The United States held out of the Great War for so long because of economic reasons, their policy of neutrality, and to avoid the morbid trench warfare (America). However, the United Stated eventually entered the war because of Germany sinking several U.S. passenger ships, and the publication of the Zimmerman telegram (World War I).
Alliances between European nations can also be considered an underlying cause of World War I. As a result of the Triple Alliance consisting of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, the Triple Entente (understanding) was formed between France, Britain, and Russia. Although France and Britain were natural enemies, their fear of Germany united them together with Russia. These alliances set the final stage for the beginning of World War I. Each country in each alliance would help each other during warfare. For example, if Germany attacked France, Britain and Russia would help France, and Italy and Austria would help Germany, dragging Europe into a state of chaos and violence.
The threat of war between European nations was gradually increasing right up until 1914. Prior to that time, Europe’s main powers were divided into two alliances. Germany, Austria, and Italy made up what was called the “Triple Alliance”; while Britain, Russia, and France were known as the “Triple Entente” (as shown in document 2 which depicts Europe on the eve of WWI and the alliance systems). There was a tacit understanding that if one nation of the alliance entered into a conflict, the other nations would remain loyal to said nation. These existing alliances drew multiple nations into the war. For instance, Germany was brought into the war when it’s ally, Austria-Hungary, declared war on Serbia. Russia was allied with Serbia and France. These alliances
Although the alliance system was a main cause of the First World War, it arose because of several other factors, and did not cause the war single handedly. Nationalism, the love and support of one's country, has always existed. In this era, however, it was to take part in the creation of one of the most famous wars in history. Since so much pride was devoted to countries, it made the possibilities of peace between past rivals less probable. It also meant that most nations, especially the great powers, would rather fight a war than back down from a rival's diplomatic provocation.
The Alliances not only contributed to war breaking out; it made the war last longer and become on a much larger scale; major political disputes would inevitably cause a large conflict. The alliances caused suspicion, fear, and tension among nations. The two camps were the Triple Entente (Britain, France and Russia) and the Triple Alliance (Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary). When countries formed alliances with each other it gave them protection, if a country was threatened or under attack then the alliance would come to that country’s aid. Countries made an alliance when they both needed protection from a stronger country. When Austria-Hungary had heard about the assassination of Franz Ferdinand they went to war with Serbia which resulted in a chain reaction of countries going to war with one another, and when countries teamed up to support their attacked friends when war came, it meant that a number of nations would fight, not only the two involved in a dispute. The division of...
The importance of the alliance system that developed in Europe in the decades before World War I as a cause for it is still an important topic of debate and argument between modern historians. Some argue that the alliance system was a direct cause of the outbreak of war between all major countries in Europe while other historians prefer to state that the alliance configuration we observe before the war started was simply a symptom of the conflicts and disagreements, fears and envies that had been accumulating since the Bismarck system of alliances collapsed, and even before then. This last opinion is becoming more accepted as the one that describes the true importance of the actual alliance system as a cause of the war. In order to determine the importance of the alliance system as a cause for the war we must first explore the origins of these alliances. We will take high-point of the Bismarck system in 1878 as our starting point as the Franco-Prussian war is a key factor for the development of this system.
Alliances played a hefty role in the inevitability of World War One. Countries were constantly at each other’s necks and needed power in order to protect themselves from each other. This is where alliances came in; countries could seek shelter from others by developing truces with close friends. Having a truce was beneficial in most ways because it provided the illusion of being a bigger power, and offered one extra support in case of a crippling event. Then again they did also create tensions between the countries that could only escalate further. For example, in the year 1879 there was a dual alliance created between Germany and Austria-Hungry. This alliance was created to protect them from Russia, who ...
However, the alliances themselves didn’t cause the war; we must also consider the roles of the other factors, i.e. Germany, Balkans, economic and domestic problems and nationalism/aggressive policies. In the years leading up to the war, many alliances were made. Firstly, Austria and Germany formed the Dual Alliance in 1879; they promised each other neutrality, it was also an anti-Russian alliance. The alliance suggests that they were anticipating future problems, possibly with Russia.
World War 1 World War 1 was called “The Great War”, “The war to end all wars”, and “The first modern war”. It has many causes and a few repercussions and I will describe them in detail. The most widely known reason for the start of World War 1 was the assassination of the Arch Duke Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary in the Serbian capital of Sarajevo. The ArchDuke was there to talk to the Serbian leaders about peace on the Balkan Peninsula. After a Serbian was arrested for the assassination, Austria-Hungary pulled out of the peace talks and declared war on Serbia.