World War 1 Causes

Danuet Pippens
5/23/2018
Ms.Nwaizu

The cause of World war 1 In 1914 World War 1 began. There were several causes of this war and how they could be divided into long and short term causes. The long term causes were imperialism , alliances, nationalism and militarism. The short term case, which acted as a trigger to the Great War which was the assasination of (Franz Ferdinad). All of the long term goals were significant especially, militarism, which is the development of large and powerful military forces (dictionary.com). All of these factors where established in many of Europe's 'Great Powers' which consisted of Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia.During

Just as England had done for centuries, it had become desirable to seek out new land to rule under the laws and cultural beliefs of the 'mother' country.The numerous conflicts raging within the confines of the Balkans since March 1912 had many historians, such as Remak, believing that the First World War was simply the Balkan War that had raged out of control and spread across Europe. The Balkans had been a problem in Europe for over a century as it was ruled by the Turkish 'Ottoman Empire.' This empire had become so dilapidated that the many different ethnic groups within the area wanted to break away becoming free of Turkish rule, and create their own independent nations (world war one.com).This particular theory is supported by the fact that all of the Great Powers in Europe had a vested interest in this area of Europe. Within the Balkans, the Slavic people were rising up against Austria-Hungary who had annexed Serbia and not allowed the independent state that the Slavs desired. Russia, who also consisted of Slavs, was involved due to its ethnic ties to the Slavs residing in the Balkans. Britain and Germany both developed interest in the area for the same reasons. At the time, Britain held the bulk of trade from Europe to distant markets such as the Middle East and Asia. Germany saw the Balkans as an ideal prospect to gain, as it was adjoined to their ally, Austria-Hungary and was in an ideal position to establish a trade headquarters, dealing to the same markets as the British. After its embarrassment at the hands of Bismarck and the Germans in 1871, France had held a bitter grudge and looked to gain control of the Balkans simply to frustrate and achieve revenge against( Germany.Austria-Hungary) was willing to go to war with Serbia as long as