World War 1 Dbq Essay

The deadliest war known to mankind was World War I the total of military and civilian casualties were more than 38 million. World War I began in Europe July 28th, 1914 and lasted until November 11th, 1918. The following countries that took part in the war were Britain, France, Russia, United States, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire, Serbia, and Italy. Since there were many deaths it left European nations to blame one another for the violent actions that lead up to the crisis. The underlying cause of World War I was both alliances and imperialism.

One underlying cause of World War I was the alliances that were being formed. On July 28th 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophia were assassinated by a serbian member of the blackhand. Austria played Serbia as puppets and no longer wanted to compromise and wished to declare war. Alliances were formed to benefit their own country and to keep peace with the Great Powers and Europe. Many alliances split amongst Europe and made each country enemies. The Triple Entente military alliance between Great Britain, France & Russia in the years preceding World War I (Chapter 13 Section 1).

Imperialism is when a powerful nation seeks to take over another country politically, economically, and socially. European nations ruled colonies and competed to dominate other parts of the world. Document E states “ England Der Blutsauger der Welt”, found in the German cartoon which means England, the blood sucker of the world. Germany felt that British Empire was already large and felt like they were controlling too much land everywhere. There were various colonial empires besides Britain including the United States, Belgium, Italy, Germany, France, Austria-Hungary, and Russia (Document F). The search for more colonies caused conflict amongst the European colonies. Imperialism was an underlying cause of the war because without out it alliances wouldn’t be formed and armies