Long Term Causes of WWIMilitarism: The fierce competition between Britain and Germany for the mastery of seas. This competition soon forced the British to introduce the "Dreadnought" a powerful battleship, then causing Germany to introduce their own battleships.
Alliances: The war started out with triple alliances between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. These alliances soon grew, and they are important because they meant that some countries had no option but to declare war if one of their allies declared war first. Imperialism: Imperialism is when a country takes over new lands or countries and makes them subject to their rule. When the amount of lands owned by Britain and France increased their rivalry between Germany became much more serious. Nationalism: Nationalism means to be a strong supporter of the rights and interests of ones country. The settlement at the end of the Franco-Prussian war left France angry at their loss of Alsace Lorraine to Germany and they were keen to regain their territory. |
Short Term Causes of WWI News Article
Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand: Franz Ferdinand was the heir to the Austrio-Hungarian throne. His death on June 28th 1914 caused Austria-Hungary to blame the Serbian government for the assassination and they made three ultimatums that if not met, would result in war. These ultimatums included: 1. Put down all nationalist hatred against Austria-Hungary. 2. Punish all those involved in the assassination. 3. Give government power to Austria-Hungary. Though a man named Gavrilo Princip killed Franz Ferdinand, he was just a pawn in a huge assassination plan by a Serbian freedom fighter group, who hoped to eliminate the Archduke due to the fact that the Archduke planned to give concessions to the South Slavs, therefore making a unified "Greater Serbia" more difficult to obtain.The plan included two other pawns ,Nedjelko Cabrinovic, and Trifko Grabez, who all failed in their assassination attempts. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, then Russia came in to protect Serbia. After this Britain and France were dragged in to protect Russia which then led to Germany and Italy joining in to protect Austria-Hungary causing the first World War. By: Jacqueline Jhoda |
"World War I wasn't the most destructive war, or the first total war, and it certainly wasn't; despite its billing, the war to end all wars, but it was the war to change all wars...." |
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