2. WW1 or The Great war was a war that
occurred from 1914-1918, and it was centred it
Europe. It was a difficult war and claimed
millions of lives. It left a great scar on earth,
but what factors led to this war and made it
start in the first place? Let’s find out.
3. These are the main causes of WW1:
Imperialism
Alliances
Militarism
Nationalism
Bosnian Crisis and Moroccan crisis
Immediate cause: Assassination of Archduke
Franz Ferdinand
Let’s find out what each of these mean and how
they helped WW1 to start.
4. Imperialism is when a country increases its wealth and
power by invading more land.
By 1900, British Empire was ruling colonies that were over
five continent, and France had control of large areas in
Africa. At that time, industry was in rise and countries
needed new markets, therefore Some countries wanted to
expand their land because that way they could have more
land and resources.
The British felt endangered by Germany's fast economic
growth.
That was When some countries in Europe like Germany and
Italy felt jealous and felt that they needed to expand their
land and conquer more land somehow, because they didn’t
have a lot of land. Germany only had some small areas in
Africa.
5. We all know that you are stronger if you have
support. Countries in Europe had signed treaties
with some other countries, because they thought
that making alliances would promote peace; each
country would be protected by its allied countries
in case of war. Countries thought that if they had
protection, the enemy countries would be afraid to
attack them.
This helped the WW1 to start, because it made the
war a global crisis instead of just a local one,
because when you attacked a country, your allies
and that countries allies would be in the war, too.
countries had no option but to declare war if one
of their allies, declared war first.
Canada entered the war, because she was an ally of
6. The countries of the Allies in WW1 included Russia,
France, British Empire, Italy, United States, Japan,
Rumania, Serbia, Belgium, Greece, Portugal and
Montenegro.
The countries of the Central Powers in WW1
included Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and
Bulgaria.
The alliance system helped cause WW1, for example,
one of the main reasons for the British Empire to
enter WW1 was to support its ally, Belgium. Belgium
was attacked by Germany.
7. Militarism is when the military force of a country gets a lot of
attention from the government, in the other words, when the
government of a country helps economically to improve the
military force. At that period of time in Europe, there was a big
competition to have bigger armies and navies.
At period of time(1900s), there was an arm race between some
countries in Europe (the countries wanted to have more weapons
and fighting sources. The armies of both France and Germany had
more than doubled between 1870 and 1914.
Countries like Germany were upgrading their armed forces. That
made a fear of being attacked in some countries. Some countries
contributed in the war and agreed to war and helped attack other
countries, because they feared that if they didn’t do it, they would
be attacked themselves by the military force of other countries.
Germany had the biggest increase in the military. Great Britain
and Germany both greatly increased their navies in that period of
time. This increase in militarism helped push the countries
involved to war.
8. Nationalism is when you become a very strong protector in
a country’s rights and interests.
Nationalism was probably the biggest cause of WW1. It
makes people become proud of their country. Countries
built up their armies, added more weapons for more power,
to show that they were better or deserved respect from the
other countries. Countries wanted to have independence.
Some countries entered the war because they didn’t want to
be under another country or Empire’s power.
For example, the most important reason for Serbia to enter
WW1 was that she didn’t want to be part of the Austria-
Hungary Empire anymore and wanted to be its own
country.
9. In 1908, Austria -Hungary took over Bosnia which
is a country located in Southern Europe. This
made the Serbians angry, because they felt that
Bosnia should be theirs. Therefore, Serbia
threatened Austria-Hungary with war. Russia
,allied to Serbia prepared its forces. Germany,
allied with Austria-Hungary prepared to threaten
Russia. War didn’t happen when Russia backed
down. In 1911, after a war in Balkhans which is
located in southeastern Europe, problems between
Serbia and Austria - Hungary became even more
high. All of this violent problems led to the
assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-
Hungary by a Serbian terrorist organization.
10. In 1904 Morocco which is a country located in
North Africa had been given to France by
Britain, but the Moroccans wanted their
independence. In 1905, Germany announced
her support for Moroccan independence.
Germany was against the fact that France had
power over Morocco. There was no real
reason. Germany just wanted to humiliate and
weaken the French. This made France very
angry and made the relationship between
France and Germany even worse.
11. In June 1914, a Serbian nationalist assassinated
Archduke Franz Ferdinand (Royal Prince of Hungary)
and his pregnant wife Sophie while they were in
Sarajevo, Bosnia which was part of Austria-Hungary.
This was in protest to Austria-Hungary having control
of Bosnia. Serbia wanted to take over Bosnia and
Herzegovina. This assassination led to Austria-
Hungary declaring war on Serbia. The Austro-
Hungarians decided to attack Serbia to get revenge for
the assassination. When Russia began to prepare its
army due to its alliance with Serbia, Germany declared
war on Russia. Allied countries had to support each
other in the war and WW1 began.
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was
not an actual cause. It was just something that made
all those factors come to play.
12. Almost no countries expected this war to last
this long, cost so much, be so devastating and
claim so many lives, but WW1 happened
anyways. Germany lost so much in WW1.
This country wouldn’t want to be at war if she
knew what the results and casualties are going
to be. WW1 happened only to gain power,
gain power by killing. Humans killed each
other for power. In our opinion, Power was the
biggest cause of WW1 and maybe the only one.
We predict that nowadays or in the future,
nothing can cause another word war, because
WW1 and WW2 taught everyone something: A
world war brings nothing but lost lives and
disadvantage for almost all countries that are
involved in it.
