The causes of World War One are intricately woven into a tangled mess of uncertainness, mistrust, betrayal, and revolutionary ideas. Historians today are still undecided as to what the complete cause of the war was. There are four big categories of country policies that you must understand if you are to decipher the causes of the war. They are: Nationalism, Imperialism, Militarism, and Systems of Alliances. I chose to research Nationalism and Imperialism while Brandon is doing the other two.Until I have all of the information that I need and can get a hold of as to the events prior to and pertaining to WW1, I can’t be positive that I know exactly what I am talking about. Let’s start with Nationalism.Nationalism is strong love and pride for one’s own country. People, especially many years ago, people had strong nationalistic views. In the early 1900’s the country of Serbia was experiencing strong nationalistic (and imperialistic) feelings. The Serbs wanted to expand Serbia and gain control of Bosnia and Herzegovina. These countries were controlled by Austria.In 1914, a Serbian assassinated Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife. This assassination outraged Austria. The Austrian government demanded that Serbia allow Austrian investigators to search the country to find those who were responsible for aiding the killers, and to find the killers of the Archduke. Serbia refused to permit the search, and Austria declared war.Imperialisms role plays in with the start of the war. Both Austria and Serbia had signed alliances with other European countries and countries from around the world. The allied countries would aid the country that they were allying with in a war should the country go to war. Europe was split by the approaching war.Many countries viewed the war as a chance to expand. Germany was rivals with and France already. Now, Germany was going to try to win control over the British and French colonies by defeating them in the war under the pretense of aiding Austria. Germany had control of biggest steel plants in Europe. They hoped to dominate the war with a superior naval fleet. Other countries wished to do the same thing. This is one of the biggest reasons why the war went from a centralized area to literally become a World War.
Comments