World War 1 occurred during 1914-1918 and was originally called The Great War before the Second World War in 1939. It had a devastating impact on all of the countries that were involved as the mortality rate was huge. There were several reasons The Great War started which included some long term causes such as Imperialism & Nationalism as well as a few short term triggers that included the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie which in turn became known as the catalyst.
LONG TERM CAUSES
Two of the main long term causes for war included Imperialism & Nationalism. I will discuss these in more detail below.
IMPERIALISM
Imperialism was a common theme with the powerful European nations in the lead-up to World War One. …show more content…
France was another nation which used imperialism for their benefit as a nation. They had established power in South-East Asia (Cambodia, Laos & Vietnam), in the Pacific Islands as well as in the North West of Africa.
Imperialism was a long term cause of The Great War as it was seen that the more colonies you had seized then the more power you had.
NATIONALISM
In the lead-up to World War 1, nationalism was a key reason countries went to war. Many Europeans felt their nation’s culture, military and economy was superior to others. Nationalism is when a country pushes their own nation’s agenda onto other countries. World War 1 was partly a result of European nations that wanted to prove their dominance as a country over each other through strength and power.
In order for politicians to make their nation believe that they were the superior country, they would demonise rival countries in their popular media and newspapers. One of the messages that came across at this time was that if their country went to war, they would naturally be …show more content…
The final straw of Franz Ferdinand’s assassination was the catalyst for the war, but this was not the only reason. In the early 1900s, European nations were at odds with each other and were constantly trying to prove their nation had the best military, strongest economy and most desirable culture. There was a history of wars that occurred during the 1800s which meant that there were many bitter feelings between nations who had lost political rights after being defeated in wars. This War was a bloody affair between nations which showed many citizens that they wouldn’t want to be part of another war because of the huge number of deaths that