Immediate Causes Of World War 1 Essay

The immediate cause of World War I was the assassination of archduke Francis Ferdinand when he was on a visit to Serbia. Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia for not stopping the assignation and in turn declared war on Serbia. Other underlying causes of World War I was militarism. Germany and France competed to build larger armies because Britain had such a large army to begin with. A lot of nations used “universal conscription” which is like a draft to make their armies larger, nations mostly did this for prestige and self defense. The expenses of putting together these huge armies was left to fall on the general population in the form of high taxes. Alliances were also a huge underlying cause of the war. The nations of Europe had been making alliances for years. These alliances were thought to promote peace by protecting …show more content…
The republic government gained more influence after the war. The Treaty of Versailles of 1919 was also a significant outcome of the war. Germany was forced to sign this treaty accepting responsibility for causing the war and also had to pay for most of the wars expenses. There was a big economic change after the war because the production of airplanes, radios, automobiles, weapons and certain chemicals increased greatly. Mass production and the use of machinery increased the economy. However Europe suffered not only economically but also the loss of physical property and landscape. Europe was in great debt of their allies because of the generous contributions they had made to the war. Europe had owed about 10 million dollars to their allies. In order to help with the debt many european countries had started printing more money which lead to inflation. Many people who had been living a middle class lifestyle began to experience unstable financial periods, because of the inflation the german currency began to dwindle in