Like most catastrophes in this world, World War I can be traced back to the desire for money. Money runs the world today, and in 1914 it was no different. Coming out of an age of extreme imperialism, great tension resided among the European powers in the 1900’s. Jealousy had sparked this tension yet despite the many causes of World War I, all roots of the war lead back to one main one: financial security. Two of the most commonly claimed causes— imperialism, and alliances—all lead back to a single thing: money. For in possessing money, one can rule the world. One does not actually rule the world, but the country with the largest wealth does have the most power and land, and therefore the most control. In a world that desires power above anything
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These authorities changed throughout the ages, but they always formed a weighted scale to balance the power of Europe. In the 1900’s these powers consisted of Russia, Britain, France, Germany, and Austria-Hungary. This scale tipped easily yet none of these powers ever gained superiority over the others due to the fact that if one power did begin to tip the scale, the other powers would wage war to deplete the country’s power until all was balanced again. However in achieving this power, one country would have to have gained a large sum of money. For with the acquisition of power, comes a prior acquisition of money. This is exemplified by imperialism and “an imperialist nation – sometimes benignly called the ‘mother country’ – acquires new territories through exploration, infiltration or military conquest” (Llewellyn). With the initialization of imperialism, money remains at the core, for it takes money to begin the exploration for a new land. With this new land, it also takes money to begin industry. Only then does the money start flowing back to the mother country. This newly attained land allows the “mother country” (Llewellyn) to exert its power over a larger area. Therefore money prompted the attainment of power, and in Europe, it was no different. By keeping the scale balanced, the nations kept power out of the hands of a single country and spread out the wealth across Europe. World War I proved to be one example of the battles waged in order to keep this balance of power. For in balancing the power, all the wealth was balanced. This set the stage for money maintaining a prominent role in the struggle over power in
These authorities changed throughout the ages, but they always formed a weighted scale to balance the power of Europe. In the 1900’s these powers consisted of Russia, Britain, France, Germany, and Austria-Hungary. This scale tipped easily yet none of these powers ever gained superiority over the others due to the fact that if one power did begin to tip the scale, the other powers would wage war to deplete the country’s power until all was balanced again. However in achieving this power, one country would have to have gained a large sum of money. For with the acquisition of power, comes a prior acquisition of money. This is exemplified by imperialism and “an imperialist nation – sometimes benignly called the ‘mother country’ – acquires new territories through exploration, infiltration or military conquest” (Llewellyn). With the initialization of imperialism, money remains at the core, for it takes money to begin the exploration for a new land. With this new land, it also takes money to begin industry. Only then does the money start flowing back to the mother country. This newly attained land allows the “mother country” (Llewellyn) to exert its power over a larger area. Therefore money prompted the attainment of power, and in Europe, it was no different. By keeping the scale balanced, the nations kept power out of the hands of a single country and spread out the wealth across Europe. World War I proved to be one example of the battles waged in order to keep this balance of power. For in balancing the power, all the wealth was balanced. This set the stage for money maintaining a prominent role in the struggle over power in