Imperialism: The Most Significant Cause Of World War I

To Communists, like Lenin, war was an inevitable outcome of the final stage of capitalism: imperialism, where capitalist countries of Europe fight for markets and resources. Although imperialism was an obvious manifestation that caused economic competition between European powers, it was not the most significant cause of World War I. The nations that most demonstrated imperial rivalry, soon became allies instead of enemies in World War I: Britain and Russia. At first, Britain was threatened by Russia because of its vast Empire and how close Russia was to its crown jewel of India. Britain was also threatened by the idea of another massive naval fleet, which Russia had locked in the Black Sea with hopes of accessing the Mediterranean – and therefore accessing to other countries for trading. Additionally, when Britain had its first ally after abandoning their idea of …show more content…
Germany also had imperial conflicts, such as the two relatively minor incidents in Morocco in 1905 and 1911 against France, and issues with the Berlin-Baghdad Railway against Britain. But German colonies did not cause much imperial conflict. World War I started with the conflict in the Balkans, but imperialist ambitions do not explain the conflict there. Similarly, the struggle for resources does not explain France’s obsession with reacquiring Alsace-Lorraine; there were not enough resources in that region, and France had other sources within its country and empire. Likewise, Britain was not short of colonies or resources too. Contrary to the capitalist ideas of imperialism, Austria’s attack on Serbia was not to gain resources; rather, to suppress Southern Slav nationalism especially after when Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. Thus, economic competition and imperialism are not significant reasons for the causes of World War