What Are The Underlying Causes Of World War 1 Essay

Did you know that within the first day of the battle at Somme over 57 thousand Britons died? This was only one small battle that occurred during World War One and only a small fractions of the lives lost in the war. World War 1 was a battle between the allies: Russia, France, Great Britain and the U.S. and the Central Power: Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy that started in 1914. The war lasted four long years. There were many events that are thought of as being the cause of the war. The underlying causes of World War 1 were alliances, nationalism, and powerlust. One of the underlying causes of World War 1 was the alliances. When Russia, France and the United Kingdom began making alliance this made the surrounding countries feel threatened. Since some countries were left out of the alliances, they felt uneasy about the situation. There wasn’t a war going on but they felt as though this would be the start of one. In Document A the alliances are …show more content…
In Document E the Triple Entente had a combined area of colonies of 17,180,000 while the Germany and Austria-Hungary alliance had a combined area of only 1,139,000. This made a very unfriendly competition between the two sides. As one side would gain more land the other side then felt like they had to beat them. Everyone was fighting over land and how much they could gain which caused a huge war. Although there were many causes of World War 1, the three most prevalent were alliances, nationalism, and a powerlust. The war claimed over 16 million lives and lasted four years. Many bad things happened during the war but we also gained knowledge that we can still use today. The technology used on the warfield in WW1 has completely changed our weapons today. Toxic gases were used to attack enemies and today they still are. The bad parts of World War 1 seem overwhelming, but what the US gained from the war has shaped how our country runs