There were many factors causing World War I, and pushing the war to continue. The four main and biggest reasons were militarism, unchecked alliances, imperialism, and nationalism. Nationalism is when there is pride in one’s nation or country. Imperialism is when a country has some type of force or influence in another country. Alliances are when multiple countries align themselves with each other for a common reason, weather to defeat a common enemy or keep peace among themselves. Militarism is the belief of the people of a country that they should have a strong military.
The spending in militaries increased by 300% in Europe during the arms race leading up to WWI. Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, and the USA were all trying …show more content…
Arguably the two biggest rivals were Great Britain and Germany. At the time Great Britain had the strongest navy, and Germany the strongest army. When Germany began to grow their navy, Great Britain felt threatened and decided they needed to show their military was the best. Militarism was a way to show that your country was not a country to be trifled with.
Alliances were formed for similar reasons, alliances were generally made to strengthen a country. Alliances also caused rivalries to become dangerous and more complicated. Alliances lead to huge mistrust among the countries throughout Europe. What did not help trust in this system, was secret alliances. Alliances that were not made public knowledge, even for only the leaders involved that created the different alliances. They did not necessarily have true trust in their own allies, because as far as they knew their ally could have their own secret alliance with one of their …show more content…
Nationalism also had an immense effect on the war. Nationalism caused the spark that began the war, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand the heir to the Austria-Hungary throne. Nationalism caused this because it was a Serbian nationalist group the committed the assassination. Serbia dislike Austria-Hungary, as well as Russia, because both countries were attempting to dominate the Balkans. The Balkans are a region in southeastern Europe. Within the Balkans themselves; a surge of nationalism occurred with the Serbians, Bulgarians, Romanians, and other ethnic groups within wanting
The spending in militaries increased by 300% in Europe during the arms race leading up to WWI. Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, and the USA were all trying …show more content…
Arguably the two biggest rivals were Great Britain and Germany. At the time Great Britain had the strongest navy, and Germany the strongest army. When Germany began to grow their navy, Great Britain felt threatened and decided they needed to show their military was the best. Militarism was a way to show that your country was not a country to be trifled with.
Alliances were formed for similar reasons, alliances were generally made to strengthen a country. Alliances also caused rivalries to become dangerous and more complicated. Alliances lead to huge mistrust among the countries throughout Europe. What did not help trust in this system, was secret alliances. Alliances that were not made public knowledge, even for only the leaders involved that created the different alliances. They did not necessarily have true trust in their own allies, because as far as they knew their ally could have their own secret alliance with one of their …show more content…
Nationalism also had an immense effect on the war. Nationalism caused the spark that began the war, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand the heir to the Austria-Hungary throne. Nationalism caused this because it was a Serbian nationalist group the committed the assassination. Serbia dislike Austria-Hungary, as well as Russia, because both countries were attempting to dominate the Balkans. The Balkans are a region in southeastern Europe. Within the Balkans themselves; a surge of nationalism occurred with the Serbians, Bulgarians, Romanians, and other ethnic groups within wanting