In the early hours of June, on the 28th day, in the year of 1914, this tragic event would begin a domino-effect which would lead Europe and the United States into what is now known as… World War I. On this day, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, were assassinated by a Serbian group known as the “Black Hand” while visiting the country. The group’s intent was to gain independence from Austria-Hungary. But unbeknownst to them, it would turn into a large-scale battle that in essence, could have been settled locally. However, this event was considered the spark yet the question we are trying to answer is, “What was the underlying cause of World War I (WWI)?” Throughout the analysis of six documents we find that there are four main
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In the documents, none of them suggest that nationalism could have caused WWI. Moving on, “militarism” or the build-up of an army was shown to have caused tension or suspicion meaning as one country built, so did the others. In Document C (titled “Growth in Armaments, 1890-1914 (chart)), as the years passed, spending for naval or armed forces increased drastically towards the year of 1914 with the highest being over 100 million (British pounds). Another source (Doc. D; titled “The Hammer and the Anvil, 1899”) has Bernhard von Bülow, the Chancellor of Germany at the time, speaking before the Reichstag (German congress) stating that “…In the coming century the German people will be a hammer or an anvil.” This means that if they do not take the initiative now, the people will either be the conquerors or the …show more content…
What it means, in essence, is a larger country taking over a smaller country by force or influence. According to Doc. E (titled “The British Octopus” (cartoon)), a German cartoonist describes England as “England Der Blutsauger der Welt (meaning England, the bloodsucker of the world.)” The picture shows how the octopus’ tentacles stretch around the world because the British owned the most territory. As Doc. F (titled “Colonial Possessions” (chart)) states, Britain’s area, in sq. miles, was 12,740,000. As you may see, that would upset other leaders who were planning to expand as they felt large empires were a sign of strength and wealth. This time period was seen as a sort of race to acquire territories that were available for colonization. Britain, France, and Germany were in competition for new possessions. Leaders would often disagree over who was in control of certain parts of the world. Most were looking at the resources and economic benefits that could be acquired as colonies were a source of labor, land, and trading. This fighting for land (along with two events) money, and power is also what brought the United States into the war. Everyone was looking out for themselves so the back-and-forth arguing finally gave way into WWI and the death of
In the documents, none of them suggest that nationalism could have caused WWI. Moving on, “militarism” or the build-up of an army was shown to have caused tension or suspicion meaning as one country built, so did the others. In Document C (titled “Growth in Armaments, 1890-1914 (chart)), as the years passed, spending for naval or armed forces increased drastically towards the year of 1914 with the highest being over 100 million (British pounds). Another source (Doc. D; titled “The Hammer and the Anvil, 1899”) has Bernhard von Bülow, the Chancellor of Germany at the time, speaking before the Reichstag (German congress) stating that “…In the coming century the German people will be a hammer or an anvil.” This means that if they do not take the initiative now, the people will either be the conquerors or the …show more content…
What it means, in essence, is a larger country taking over a smaller country by force or influence. According to Doc. E (titled “The British Octopus” (cartoon)), a German cartoonist describes England as “England Der Blutsauger der Welt (meaning England, the bloodsucker of the world.)” The picture shows how the octopus’ tentacles stretch around the world because the British owned the most territory. As Doc. F (titled “Colonial Possessions” (chart)) states, Britain’s area, in sq. miles, was 12,740,000. As you may see, that would upset other leaders who were planning to expand as they felt large empires were a sign of strength and wealth. This time period was seen as a sort of race to acquire territories that were available for colonization. Britain, France, and Germany were in competition for new possessions. Leaders would often disagree over who was in control of certain parts of the world. Most were looking at the resources and economic benefits that could be acquired as colonies were a source of labor, land, and trading. This fighting for land (along with two events) money, and power is also what brought the United States into the war. Everyone was looking out for themselves so the back-and-forth arguing finally gave way into WWI and the death of