Causes of World War I

David Garcìa Castro TY2

Europe at the time (1914)

In 1914 Europe was divided into a number of different states:

•United Kingdom: The greatest empire of the epoch and the history.•France•The German Empire•Austro-Hungarian Empire•Balkan countries•Russian Empires

Imperialism

The utmost part of the world at that time belonged to each one of the European countries.

Russia controlled a vast part Asia. France and Germany had various colonies in Africa. The Austro-Hungarian Empire ruled almost the entire East Europe. Meanwhile the British territories covered a quarter of the planet.

There was a huge thirst of dominating new territories

amongst these states.

The armed forces of the nations came to dominate the national policies. This was a glorification of the military and war itself. For instance the Germans built their own Imperial Navy . There was some kind of fierce military competition between Britain and Germany, like the Anglo-German naval arms race.

Militarism

Alliances

The nations began to sign treaties in where they involved pledges to defend each other if attacked by an aggressor. Basically they agreed to help each other.

This picture from the magazine Punch illustrates the British-American alliance during the war with the phrase: “As Between Friends”.

Balkan Nationalism

The kingdom of Serbia was independent at the time, it was beside the Austro Hungarian Empire, exactly beneath Bosnia, a huge Balkan region belonged to the empire.

Both Serbia and Bosnia wanted the independence of their own countries.

This was obviously a fiasco for the empire, nevertheless it was beneficial for Russia.

Assasination

On Sunday, 28 June 1914 meanwhile Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand was doing an official visit in Sarajevo he was assassinated by Serbian rebels that wanted the independence of Bosnia.

As Franz Ferdinand was the heir of the Austro-Hungarian empire (inheritor of emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria). This caused the Central Powers (including Germany and Austria-Hungary) and Serbia's allies to declare war on each other.

Major Belligerents

Central Powers

The Central Powers consisted of the German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the beginning of the war. The Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers later in 1914. In 1915, the Kingdom of Bulgaria joined the alliance. The name "Central Powers" is derived from the location of these countries.

Allies

The original alliance opposed to the Central Powers was the Triple Entente, which was formed by three Great European Powers: United Kingdom, France and Russia. Later on Italy and Japan would enter into war, forming the Great Five Powers.