World War I was one of the bloodiest wars that the world has ever seen. WWI was a war fought in Europe between Germany, Russia, France, Great Britain, the U.S. and many others. However, what is unknown is the cause of WWI. So the question remains, what was the reason for WWI. A few of the causes that set off one of the greatest wars the world has ever seen are alliance systems, militarism, and imperialism.
Alliance systems were one of the underlying causes of WWI. The main reason that this was a world war was because of the alliances with different countries. For example, Germany had an alliance with Austria-Hungary, who could have had a ton of other alliances with different countries. Also, because of all the alliance systems, each country had a different point of view of who started the war. Everyone but Germany, Austria-Hungary and Serbia thought Germany started the war. However, the war actually started with Austria-Hungary’s Archduke Franz Ferdinand being assassinated by Serbia. Those are a few ways alliance systems caused World War I.
Militarism was another reason for the start of WWI. Germany had an industrialized nation, as well as an industrialized military. Germany spent millions of dollars improving their military to make it ready for a war. To keep up with them, many other countries had to update their militaries and navies as well. With this improved military, Germany was extremely anxious to utilize their army. Germany was so confident that they could win a war with this new army that as soon as war was declared, they didn’t hesitate to make the first strike. However, this would prove to be a problem because of the other nations rush to industrialize their armies. Militarism was a huge factor in the cause of WWI.
Imperialism was the last major underlying cause of World War I. The Germans felt that they needed to rush to conquer the other countries and colonize them as best they could. This would cause problems with the other nations because of the vast land they owned and the population of each nation. Because of these factors, the Germans actions would spark anger among the other countries towards Germany. So, as soon as war was declared, this would give
the countries attempted to be conquered all the more reason to try and attack Germany. Those are a few reasons that imperialism was an underlying cause of WWI.
Although the war seemed to start because of Germany, there were many underlying causes of the war. There were alliance systems that spread all throughout Europe. There was a glorification of the military by several countries. There was also a rush to conquer all of the countries with imperialism between feuding nations. It turns out, there were several more causes to WWI than is often examined.
