The Most Influential Underlying Causes of World War 1

The Most Influential Underlying Causes of WWI

Disaster strikes Europe in the year of 1914, the First World War brakes out! The trigger cause to this war was the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. One may ask them self, would the assassination of a single person be enough to turn all of Europe against each other? One can tell there was tension before this event from a German Socialist, Friedrich Engels predicting "Eight to ten million soldiers will swallow each other up and in so doing eat all Europe more bare then any swarm of locusts." (Doc A) Leading one to believe that there were more factors to the purpose of this war. This causes people to ask the question, "What were the most influential underlying causes of World War I?" An underlying cause to the war would be a basic or fundamental reason why there was tension, while if something was to be influential it would need to have a significant impact on it. The three causes that had the biggest affect on World War I were the alliance systems, militarism, and imperialism.

The role that alliances played in this war was so vital due to the fact that there were only two sides making us believe that it was an influential underlying cause of war. Alliances were underlying because they are formal agreements or treaties between two or more nations to cooperate for specific purposes. This led countries to pick sides and fight against each other. One side to the war was the Triple Entente which consisted of France, Russia, and Great Britain. The other side was the Triple Alliance which was Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary. (Doc D) These two alliances were underlying because they had almost all of Europe involved within them. Due to this, alliances were so influential because it created certain ties between countries. If France is attacked by Germany, Russia has a right to support France. (Doc E) Both France and Russia believed that Germany was the only real threat to them. Russia and France singled out Germany as a villain before anything has even happened, proving that there was tension prior to the war. France then starts to invest large amounts of money into Russia. This alliance was even more important now to the fact that France was so involved with Russia's economy. (Doc F) As a result there is more of a reason to protect and fight for each other because there is money involved. If Russia's economy fell so would France leading them both into turmoil. Therefore, if alliances were taken out of the equation, World War I could have been avoided because there would be no conflict between European countries. Since France and Russia were always ready to fight, they needed a strongly prepared military.

Militarism is yet another influential underlying cause of World War I. It was an underlying factor because the militaries were so large but useless. Militarism is the principle or policy of maintaining a large military establishment. Prior to World War I, the countries spent millions of Pounds on their militaries. (Doc K) Over the years, the growth of militaries became a competition.