What Were the Main Causes of the First World War - Essay Example

What were the main causes of the First World War? The occurrence of massive disasterous events hatched by the mankind, don’t happen in fortnight, rather have an extended background behind them ,and various reasons become carpet for its execution and make them inevitable. Same was the case with World War One (W.W.1) that erupted in the beginning of 20th century and took the entire world in its fold, no continent was safe from it, and the major stakeholders were from nearly three continents. All the major events that took place in the history if traced back reveal that various long term reasons were behind them. Various factors contributed to the beginning of the fire, the military might, hostility towards each other, oppression of the weak, colonialism, race for resources, all these factors were building and in boiling for around twenty to thirty years and resulted in eruption of volcano in the name of World War One that lasted more than four years between 1914 and 1918 and had the entire world under its grip. This war changed the dynamics of happenings that were to take place in the coming years and decades of the century, and created new foes and new friends. Initially the rivalries were bi party and involved only two nations, two prime examples in this case can be seen as the rift that was going on between the Germans and French in 1870s(Howard, 2001), and Serbs and Austria-Hungry. Such small events and battles between the two nations result in providing a playground for large scale war which gives rise to battles that go beyond the borders of countries and engulf the continents ,similar case happened in case of World war one. More often than not it is seen that constitution of strategic alliances and groups result in further hostility of relations towards the other bench and such case was exhibited in World War One, though two strong entities were being established, yet they rather provided a medium for the two blocks to merge stand and operate against each other. A world war is termed as one that involves more than five super powers of that time, and enrolls two or more continents in its fire, World War One had the ingredients of both .The causes of a worldwide fire were building for many years, however there were few major events that became the reason for its opening and can be termed as the driving forces towards the launch. Initially known as the “Great war” .Primarily it involved Europe and its colonies but later extended its arms to America and Japan. A French politician once said, the large empire was important not only from trade point of view, but prestige as well. This was the kind of mind set in the late 19th and early 20th century. A battle for overseas territory was in offing between the European players, the battle was more for capturing the resources in those parts of the world that were neglected or had weak governance system and no protection means. One similar case that came to forefront in this regard was the dispute between the French and the Germans over the control of Morocco, this event took place in the early years of twentieth century. The 20th century was characterized by colonialism of the weak entities on the surface of earth and parts of Asia and Africa was being ruled by the dominant forces mostly from Europe in form of Great Britain, Germany and France. The colonies were ironically enriched with natural resources, strategic positioning, for that reason every strong nation fancied occupying a land (Sanderson, 2001).This created a rift between the strong and mighty. The colonialism was the exploitation of the poor and weak by the strong ones, those who saw it from outside and had some strength saw it as an opportunity to enter the battle. The Stake holders of the World war: Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungry, who were later joined by Bulgaria and Ottoman Empire Allies: Great Britain, France, Serbia, Russia and few others, Italy, Greece . French Sense of Nationalism: The atmosphere all around smelled that of nationalism and French nationalists also saw their chances in bid to regain their lost parts of land in form of Alsace and Lorraine which were lost in the war with Germany in Franco-Prussian War .The sour feeling was still in the air even after the beginning of 20th century and French were resort of taking back their places and avenging the battle fort and lost in 1870-1871. Military drive: In 1898 the German Emperor Wilhelm the second made a statement “our future lies upon the waters”and this statement even woke up even the dead, and set precedence for the events that would unfold in the coming years .Such an atmosphere started an arms race between the top guns in the European Continent and it is believed that between 1870 and 1914 the increase in the military spending by the European nations grew by 300 percent. Great Britain at that time had the best navy strength and others saw a competition in this. This gave birth to a race in the field of weapons and armory strength. The Great Britain refused to the pressure put by the Germans and embracing on the challenge, allied with France and Russia and got into a treaty which brought the mighty forces up against each other and brought the entire continent onto the brink of a war which in few years time resulted in the first major war of the century which was known as World War One. Great Britain 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1914 $3.54 $3.46 $3.84 $12.60 $7.29 $8.23 France 2.92 4.02 4.66 5.21 6.47 7.07 Russia 1.28 1.50 1.26 1.44 2.32 3.44 Germany 1.28 2.16 2.80 4.06 4.06 8.19 Italy 1.08 1.70 1.50 1.46 1.46 3.10 Reference: From Europe, 1815-1914, by Gordon A .Craig 1966 Before the official beginning of first war of the century, the might in terms of weapons, strong defense and armory was considered a strategic advantage over the neighbors; this brought about a competition amongst the rest, and provided a playing field for a war world war. Rivalry between the Great Britain & Germany: Great Britain at that time had the largest capture over the colonies all over the world especially the Sub continent in Asia and Africa .Both the powers got engaged in the battle of supremacy over one another. This rivalry set precedence for other countries to enroll themselves in battle of resources and land .The Great Britain saw Germany as the possible offensive contender who aimed at reducing its strength and overtaking the colonies controlled by them. The means of sails and ships were the most convenient and advanced means of transportation and travelling across the borders, and the countries with oceans were in a strategic advantage, those who were deprived of this aimed at seizing on the natural resource of waters of other countries and hence gave birth to contention. Spending in the field of Military by few of the European Powers (1913-14) Country Soldiers Money Spent in Millions Britain 750,000 50,000,000 France 1,500,00 40,000,000 Germany 8,250,000 60,000,000 Austria 750,000 22,500,000 Italy 750,000 15,500,000 Russia 1250,000 10,000,000 Allies vs. Central Powers: Germany, Austria, and Hungry established a chain called Triple Alliance, Italy was part of it till it parted its ways in 1914. Due to their strategic positioning this alliance was termed as the Central Powers force, on the other hand, Great Britain, Russia and France became allies in a Triple Entente chain. The allied system which was built and developed with intention of preventing major disputes, rather became a platform for gathering the titans and enabling them to make groups and stand against each other, hence the splitting of major forces in to allies group and the other group backfired and provided them with a platform to stand together against the opponent block who were in control of colonies, and resources (Tuchman, 2004). Nationalism: One of the reasons being termed for the first world war or so called great war was nationalism, the declaration of war on Germany saw jubilance all around France and Germany from the crowds and the government could never launch such a large scale offensive without the support and backing of the citizens .The issue of Morocco was a contributing factor in this regard .During the nationalism fade, rivalries soared to peaks (Duiker & Spielvogel, 2010) . Assassination in Sarajevo: An incident took place in June 1914 when the heir to the throne of Austria –hungry Archduke Francis Ferdinand along with his wife was assassinated. The assassination was carried out by a Bosnian Serb and was a member of the “s” secret band of Serbian nationalists who was against the Austro-Hungarian rule. The action was intended to unite the Serbian-populated part of the empire with an independent Serbia. This action brought about massive reaction from the Austrian –Hungarian side and they sought a demand list completion in order to avenge the killing of the Duke (Doak, et al., 2008). This excuse was enough for Austria-Hungry to go on rampage against Serbia and despite the demands being met; they launched an onslaught on the Serbians and bombarded the Capital Belgrade. This geared up the allies on both sides and gave rise to the extended war .3rd August marked the day when the Germans entered into Belgium in bid to invade France. The war spread like a jungle fire and just in matter of days the Entire Continent was under the clouds of a ferocious war fare. By this time, the alliance system was in place and the major forces and nations could not stay out of it, and its fire engulfed them as well. Russia, who came to the rescue of Serbia, and supported their cause and stood against the oppression, Russia’s entry into the already critical situation served the purpose for other mighty forces to find a reason enough to enter the war and Germany stood on the front against Russia in support of the Austria-Hungry. France at the same time could not stay out of it for long and sided with Russia under the accord of Alliance system. Britain for a short while stayed out of it; however it too, could not stay out of the situation for long. Conclusion: The war ended with the total carnage, and with a face of shame in terms of humanity, leaving the world and mighty powers in total shatters. The central powers were defeated out of it and changed the world in many ways and set new trends and some learned their lessons while others embraced for another battle which took place twenty years later called World War Two (W.W.2). Hence it can be termed that no one reason was the cause for the first war of the previous century, rather several reasons became the root causes to the war, and every reason was no less lethal and no less contributing than the other one, the main reasons included, the arms race, cry against colonialism, roar for nationalism, economic upheaval, animosity against each other, and lack of tolerance resulted in the war which left over 8 million people dead, many crippled, more homeless, the nations economies were brought to their feet, many a millions lost their jobs , increase in taxes, not only this but nurtured ground for second world war ,and those who suffered defeat were aiming to avenge their downfall. All these were the gifts of world war one that was fought with sublime aggression and was planned for years and executed between 1914 and 1918(Lambourne, 2001). Bibliography: 1-Howard, M. E., 2001. Franco-Prussian War :the German invasion of France, 1870-1871. s.l.:Routledge. 2-Sanderson, E., 2001. Great Britain in Africa: The History of Colonial Expansion. s.l.:Simon Publications LLC. 3-Duiker, W. J. & Spielvogel, J. J., 2010. The Essential World History. s.l.:Cengage Learning. 4-Doak, R. S., Remy, S. & Sluys, K. V., 2008. Assassination at Sarajevo: The Spark That Started World War I. s.l.:Compass Point Books. 5-Tuchman, B. W., 2004. The Guns of August. s.l.:Random House Publishing Group. 6-Lambourne, N., 2001. War damage in Western Europe: the destruction of historic monuments during the Second World War. s.l.:Edinburgh University Press. Read More