The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand - Research Paper Example

The Causes of World War One The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary on the 28th day of June 1914 marked a turning point to the peaceful coexistence within the European community and the major powerful nations of the world. The war descended over the continent shortly after a period of not more than a month as a result of the failure of the diplomacy. This saw the end of the international peace that existed within European continent in the nineteenth century. 1This is described by political analysts as the most destructive war of the world that had ever been experienced across the continents. However, the European continent had experienced less destructive wars such as the Crimean war, the short wars in German as well as the wars that resulted into Turkey withdrawing from the continent. 2The great powers of Europe had avoided any war that emerged for very long time and the outbreak of the World War I was viewed as inevitable. The First World War engaged many nations from Europe including others like the North Americans, The Near East, and Asia. 3Approximately ten million people died as a result of the war in which over sixty five million men fought in the war. It is also estimated that out of the sixty five million men who participated in the war, one out of every eight people were killed by the concomitant disease. 4The aftermath of the First World War resulted into the deaths of more than twice the number of deaths caused by the previous wars. More than fifteen million people were also injured as a result of the war and another eight million soldiers were taken as POWs. 5The war was therefore very destructive and if any participant nation of the world would have known the consequences, they could have not participated in the war but instead could have prevented its occurrence. The immediate cause of the First World War may be stated to be the failure of diplomacy as a result of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. However, there are certain underlining issues that resulted into the outbreak of the war. 6Few leaders in Europe were able to correctly determine the causes of the war in 1914 and therefore its avoidance was difficult. 7Most Neorealists believe that it was a conflict that was beyond the control of the people who participated in it and the people never wanted nor expected it. This is the reason why the events that preceded the five weeks of crisis and the crisis itself could not prevent the war. Generally the war was inevitable due to certain foundation issues and therefore could have not been avoided. Structuralism is one of the factors and the root cause of the First World War. 8Structuralism is a global level philosophy that postulates that the changing power distribution in the global system is a key factor in determining the behavior of states. Power distribution was a key factor in not only the cause of the war but also the direction that the war had to take immediately after its outbreak. 9The distribution of power was a determinant in the formation of alliances or coalitions and the chance of having peace. Looking at the prevailing circumstances before the emergence of the war, the great powers formed alliances and the counter-alliances. This resulted into the alliances mobilizing their armies towards the opponents and hence dragged the European into the war. Structural argument as the root causes of the World War I emphasizes on the dominance of Britain in Europe. In the nineteenth century, Britain was viewed as an island in the European continent with regard to tradition, temperament and the geographical perspectives of the continent. In this regard, British gained monopoly and command in the world’s shipping lanes across Europe which was instrumental in preventing aggression. However, Britain became unified nation in the year 1871, Germany started mounting challenge. This unification was very significant in German’s economy since it resulted into the faster growth. 10German was capable of creating formidable army and navy and prospered also with regard to industrialization and other sectors of the economy. German therefore became ambitious and started competing for the international positions, affairs and status. Other nations such as Russia were also expanding and therefore became a threat to German. 11This was accelerated by the decline in the power of German’s ally; Austria-Hungarian Empire. In this respect, the global shifts in power plays an important role in determining the actions of the opposing powers so as to balance the impacts of the opposing side. It is evidenced that there was alliances formed commonly known as triple alliance of Germany consisting of Germany, Ottoman and Austria-Hungary against that of France, Britain and Russia. 12The structuralism therefore explains the emergence of the war in the following perspective; after Austria had attacked Serbia, Russia responded by mobilizing their armies in response to this attack. The commitments of the alliances therefore pulled one nation after the other into the war. The growth of nationalism in Europe especially in the southern part was also a contributing factor to the emergence of aggressions. 13Most nations glorified their national heritage distinctiveness and hence begun to champion their own nations above others. The emergence of the long suppressed prejudices was therefore evident among the nationals of the nations in the south as well as their leaders. 14Kaiser Wilhelm II claimed to hate the Slavs while the Russian leader Sazonov despised Austria. With regard to these strongly held passions, there were domestic unrests and hence it was difficult to handle issues from a different perspective. This is probably the main factor that contributed to the failure of the diplomacy during the five week crisis. Austrians were not able to understand why they were labeled by the Russians as aggressors while Germans were not capable of understanding Russians’ pride due to their insensitivity to other nations. These events resulted into each nation belittling the national character and ethnic attributes of the other. This resulted into the growth of negative ethnicity and perception of one country by the other took a different perspective. The national leaders were therefore blinded and could not reason from reality but reasoned from their formed opinions. The diplomatic alternatives to the war were fruitless and the possibility of preventing the war was therefore impossible. The other cause of the World War I can also be looked at in the perspective of the leaders’ choices. The failure of the national leaders to make rational choice after the break of the diplomacy and during diplomacy could have been another reason for the break out of the war. The prior events that led to the war clearly demonstrate how the national leaders made decisions that best served their interest and the interests of their states. 15Most leaders of the participants in the war decided to go to war because of the perceived benefits that they could derive from the war. This was evidenced and demonstrated by German France and Russia at the initial stages before the emergence of the war. 16Germans preference for war against Russia and France was due to the perceived position that German could gain on the continent as the world power. This would divert the attention of the people from the troubles they faced internally. 17The First World War is seen as the consequence that the great powers had to face due to their choice of competing against one another. The competition for the rival great powers to compete for the global super powers led to the nations making uninformed decisions that were made from perceptions and personal opinions and not from the reality. For example, German became more aggressive after Russian had secured an equal power with German’s increasing power and hence it had to fight to suppress Russia and hence remain powerful. The struggles by the nations to maintain their powerful global positions and status were therefore a major contributing factor to the corresponding reactions from the other nations. With the alliances, the battle line was clearly drawn and each nation had an opponent. This resulted into the alliance members being drawn into the war and hence increased the number of nations that participated in the war. Though the factors that contributed to the break of the World War I remains in dispute and are challenged by other political and historical analysts, there are three major issues that were evident during the period before this historic event. Global distribution of power, rational decision making processes and the domestic factors within states explain why the war could not be avoided. The goals of each political leader, the perceived benefits of the war and the ambitions by each nation to hold world power made it impossible for the leaders to look at issues in the right perspective and hence alternatives to war were made impossible. The changing global powers resulted into the formation of alliances which contributed to strong military and weaponry. In this way, it was simple for the war to draw other members of the alliances who were not involved in the initial conflict Works cited Cashman, Gregg & Robinson Leonard C. “An introduction to the causes of war: patterns of interstate conflict from World War I to Iraq.” Plymouth: Rowan and Littlefield publishers, 2007. Collins, Ross F. “World War One.” Westport: Greenwood publishers, 2008. Hamilton, John. “Events Leading to world war I.” ABDO & Daughters, 2004. Henig, Ruth B. “The Origins of the First world War.” New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2002. Hewitson, Mark. “Germany and the causes of the first world war.” Oxford: berg publishers, 2006. Howard, Michael. “The First world war.” Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. Kegley, Charles W. “World Politics: trends and Transformation.” Belmont: Cengage learning, 2009. Spielvogel, Jackson J. “Western civilization: A Brief history.” Boston: Wadsworth, 2011. Strachan, Hew. “The Oxford Illustrated history of the World War I.” Oxford: Oxford University press, 1998. Tucker, Spencer & Roberts Priscilla M. “World War I: encyclopedia, volume 1.” California: ABC-CLIO, Inc, 2005. Read More