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Period: to
Early Alliances
Leading up to the war, many European countries began making alliances with each other. Germany made an alliance with Austria-Hungary and Italy in 1881 so that they were protected in case France were to attack. However, Italy secretly made an alliances with France to not aide Germany and so forth. Due to this alliance with Germany, France and Russia established an alliance in 1892 and in 1904, Britain and France signed an agreement. This created a snowball effect that started WW2 -
First Moroccan Crisis
Kaiser Wilhelm II (Former German Emperor) visited the Moroccan port of Tangier to denounce French influence. It was designed to test the strength of France but only created an international crisis that ended in France's favor at the Algeciras Conference in 1906 -
Militarism
Once the 20th century began, the world started its arms race for who can have the most warships or amount of people that can be recruited. It began in 1906 with Britain's HMS Dreadnought (Royal Navy battleship that revolutionised naval power) and was soon out-classed as the Royal Navy and Kaiserliche Marine expanded -
The Annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina
These two Turkish provinces were originally under Austria since the Congress of Berlin. However, Austria annexed Bosnia after tricking Russia during negotiations of their foreign ministers. Serbia was outraged due to this since they had a decent population within Bosnia so brought Europe to a brink of war since there was already a crisis between the Great Powers. Russia soon agreed to the annexation due to the Germans. -
Imperialism
Imperialism is defined as a country expands their influence to become a larger empire. At the time, countries like Russia and Germany were having conflict other rising empires such as France and Britain for power -
Second Moroccan Crisis
To protect German citizens, the Germans sent the gunboat "Panther" to the Moroccan port of Agadir. The reasoning was that they believed that France ignored the terms of the Algeciras Conference but this only caused a major war scare till the Germans decided to leave Morocco in return for rights in the Congo -
Europe on the Verge of War
With secret alliances, internal politics, and the rise of imperialism in Europe, they were one problematic occurance away from war to spread like wildfire between the countries of Europe -
Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand
A Serbian nationalist named Gavrilo Princip shot and killed Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo, Bosnia. This led to Austria-Hungary declaring war on Serbia, soon causing Germany to declare war on Russia. -
Nationalism
Nationalism was one of the main origins of WW2 since it was based on the desires of the Slavic peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina to be a part of Austria-Hungary. This was also shown in many other countries throughout Europe as they tried to prove their dominance and power by expanding -
Mutual Defense Alliances
Mutual defense alliances have been made throughout the world so that countries were protected in case someone were to attack. Many countries had these alliances before WW1 that continued into this time. When Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Russia got involved to defend Serbia. This caused a snow ball effect of countries defending and fighting one another. -
Citation 1:
Bloy, M. (2016, April 20). European History. Retrieved December 22,
2019, from http://www.historyhome.co.uk/europe/causeww1.htm. -
Citation 2:
Technological Solutions. (2019). World War I: Causes of WW1. Retrieved December 22, 2019, from https://www.ducksters.com/history/world_war_i/causes_of_ww1.php -
Citation 3:
Kelly, M. (2019, May 13). The Top 5 Causes That Led to World War I. Retrieved December 22, 2019, from https://www.thoughtco.com/causes-that-led-to-world-war-i-105515.
