The Causes of World War One by Educator and Historian, Keith Rispin The causes of the First World War were numerous, and academics frequently debate the importance and details of each. Four however, stand out as the most significant on the road to what was hoped to be "The War to end all Wars." In the years leading up to WWI, a volatile mix of ethnic nationalism, imperialist interests, growing militarism and a quagmire of regional alliances created what some might consider the perfect recipe for war and at the dawn of the new century, the nations of Europe were poised for a conflict.
The spark that finally ignited the continental powder keg was the assassination of Austria's Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife Sophie. By spilling the blood of two Austrian royals, assassin, Gavrilo Princip, marked the beginning of a war, which resulted in the deaths of more than ten million people.
Nationalism In simplest terms nationalism can be defined as the loyalty citizens feel toward their country. It is really not all that hard to understand this concept, as we all tend to feel some degree of loyalty towards our own nation. However, defining nationalism is not that easy.
There are three basic types of nationalism civic, ethnic and religious but there is an indefinite number of variations of each. This makes defining nationalism difficult but not impossible.
Gavrilo Princip personified the type of nationalism that was prevalent on the continent of Europe prior to WWI. He was a Serbian Nationalist, fighting to free his people from the political control of Austria. A symptom of a growing movement that believed political boundaries should be drawn along ethnic lines and that that it was only within these boundaries that legitimate political control could be established.
It was with ethnic nationalism that the battle lines of WWI were drawn and those lines were squarely between the Slavs and the Germanics. With those lines came a web of alliances that eventually drew the whole of Europe and the world, into four years of bloody hell.
Alliances The alliances of WWI were about as complex as a bad soap opera script and just as predictable. They came with catchy names like The Triple Entente, which was the agreement between Britain, France and Russia to be war buddies and the Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria and Italy.
Once Austria declared war of Serbia, the alliances fell into place like dominoes. Russia, being a Slavic brother and obligated by a treaty, immediately stepped in to help out Serbia. With that move, Germany, having ethnic and political ties to Austria, declared war on Russia. With the German declaration of war on Russia, France bounded by treaty, jumped into the whole mess to back up Russia. If this wasn't complicated enough, Britain who had a 75-year-old agreement with Belgium to protect her soil in the event of an attack, stepped into the ever-growing quagmire, and doing so, got dragged into the thick of things. Confused yet?
Well? one would think that this silly mess would have stopped there, but if it had then it wouldn't have been a world war. But because of Britain's Imperialist legacy its former colonies were dragged into the war effort by default. In actuality, young men from Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and the Union of South Africa all jumped at the opportunity to help out the motherland. "Bloody good fun" they figured "A jolly good adventure." But as the body count climbed and time wore on the adventure became a nightmare and a legacy of senseless death.
