Causes of World War I - Paper

Causes of World War I

I feel that there many reasons for the start of the First World War and not just one, I think it’s a bit more complicated than   that. I have put them into five categories but could be split into more if necessary. All the categories concern the main powers of Europe. The war was mainly started by feuds between the powers.

There are two main alliances between the powers.   ‘The Triple Alliance,’ which contained:   Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. ‘The Triple Entente,’ which contained:   Great Britain, Russia and France. The trigger to the war I feel was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, on the 28th of June 1914.   The first attempt on his life came when a grenade hit his car, injuring an officer. Later on that day on his way to visit the officer in hospital, his driver took a wrong turn straight past Gavrilo Princip of the ‘Black Hand’ movement (a Bosnian terrorist group) , who killed the Archduke and his wife.

The next event in the chain was that because the Serbs, (a nationalist group) wanted their people freed, they caused an up roar. Austria-Hungary, after the Archduke was assassinated felt that they had to go to war with Serbia because Serbia controlled Bosnia.   However they didn’t want to as they knew that if they do declare war, Russia will get involved, as there so many Slavs in Russia. Austria-Hungary then went to Germany to ask for their backing in the war and on the 23rd of July, knowing that they had Germany’s backing they sent a list of demands to Serbia knowing it would be turned down and trying to start a war. On the 28th July, Keiser Wilhelm (German leader) gives his full backing to the war and gives orders to attack ’straight away’. On the 1st of August; Germany decided to go to war with Russia, as the Triple Alliance required of them.

On the 3rd of August, Germany declared war on France, and on the 5th of August Britain declared war on Germany. The First World...