World War One

Stefani Acosta and Gina Grieb

The Causes
Militarism
Alliances
Imperialism/Industrialization
Nationalism
Long Term (the powder Keg)
Militarism
What is it and what are the origins?
Militarism is a political, economical, and social importance is given towards military research
During the early 20th century many powerful nations began an industrial race with one another to have the best
military artillery This meant a large chunk of the nations economy was spent on military research. Due to the
strong support for militarism
Why?
Every nation wanted to prove their superiority to one another. This made them create these large military weapons
ex. Tanks. With all these new toys left all over the place it was no wonder nations were more than willing to fight
one another.
Although many higher ranked military officers believed that having large weapons would help lessen the chances of
war because everyone has a gun to each others head
How far did nations go to surpass one another?
They began to enforce military involvement for all age appropriate males in the nation.
All nations feared being invaded by their neighboring country with a growing army, therefore they proceeded to
grow their own army
Militarism (cont.)
Three Year Law (Russia)
In 1913 nations such as Russia commenced mandatory military service to increase their army size
The Tsars army stood at 1.3 million and would grow up to 5 million
Why was this alarming?
Because they continued to grow in excess amount and was not showing that it would stop growing
Why it didnt work effectively?
Due to miscommunication only of the mandatory called for war actually showed up. This was because of the bad
infrastructure found in Russia as well as some people not wanting to participate.
Technology
In 1914 the government started investing in making more explosives as well as machine guns. They were two
weapons that were made for more large use.
In 1906 the British Royal army created Dreadnought which basically made every battleship be able to float. It was
faster and more heavily armed. This made Germany jealous and they went on an arm race increased by 197%
between 1900 and 1914
Imperialism/Industrialization
There was a massive increase in industrial output in the second half of the 19th
century
By the 1900 economic power = military power.
Europe was much more industrialized in 1914 than it had been in 1880 (this would help determine the nature of the
war as the first total war of the 20th century).
The increase in manufacturing caused consequences
The increase was not uniform among powers.
France was behind all other powers except Austria-Hungary when it came to industrialisation
In order to support this massive increase in industrial output the powers needed
access to resources.
Neo-mercantilism developed
An economic doctrine that emphasizes the need to decrease imports by moving toward self-sufficiency. This
had been momentarily satisfied by the scramble for Africa and gaining those resources, but by 1900 they
needed even more.
Alliances
- are a policy of deterrence
Austria and Germany
The Blank Cheque
Was unconditional support given by Kaiser Wilhelm II from Germany to Franz Joseph in July 1914
This gave Austria a fully committed ally against Serbia and Russia
Serbia and Russia
Although Serbia was advised to meet all of Austria's demands such as;
All anti-Austria propaganda in Serbia would be suppressed
Austria-Hungary was permitted to do their own investigation into the archdukes killing
Serbia made the most attempt to prevent war from occurring
ON JULY 28TH 1914, AUSTRIA-HUNGARY DECLARED WAR AGAINST SERBIA
Russia did not take lightly to this and saw the size of Austrias army near its border as a threat and decided to
slightly mobilize its army
Russia had to leave the war early as they soon had a revolution in 1917
Nationalism
Prior to WWI nations had been fought taken over, and won back again. At a time
people felt very lost and at this point felt a large sense of pride to their country
Due to the sense of pride many felt the need to fight for their country
Also it made countries feel superior to other nations if they military, population,
and wealth were more than the other countries
Short Term
(the spark)
Assassination
June of 1914
Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated by Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo. This
event is often referred to as the july crisis. This event was said to have sparked the great war.
Although the intents of Austro-Hungary were not to start one of the largest upscale wars but
simply to destroy a smaller, much weaker country, Serbia. There had always been a fight between
Serbia and Hungary due to different views, but most importantly Hungary feeling as though it was
far superior.
The assassination of the Archduke was not a spark of war but instead an excuse to attack Serbia.
Problems between Serbia and Austro-Hungary
There seemed to be a clash of cultures with a bit of oppression. As Austria found itself superior it
began to want to crash their Nationalism
Nationalism although not the only cause but it was a large motivation for the assassination
Territory
In the map it is easy to see how back then
how close Austria and Servia were.
Including you can see how close Sarajevo
was to Serbia. Because of the close
connection there was bound to be slight
conflict. Although Russia and Serbia were
not connected they seemed to have
Germany and Austria surrounded while
Germany and Austria were more
centralized.
Practices of War
Citations
Causes of World War 1 Readings - Course Companion
Google images
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