World War One was a war between the Triple Entente alliance (Russia, France, Great Britain) and the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy). There were several causes of The Great War. Although there were many causes of the First World War, technology, nationalism, and imperialism were the most prominent and most important.
Technology triggered WW1 with the arms race. The encouragement of strengthening militaries created a culture where the only response to political pressure from other countries was war (Alphahistory-Militarism). This encourages pride in the military and sparks a rise in nationalism. As the arms race continued, political propaganda began emerging. In a political cartoon in the U.S., it depicts …show more content…
One of these issues was tensions with other nations. Nationalism mad people believe that their nation was pure and good, while making all other nations gruesome in comparison (Alphahistory-Nationalism). When one nation believes it is better than another, they begin to fight with one another, and with the competition in the arms race, that is almost the very last thing that opposing nations need. In the 1800's, the European continent was relatively peaceful with itself because they were busy taking territories in other continents. Because the other continents weren't a challenge to fight against, Europe hadn't had a significant loss for a long time, and they were growing over confident. This created an indifference to war within the continent (Alphahistory-Nationalism). A drawing from the 1800's depicts England as a lion, showing that they are the king of the jungle, a ruthless and powerful creature …show more content…
most of these conflicts were caused by Germany who had surpassed England's power in 1814 but lost it when competition arose in the arms race. Since then, Germany had been trying to get its strength back by taking other lands, but had entered into the imperialism game too late, so they began to fight with other nations. For example, France and Germany got in a skirmish over who would control morocco in 1911 (markedbyteachers-causes of WW1). Germany would do whatever it would take to gain imperial powers, including dragging the entire European continent into war with itself. A political cartoon form the 1800's depicts several of the imperial powers cutting a cake labeled china into pieces (Teachtci-imperialism). The imperialists are all fighting over China and all want it for themselves. this caused strains in Europe and caused nations to mistrust one