Wanting to be the best is human nature, and countries -with extreme nationalism- took every opportunity to show they were the best. Nationalist countries such as Britain, France, Germany and Russia were looking for more ways to improve their countries, and show their dominance over one another. One desire they all had were obtaining the Balkan states. The Russians wanted the land so they'd have a direct route to the Adriatic Sea. The Balkan states wanted out of being controlled by the Ottoman empire. Therefore, in 1912 a few Balkan nations signed a series of military alliances that formed the Balkan League. The mission of this league, that included Russia, was to wage war on the ottoman empire. There were three wars that ended in the Treaty of Berlin. The Treaty of Berlin stated Serbia would be independant, Bulgaria would be given to Ottoman empire, Bosnia was to be given to Austria, and Romania was given to Russia.This created an uprise in Bosnia because they didn't want to be ruled by Austria-Hungary. They had strong nationalistic feeling and still considered themselves Serbs.Therefore, the Serbian General, “The Bee’, gathered a group of 7 hitman who would be willing to take out the next heir to the Austrian- Hungarian throne. Archduke Franz …show more content…
After militarism became popular countries began alliances to prevent being taken down. There were two major alliances during World War 1, the Central Powers and the Allies. The Central Powers included Germany, Austria- Hungary, Italy and Turkey. Russia, France, Great Britain, and the United States made up the Allies. In August of 1914 Germany declared war on Russia and France. Nonetheless, Great Britain then declared war on Germany, since Germany is allies with both France and Russia. Next, Great Britain declared war on Germany. In response, the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on Russia. Then, Great Britain and France declared war on Austria- Hungary. Japan then declared war on Germany to help Britain out. This process goes on and on til 30 countries are at war with one another. Each country is either on the Central Powers side or the Allies side. As you can now see, alliances ultimately caused World War 1. If a country’s alliance was at war they'd have to jump in and battle alongside them. This was a chain reaction because almost all countries had an alliance with another