Causes of World War One

CAUSES OF WORLD WAR ONE

World War One meant to happen. All the factors that caused World War One were already set up; they just needed a reason to declare war on each other. Sooner or later the war was going to happen. As soon as a good reason to start a war would appear, it would unleash a chain of effects that would have triggered the world to go to war. World War One was the result of leaders' aggression towards other countries which was supported by the rising nationalism of the European nations. Economic and imperial competition as well as fear of war prompted military alliances and an arms race, which further escalated the tension contributing to the outbreak of war.

The little spark that started the fire for the start of the biggest war up to that time was the assassination of an Austro-Hungarian political leader and his wife.

Allies and Central Powers in the First World War A...

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The end of Austria-Hungary after the Paris Treaty.

The murder was committed by a Serbian nationalist. Serbia government insisted they had nothing to do with the assassination, but Austria-Hungary saw an opportunity to attack Serbia and take control of it. Austria-Hungary still blamed Serbia for the assassination and finally declared war on Serbia.

Austria-Hungary's declaration of war towards Serbia caused Russia, also a Slavic country to declare war to Austria-Hungary. Germany and Turkey joined Austria-Hungary; this alliance was called the Central Powers. Britain and France joined powers with Russia and Italy, Italy was from the Central Powers before, but the Allied Powers (France, Britain and Russia) promised more land to Italy after the war. These alliances were strong empires that had a lot of colonies that would be dragged to war with them.

During World War One, there were still a lot of big empires that controlled a lot of colonies. For example, Britain controlled...