The Four Main Long-term Causes of World War 1

World War One was the explosive result of tension building between countries in Europe. Imperialism created power struggles, competition and rivalries among the countries in Europe. Militarism started suspicions among European countries. Nationalism sparked the desire to fight for a home country in many people. Alliances among countries were informal, secretive, and extremely entangled. Imperialism, Militarism, Nationalism, and entangled alliances are the four main long-term causes that would create World War One.

Imperialism is the act of creating an empire by colonizing other countries and gaining as much power and money through that country as possible. This act of dominating became a competition for power between countries such as France and Great Britain. Money is the key to power; the more money a country has the more power a country has. In order to gain money and improve their economy, countries like Great Britain would conquer and colonize smaller territories and use the colony's natural resources to create and sell manufactured goods.

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"The Dogs of War" - a Punch cartoon from June 17, ...

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Imperialism created a rift between nations because the areas that were colonized by one country, totally belonged to that mother country, thus giving all profits to the mother country. One example would be England. All of the colonies that Great Britain owned belonged to Great Britain, and weren't allowed to trade with any other country.

Nationalism is the patriotism, the honor, and could almost be considered the ego, of a country. The Balkans portrayed a great example of patriotism. "The Balkan States consisted of many proud ethnic cultures who did not wish to be ruled by any authority other than themselves. The unification of other countries and strong patriotism fueled the desires of the Slavs, Greeks, Montenegrins, Rumanians, and Bulgarians to gain independence and revenge for the occupation of their lands by the Turks."(1) Not only did nationalism...