Great Powers 1900
What makes a major cause of a war is its significance, and its impact on all of the countries involved. According to these criteria there are four main causes of the First World War; Imperialism is "a policy of acquiring dependent territories" . The Arms Race, and Militarism involved competitions between nations for the better technology, and the imperial consequences, which followed. Otto Von Bismarck was the chancellor in Germany who wanted to keep the peace in Europe, and when he was dismissed from his position, when William II wanted to rule alone, Germany's foreign policy changed dramatically to its disadvantage. The Alliance system featuring two major "alliances", the Triple Entente (Russia, France, and Britain), and the Triple Alliance (Germany, Italy, and Austria), this created suspicion and hence tension among the nations. Finally nationalism, this is a feeling of pride towards ones country. All of these were causes of the war as they created a great amount of tension between the major powers in the world, especially in Europe.The Arms Race, and Militarism are basically where nations compete for better technology, in weapons, tactics, and other such things, which would affect the power of a nation, (the Arms Race gene
rally refers to the British, and the Germans). The fall of Bismarck's regime created a huge feeling of happiness throughout Germany's enemies, which led again to nationalism. "New weaponry and interventions can ultimately decide who will win a war" . The Alliance systems played a very large role in the lead up to the war. As Bismarck left there was no one to really hold peace between Germany and the other states in Europe. Berghahn, for instance, has argued that the German government did not deliberately cause the war but that it gambled with the risk of a general conflict and thus was primarily responsible. Germany was one of the leading imperial nations; who wanted a larger empire; they had many conflicts because of this, leading to suspicion and eventually tension among the nations around the world. After Bismarck was gone, Germany's foreign policies changed dramatically, there were alliances, which were broken. This is a major cause of the First World War as it caused a great deal of tension between countries. "Without a shadow of a doubt nationalism figured heavily in the events preceding and therefore causing the war" . Not only was there unity among the country itself, but also tangible alliances between different nations. In the late nineteenth, and early twentieth century there was a great feeling of this arrogance, which was nationalism. However the alliance system caused a lot of unnecessary arguments among nations, which it really had no conflicts with. On the other hand, these colonies were a great benefit to their 'motherland' as it gave them the ability to plant weapon bases nearby to the enemy country, or even to gain more men for their army.
Common topics in this essay:
VR Berghahn,
Germany Moroccan,
France Britain,
British Dreadnought,
World War,
Germany Germans,
Bismarck William,
Italy Austria,
William II,
Race Militarism,
world war,
alliance system,
von bismarck,
otto von,
germany italy,
france britain,
cause war,
twentieth century,
otto von bismarck,
arms race,
triple entente russia,
entente russia,
arms race militarism,
entente russia france,
russia france britain,
|
Acceptance Essays
