The First World War Short Or Long Term History Essay

In this essay I will be focusing on the main causes of the First World War and I will be exploring this cause step by step, which it was began in early August 1914. The Great War was a military conflict that lasted from 1914 to 1918 which involved most of the world’s great powers assembled in two opposing alliances. They consisted of the Germany, Austria-Hungry, Italy (till 1913), Bulgaria and Ottoman Empire fought against the Great Britain, France, Russia (until 1917), Italy ( after 1915), Serbia, Japan, Roman, Portuguse, United States (entered in 1917),Brazil and Greece. This quadrennial interval comprised indirect way and there had been several crises before in the decade before 1914 and those involving the major powers in Europe had been settled peacefully. So did something go wrong in the handling of the crisis, or did one or more of the countries involved exploit the situation to plunge Europe into war?

Foreign Secretary of Great Britain Sir Edward Grey and great satirist Karl Kraus stated that ” The Lamps are going out all over Europe. They will not be lit again in our lifetime” (Hobsbawm,1995,p.22). Virtually it was so real phrases because between 1871 and 1914 there had been no world wars at all and there were no major power fought another outside its immediate region, although severeal country had had a conflict among them such as; Crimean War (1854-56) between Russia on one side,Britain and France on the other or like the 1866 war between Prussia and Avustria. All this changed in 1914. In short, 1914 opens” the age of massacre” (Hobsbawn,1995,p.24). If so for reasons which will not be like anything no longer? The reason was that this war, unlike the earlier wars, which were typically waged for limited and specifiable objects, was waged for unlimited ends. Thus the characteristic feature of this was precisely that it had no limit.

There were seven causes of WorldWar One:The first one is the Franco-Prussian war. During the Franco Prussian war France lost Alsace-Lorraine to Prussia (Germany). With the loss of their land, tension was created. The second cause was the alliance systems. When the triple entente and triple alliance were created, all of the countries were trying to build up a stronger power against each other. The third cause was the Balkan Powder Keg. The Balkans were in an area that other countries wanted but they believed that if something happened there, the countries would erupt in war.

The fourth cause of First World War was imperialism. All of the countries were fighting over land in Africa to increase their nationalism. Nationalism is the fifth cause of the war. People had so much nationalism that when the war was announced everyone was signing up to be included in it. This also led to the Arms race which is the sixth cause. The Arms Race was where all of the countries were building up their military. No country wanted to be behind another country in militarism. Then the Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand occurred, which is the last cause of WWI. When he was killed by a Serbian, the Balkans were outraged and sparked the war to start. By the time that the Archduke was assassinated, the world was just looking for an excuse to start the war.

The growing tensions between European countries were caused by four significant aspect of long term which were Militarism, Alliances, Ä°mperialism and Nationalism. In this stage, these four factors has variable priorities among the people as well as for all the historians. It is argued and accepted that Alliances and Militarism were more important than the others. For example, The Alliance System broke the world into pieces according to interest and deduction because it caused the inter-state block. Moreover it had coveringback,friendship,creating analogical attack and so forth. Such as, the competing interests of Austria-Hungary and Russia in the Balkans,German and French enmity, and Germany’s fear of being attacked fromboth east and west by Russia and France even though Great Britain and Italy were more or less free agents. Also it can be said into bloody stalemate.

In this sense,more significant example, Bismarck wanted was for his alliance with Austria-Hungary to drive Russia and France together. But Russian government entered this alliance as a hedge against Austro-Hungarian expansion in the Balkans.The result was that Bismarck’s resourceful diplomacy left Germany allied,in one way or other, with all of its potential enemies except France. So that reason Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 France stood with out allies.

The other fundamental factor was Militarism covered the glorification of military system, acceleration of the arm race and the arms races to demonstrate superiority. As a simple example, in 1906 first warship the British HMS Dreadnought fought the German Naval command of Admiral von Tirpitz. Other example gigant example was Schlieffen Plan which was the German’s plan for war against France had been drawn up in 1905 by Count Alfred von Schieffen a former chief of yhe German general staff. Also the Schlieffen Plan called for the German armies in a lighting attack to knock the French out of the war within several weeks. In this sense, Terrence Zuber boldly claimed that the Schlieffen Plan never existed. Because according to him German military planning before and after the Plan differed importantly from the latter’s purported plan.

To sum up, First World War was extraordinary report for the case study of history. Also as we have seen, the world situation created by the First World War was inherently unstable. Because mankind survived alhough the great edifice of 19th century civilization crumpled in the flames of world war, as its pillars collapsed. Resources, events, conflicts,ambition of superiority complex shows us the main reasons of the Great War.

Word count: 958