Causes of World War I
World War One broke out in late Summer 1914, but tension had been
building in Europe since 1900.
The Main Causes
Alliances
Imperialism
M
A
I
N
ilitarism
Empire
lliances
mperialism
Militarism
ationalism
Nationalism
Glossary
Agreements or promises to
defend and help another
country.
Trying to build up an
empire.
Where a powerful country
controls several less
powerful countries.
Building up armed forces
and getting ready for war.
Having pride in your
country and being ready to
defend it.
Germany
Germany wanted to build up her empire. This is known as _____________
Germany also built up her armed forces. This is known as _____________
Britain
As Britain had the most powerful navy in the World she was worried about other
countries building up their armed forces. We could call this a worry about
______________. Britain, Germany and other countries were keen to have large
empires.
Europe
European people were very proud of their countries and would defend their
country as well as they could. This is called ________________.
Causes of World War I
Using your ‘alliances maps’, complete the table below:
Alliance
Countries in the Alliance
Triple Entente
Triple Alliance
Complete the following text using the words on the right.
Europe was divided into two _____________. These were called the
Triple ____________ and the Triple ____________. Members of
each alliance promised to fight for each other if they were attacked. It
would only take a small incident to spark a war involving all of
_____________.
Germany had been trying to build up her navy and her empire.
B________ was __________ about this. Both countries raced each
other to build the best navy. There was tension between both
countries. This cause is called ______________.
The area to the south-east of _________-__________ was known as
the Balkans. The area was very unstable. The European alliances had
different ideas on how to deal with the problem.
France was keen for ___________ on Germany. Germany had taken
land from the French in 1871 they wanted the land back. They said it
had been __________ from them by Germany.
Words
stolen
worried
aliances
Europe
Entente
alliance
AustroHungary
militarism
revenge
Britain
Causes of World War I
Although it was the assassination of the Austrian archduke, Franz Ferdinand that led to the outbreak of
WWI in August 1914, the actual causes of the war were more complicated and not confirned to a
single cause.
Militarism
Militarism means that the army and military forces are given
a high profile by the government. The growing European
divide had led to an arms race between the main countries.
The armies of both France and Germany had more than
doubled between 1870 and 1914 and there was fierce
competition between Britain and Germany for mastery of the
seas. The British had introduced the 'Dreadnought', an
effective battleship, in 1906. The Germans soon followed suit
introducing their own battleships. The German, Von
Schlieffen also drew up a plan of action that involved
attacking France through Belgium if Russia made an attack on
Germany.
Alliances
An alliance is an agreement made between two or more countries to give each other help if it is
needed. When an alliance is signed, those countries become known as Allies. A number of alliances
had been signed by countries between the years of 1879 and 1914. These were important because they
meant that some countries have no option but to declare war if one of their allies declared war first.
Imperialism
Imperialism is when a country takes over new lands or
countries and makes them subject to their rule. By 1900, the
British Empire extended over five continents and France had
control of large areas of Africa. The amount of lands ‘owned’
by Britain and France increased the rivalry with Germany
who had entered the scramble to acquire colonies late and
only had small areas of Africa.
Pink = British
Blue = French
Red = German
Nationalism
Nationalism means being a strong supporter of the rights and interests of one’s country. The Congress
of Vienna, held after the Napoleonic wars left both Germany and Italy as divided states. It was
nationalism that caused the reunification of Italy in 1861 and Germany in 1871. France was angy
because the settlement at the end of the Franco-Prussian war had given Alsace-Lorraine to Germany.
Large areas of both Austria-Hungary and Serbia were home to differing nationalist groups, all of
whom wanted freedom from the states in which they lived.