Why did WWI happen?
In 1914 the whole world was plunged into a violent war which ruined landscapes, shattered bodies
Leaving them broken and mentally scarred, and cost 20 Million lives. Economies were turned upside
down and once proud empires were toppled and replaced with new independent nations. How
did this ‘Great War’ come about?
One of the reasons why the war started was to do with tension caused by the rapid build up of
weapons and navy known as the arms and naval race. This was called Militarism. During the late
1890’s, Germany began to develop a naval force big enough to challenge the British navy. Germany’s
decision to become a major sea power made it a bitter enemy of Great Britain. Britain saw
Germany who wanted an empire and a strong navy as a threat to its own empire and decided to
spend more on increasing and strengthening her own navy. This led to tension causing a naval race
which saw Germany and Great Britain go to war in 1914. Also accompanied by the naval race was an
arms race. Germany’s army was not the biggest but most historians agreed it was the best trained
and most powerful. This increasingly worried Britain and France who decided to increase the pace of
their own armament production and Germany responded by also increasing her own army and
weapons that were needed to equip them.
A second reason why the war broke out was to do with tension caused by the alliance system which
was supposed to preserve the peace in Europe. An example of the alliance system causing tension
was between Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary against Russia and France. During the late 19th
Century, Germany took from France the important industrial area of Alsace-Lorraine and to guard
from a revenge attack formed an alliance with Austria-Hungary and Italy. German leaders were very
worried by what they called ‘encirclement’. Friendship between Russia and France was seen as an
attempt to ‘surround’ and threaten Germany.
As a result of this tension both sides adapted plans to deal with the system. For example, Germany
came up with the Schleiffen Plan. Under this plan they would quickly attack and defeat France, then
turn their forces on Russia (which they thought) would be slow to get its troops ready for war.
Russia’s plan was to overwhelm Germany’s and Austria’s armies by sheer weight of numbers. The
French came up with a plan known as Plan 17. French troops would charge across the frontier and
attack deep into Germany forcing surrender.
The third reason why the war broke out was to do with tension caused by the rivalries over Empires.
This was called Imperialism. An example of this tension was when the German Kaiser decided
Germany should be a world power and should have overseas colonies like France and Britain had.
The Germans had established two colonies in Africa, but they wanted more. Before Bosnia was taken
over by Austria, it used to be part of Serbia which was then known as Greater Serbia. After taking
over Bosnia, Austria was looking for an excuse to declare war against Serbia and to take over the
Balkans because it would provide access to the Mediterranean Sea and provide other advantages.
The opportunity came when on Sunday 28 th of June, Franz Ferdinand was shot on his way to visit
the victims of a bomb explosion which was expected to kill Franz Ferdinand. This set of a spark which
brought almost all of Europe into the bloodiest war in history.
The fourth reason why tension increased was because of nationalism. Many nations in Europe were
worried about not looking strong and so looked to boost their pow er and prestige. An example of
this was when Austria-Hungary was a sprawling empire in central Europe. It was made up of people
of different ethnic groups and each group had its own customs and language. Most of the groups
wanted independence from Austria-Hungary. In the north the Czech people wanted to rule
themselves, the Slav people in the south-west (especially the Croats) wanted their own state and the
Serbs wanted to be joined to the neighbouring state of Serbia. The problem for Austria was that if it
gave independence to one of the ethnic groups then the rest of the groups would want
independence from Austria. And in the end Austria would become a very small country and would
be of no use and help to Germany which could end its alliance with Germany and Italy. By l9l4, the
main concern of the emperor of Austria-Hungary was how to keep its very unstable empire together
and after WWI it had lost all of its empire
However all these tensions needed a spark to make them all lead to a great war and not just
rumbling tensions with small localised incidents. The spark that ignited these four causes was the
assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand who was the heir to the throne of Austria. On the 23rd of
July Austria blamed Serbia for the death of Franz Ferdinand and sent it an ultimatum and five days
later Austria declared war on Serbia and shelled its capital, Belgrade. During the following week the
allies of both Serbia and Austria responded to the call for help and within six weeks of the
Archduke’s assassination, almost all of Europe had been dragged into the bloodiest war in history.
People still argue over the causes of the war. For instance, Germany used the crime of a schoolboy
as an excuse to start the war, Austria had regarded the growing power of Serbia with concern for
many years. and was looking for a good excuse to crush Serbia. England, it was thought would be in
‘splendid isolation’ and could do nothing with the threats in Ireland. Russia was too busy with the
reorganisation of her army and as for France, Germany believed she was capable to deal with her
and was looking for an opportunity to do so.
Overall I think the most important cause of the war was due to jealousy of the empires of other
countries in Europe and the misunderstanding of the decisions and moves made by each other.
Because if the leaders of all the countries in Europe were more open-minded, sharing with other
countries in Europe and not “power hungry”, then the WWI could have been avoided and about 20
million lives could be saved.