WWI Causes

World War I Causes

By: Alec Winsor

The four main causes of World War I were militarism, the alliance system, imperialism, and nationalism. 

• Militarism: The British had the strongest navy in the world,and the Germans, along with other countries were trying to establish their own so they would be ready for any conflict.
• Alliance System: An alliance is an agreement between two countries, like the U.S. and Britain or Germany and Austria-Hungary, for support during times of war. This can be bad because if one country goes into war, then all their alliances has to help them, tying up many countries into an conflict originally between only two nations.
• Imperialism: Imperialism is building power of a nation by taking over smaller colonies. Before WWI, countries were fighting about colonies that they both wanted to claim, so they decide to go to war over them.
• Nationalism: Nationalism is extreme passion for your home country. What  triggered WWI was when a member of a Serbian nationalist group called the Black Hand, named Gavrilo Princip, killed the Archduke of Austria-Hungary. He was showing nationalism because at the time, Austria-Hungary controlled Bosnia, and he wanted freedom for the people.

During June in 1914, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir of the Austro- Hungarian throne, was assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian revolutionary, while he and his wife drove through the streets of Sarajevo. With Serbia's alliance to Russia and Austria-Hungary with Germany, the two countries went to war. Eventually many more countries would become involved in this dispute, including the U.S and Britain, because of the alliance system.

1. Unrestricted Submarine Warfare started in 1915 and continued until 1918. During this time the Germans were the main country doing, this using their U-boats to sink British and American cargo and passenger ships claiming that they thought they were undercover battleships.
2. The sinking of the RMS Lusitania took place on May 7th, 1915. The ship was shot down by a torpedo from the German U-boat U-20. It sunk 11 miles off of the coast of Ireland,killing 1,198 people and leaving 761 survivors.
3. The Sussex Pledge was a promise made by Germany in 1916, saying that they would not target passenger ships, and merchant ships would not be sunk unless weapons were identified and the passengers and crew had to be kept safe.
4. The Zimmerman note was a proposal sent from Germany to Mexico in 1917, to join the Central Powers. The note was intercepted by British intelligence, decoded, and shown to the U.S. which caused war to be declared on Germany.