The long-term factors that would have built tension and rivalries throughout Europe are the alliance systems and the arms race, whereas the short term factors would be the mismanaged crisis, the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, which was ultimately the trigger of total war. The Balkan crisis 1908 -12 both increased the likelihood of war. As there had been tensions growing since 1912 between the Serbians and the Austro- Hungarians after their attempt to secure control. These tensions were inevitably going to cause a war; as in the words of Otto Von Bisamrck, quoted at the time, a war was going to brake out due to “some damn fool in the Balkans.” The first Balkan crisis of 1912 didn’t break out into war, however it left tensions high. As Serbia’s confidence was now at its peak, as there sized had doubled, and the army had increased to 400,000, so if the were now confronted by the Austro- Hungarians they were now willing to fight.
Then the Romanians and Turks attacked the Bulgarians. By the time both Balkan wars had ended, Serbia had added lots of captured territory to it's empire and this made Austria-Hungary even more concerned. On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. For some unknown reason, Austria-Hungary believed that Serbia was involved in the killing. Some historians believe that Austria-Hungary was just looking for an excuse to start a war.
To what extent was the nature of the Schlieffen Plan responsible for the outbreak of a general European war in August 1914? The Schlieffen plan, completed in 1905 was a vital piece of evidence that helps to explain the true cause of the First World War. However it can become unclear how it affected the European powers involved in the conflict when the nature of the plan is considered. There are arguments both for the plan being utilised, as an offensive manoeuvre, suggested by events such as the intention to invade both Belgium and France. There are also arguments for the plan as a means of defence, suggested by Russian mobilisation and fear of encirclement.
archduke franz Ferdinand The Most Important Cause of WWI was the Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Do you Agree? World war 1 was a controversial war, which was also said to be the war to stop all wars. Germany, a powerful empire in the early years of the twentieth century, fought the First World War (1914-1918) alongside the Austrian empire and against the Allies (England, France and Russia.). The murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was just a prominent cause for the outbreak of the war; yet, there were other causes as well.
In the interest of Austria’s security, Metternich was keen to suppress liberal and nationalists movements, and was determined to maintain dominance so that Austria would not appear weak. By maintaining this ‘Italian jigsaw’, Italy remained divided and frail, and would never present a strong enough force to overcome powerful Austria. A fear of Metternich’s was that if the idea of revolution spread throughout Italy from states such as Lombardy and Venetia then the idea of Nationalism would spread, and the Austrian empire was extremely multi-racial meaning they did not support this idea. By keeping control, it offered reassurance that the Austrian empire would not disintegrate as Italy grew stronger and more united. The revolution in Naples 1820-21 is a clear example of
While both countries were trying to outdo each other, by building more ships, tensions rose. When Germany and Great Britain stopped building battleships the waiting began. Neither Germany nor Great Britain wanted to be responsible for starting a fight between the two, but both wanted to show strength and prowess in war. Great Britain and Germany were finally able to show off their massive defense when the Archduke, heir to the Astro-Hungarian throne, Francis Ferdinand was assassinated by a Siberian. Militarism clearly uncovered the poorest qualities of the Great Britain and German Empires, thus, setting the stage for one of the worst wars in history.
It is commonly accepted that Germany were eager for a war, however in 1914 they were only responding to events in Sarajevo by agreeing to back Austria, as opposed to starting a war with no origin. The Germans also felt cheated by this treaty, because virtually none of Wilson’s ‘Fourteen Points’ had been included in it. On the 5th November 1918, Germany had accepted the Fourteen Points as the basis for peace and an armistice, however when the Treaty of Versailles was signed, the Fourteen Points had been largely forgotten. This shows Clemenceau’s’ and Frances’ determination to crush Germany as they were largely forced to accept charges that they knew would greatly weaken and inhibit them in the future as they tried to rebuild. Germany understood that they would have to ‘reduce weapon numbers’, however they did not expect to
So for example if the allies in the west did not promise to rebuild Germany and try to stop every country from becoming communist when they threatened to even if it through fair vote (rare as it was). It can be argued that the cold war was an avoidable one. Firstly the Russians were very aggressive in creating a buffer zone and in fact created communist states practically all over Eastern Europe and made much more than a buffer zone and Stalin was at the heart of all these communist political movements and was trying to spread his influence to even Italy and France. This worried the west very much because they thought their very freedom was being threatened but more importantly the more states that became communist the less ttade there was. The west needed trade partners in the east and they couldn’t trade with communist states.
As you can see there were also many other reasons for the war besides the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. After Serbia declined the ultimatum, the Austro-Hungarian Empire waged war on Serbia on 28th July 1914. Since Russia was allied to Serbia, they announced mobilization of troops in defense for Serbia on August 1st 1914. Germany was allied to the Austro-Hungarians and took the Russian mobilization as a threat and declared war on Russia on August 1st 1914. Since Russia and France were allies and France didn’t like Germany due to the lost war against them in 1870, they declared war on Germany on August 3rd 1914.
Why did Germany go to war in 1914? There are many reasons as to why Germany went to war in 1914 such as fear of encirclement, various alliances formed, internal policies and domestic and military factors. I personally think the most important reason was due to their internal politics. Germany was formed as a country in 1871 and so felt like they had to prove themselves as a nation to the rest of Europe. They did this through aggressive policies, which they hoped would achieve their aim and build up their empire.