Those empires ruled many national groups that clamored for independence. The Balkan Peninsula caused tensions and therefore threatened to ignite a major war. Rivalry for control of the Balkans added to the tensions that erupted into World War 1. Advances in technology helped aid in making military forces in the war stronger. Every one of Europe’s Great Powers developed a excessive belief in its own cultures economic and military powers.
Because Germany was surrounded by the Triple Entente (the Great Britain, France, Russia). So Germany was land-locked. Germany needed a strong navy so that it would have a place in Europe, and to confront other countries. c. Based on the state of the arms race in 1914, if you were a German citizen, how would you feel? Explain why.
This was most prevalent in Europe, where all the nations scrambled for colonies in Asia, Africa and the Pacific. Interestingly, colonies were most sought after at the height of industrialization. As the European countries were discovering more about the benefits of mass production, the demand and competition for more land, raw materials, markets and produce escalated quickly thus creating the tension that triggered the World War 1. The way most historians portray this cause shows that the imperialistic rivalries magnified in 1871, when France had to give up her resourceful provinces of Alsace and Lorraine to Germany as per the peace Treaty of Frankfurt. Thereafter there were many such imperialistic rivalries.
And provide and massive industrial boom as American factories would pump out massive amounts of war supplies including machine guns, Army uniforms, and artillery pieces to name a few. But what might be the most important would be the massive expansion of the U.S. military that accompanied the war. The war would already increase the American military and would double its standing army and navy and develop its Air Force. And the U.S. military saw a massive spike in drafts as young patriotic Americans would flock to the Army in response to the war. Because of World War I America would have the second largest navy in the world and largest standing army at the war’s conclusion and that massive military would now back up in the U.S.’s claim that it truly was a world power and it helped the U.S. become a major player on the world stage as well as the signing of the armistice that would follow.
Around 1914 Germany started to have a huge increase in military buildup. Considering that Germany started to build up military forced Britain to build up and this lead to another domino effect of European countries building up militaries. This put great amounts of pressure and influenced the standard set of a military. Since the build up of militaries this also put an egotistical mindset on some of the countries
These influenced the war majorly and were the main explanation to why large quantities of countries were prepared for it when it took place in 1914. Alliances were long term reasons to the break out of WW1. They were agreements between 2 or more countries that enabled them to support each other when vital. Although alliances were meant to keep Europe at peace as both of the two key alliances were almost as prevailing as each other, there was a considerable amount of tension and competition between them. There were two dominant alliances in Europe and they were the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente.
The Americans had a great importance in the Second Battle of Marne. They helped began because of Germany’s greed for power. There were also many other causes of World War One. Some causes of the World War one was nationalism, imperialism, and militarism. Nationalism was a unifying force, but it also led to intense competition between nations.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, imperialism and colonialism were very active; supporting the Industrial Revolution that had began in the mid-nineteenth century. New technologies such as steam power, electric power, and factories required a lot of raw resources that could be found in new territories; such as North America and India. Existing nations had greater importance because they acquired the colonies which had the better resources they needed. The Nations needed to support and protect these colonies raising the importance of naval power in a nation’s military. This resulted in Great Britain becoming one of the dominant Great Powers, leaving other nations struggling to match the power of Britain’s navy.
There are various factors that amplified the tensions in Europe from 1900 to 1914. A few of the major factors were International rivalry, the arms race, colonialism and the Crisis’s of Morocco and Bosnia. These factors, alongside numerous others contributed to fuelling the First World War. International rivalry was, debatably, the biggest factor that caused the First World War. As the European powers such as Britain, France and Russia had been competing with each other in might, prominence and colonial expansion.
What exactly is imperialism? Imperialism happens when a stronger nation feels it is obligated to take over a weaker nation, or region, in order to control it politically, economically, and culturally. This practice also became important to growing nations to gain land, labor, and raw materials for the betterment and strengthening of the country. This type of foreign policy was mostly practiced by European nations and Japan, but the United States also began to join in imperialistic thoughts once it became a world power. Imperialism can also be known as colonialism.