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.
to declare war in the summer of 1917 was America's aspirations to become a world power. Prior to this the US was a great power but that was mainly confined to the Western Hemisphere and the Pacific regions. By entering this war between all of the world's great powers, America would emerge as a major world power at the end of the war, that is the course after winning the war and stake its claim at the bargaining table. Also, entering in such a massive global war would spur the American economy and help it grow tremendously. 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.
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
Although nationalism is a factor that contributed to World war 1, to say that it is the primary cause of the outbreak of the war is incorrect. Many factors, adding up together, led to the outburst of World war 1. Alliances and Imperialism can both be seen as much of a cause to the war as Nationalism. All these three factors: Nationalism, Alliances and Imperialism are as important as the other in the lead up to the war. Nationalism refers to nations trying to take over smaller nations and making them subject to their rule.
These can be categorised into long term reasons and short term reasons. The most significant short term reason to why the war broke out was the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Austria. This contributed to the war a lot and was the spark that started it off. There were many long term reasons too, but the most important ones were Imperialism, Militarism, nationalism and alliances. 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.
However, it was intercepted, decrypted, and published in newspapers as propaganda. The telegram and the excessive sea warfare definitely played a part in America going to war, however, there are additional possibilities, if not definite reasons, that lead the U.S. into war. Because of possible economic collapse according to the Glider Lehrman Institute of American History, "By 1917, American loans to the Allies had soared to $2.25 billion; loans to Germany stood at a paltry [measly] $27 million." If not anything else, this would be a huge reason to go to war. Two and a quarter billion dollars is a large sum of money, and if the United States were to lose this money, it would have more than likely been catastrophic and it would've brought about economic collapse in America.
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.
World War I began because of many obstacles that America would have to sustain in order for the war to diminish. On May 7, 1915, the German army sank a ship called the Lusitania. At this time, 1,198 people lost their lives and included 128 American people. This ship was carrying war shipments from the United States to England. The passengers on the ship knew there may be a possible attack on the ship but Woodrow Wilson condemned this attack as illegal and inhuman.
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.
The navel arms raced encouraged the Development of the Alliance system, Because the joining of The different countries meant even more power to both Germany and Great Britain. Creating a bigger force to be dealt with if a war was ever to spark – Which it did 3. a) How was Canada connected to the European system of Empires? Canada was a colony