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.
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.
In 1934 he increased the size of the army, began building warships and created a German air force. Compulsory military service was also introduced. Hitler had a vision of the German people becoming a master race and ruling the entire world, but he also knew that he could not achieve all this during the war he intended to start. He, however, had two major goals which were to bring all of central Europe together and form a larger Germany and to create more room for Germany to grow by taking over Poland. His first move was to test the other European powers by inserting troops into Germany’s coal mining area next to France.
Serbia attempted to take more land at one time from the area of Croatia. In Croatia, there is more useful land. 4. I think the most important factors shaping the boundaries were the wars and who was in control. Religion and ethnicity were the most important cultural reasons for the waging of wars internally.
This tension can be recognised in the Moroccan Crisis in the years 1905 – 06 were Germany’s movements towards expanding were blocked by the Act of Algeciras. With the Germans only allies, Austria-Hungary, they were feeling encircled by the other great powers in the triple entente. Similarly to Geiss, Mombauer argues that this “blueprint for world power” was an expression of the Germans “striving for European hegemony”. European power meant having the power to take control of the other European powers, which they put pressure on by a naval bill in 1900 and 1906 which increased the navy by building 38 battleships
Finally, the SA’s activity is also to put fear on the street to get votes for the next elections. Hitler attempted the Munich Putsch because he thought it would benefit them. Firstly, Hitler was very confident about his huge SA army and thought he was powerful. Not only that, but he thought that the army would join him because of the influence of Ludendorff and the SA which are technically ex-Freikoprs. Hitler also thought that since the government was just developing it would have been a good time to seize power and take over the government.
There are many ideas about how far Germany was responsible for causing the First World War, traditionally all major powers are thought to be equally accountable for the pre-war tensions that accumulated throughout the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, with Germany accepting the majority of the blame for the fatal events that ultimately brought about one of the bloodiest wars the globe has ever seen. Its quest for global power and a strong African colonial empire by a megalomaniacal Kaiser is acquitted as one of the biggest causes of World War I, but how far exactly was Germany responsible? German historian Franz Fischer believes it was almost entirely responsible, his first major book makes three key points against Germany: The first being That Germany hoped a war would ensue when it backed Austria-Hungary against Serbia, the second that The Kaisers war plans pre-dated the war, and the final being that it was Germany’s domestic position rather than its international position that instilled the strong feeling of expansionism. Fischer believes the fault lay at Germany’s door since 1890 with the dismissal of Bismark who had been making arrangements to renew the Reassurance Treaty with Russia, the Tsar had been very fond of his policies and ideals, Kaiser William II had other ideas; Bismark lost his position before the treaty with Russia was renewed and his successor General Leo von Caprivi was advised not to pursue it further. Instead he was told to look into forming an alliance which would link Britain to Germany and its allies: Austria-Hungary and Italy.
‘The outbreak of the war in Europe 1914 was due to an aggressive German Foreign Policy which had been waged since c.1900’ How far do you agree with this opinion? Discussions over the causes of the outbreak of war in Europe in 1914 have caused much controversy due to the breadth of events in multiple countries which took place over a short period of time, concluding in war. The evidence within source V, W and X refer to some of these events, thus hold different countries and individuals to blame to different extents. Whilst source V suggests that aggressive German Foreign policy did hold a considerable proportion of the blame, it places the Germans in a sympathetic position due to their encirclement leaving them no other option. Source W is very similar due to the fact that it blames Germany’s strengthening of the military and navy to a large extent, however proclaims their ‘peaceful intentions’; whereas source X dwarfs Germany’s contributions as a state, placing more responsibility for the outbreak of war on Austria-Hungary.
How did World War 1 break out in 1914? World War 1 was one of the greatest wars ever recorded in the history of mankind. It was the first war that directly involved many countries worldwide, and better still, influenced the lives of many people profoundly. There are many reasons to why the war broke out. These can be categorised into long term reasons and short term reasons.
Realizing that without power they could in no way influence the outcome of anything nationally or internationally Bismarck and Wilhelm held power in high importance. Therefore it was natural for Bismarck to want to become a European power, and eventually succeeded in becoming so. Because of this it was understandable that Wilhelm would want to continue on with Bismarck’s legacy and make Germany into a world power. The means in which Wilhelm II took to achieve this was to colonize Africa and to enlarge the German navy. By doing this Wilhelm aggravated Britain because they had the largest navy in the world and because Wilhelm was colonizing along the borders of British colonies.