Causes for the First World War
The First World War had many reasons to start but there were the long and short term causes. ... This was by far not the only reason for the war to start, no there also were alliances and treaties made. ... Most Germans were very proud of their country because it had just been united in the Franco-Prussian war. ... After 1890 Germany became pretty much aggressive, she wanted to build up influence all over the world. ... They had the largest Navy in the world, by which they kept up their overseas empire and trading routes. ... The first alliance was made between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia in 1872; it was called the “Dreikaiserbund” or “The three Emperors League”. ... He intended to keep peace with most countries but keep France isolated because he wanted to avoid a two front war. ... He tried to make Germany a world power by colonial and naval expansion. ... At the end of the 19th century it even looked like those two countries might even go to war. ... Britain became very angry at Germany and produced her first Dreadnought battleship; they were fast, large, and heavily armed. ... Britain had been looking for a European ally and first tried to ally with Germany because William II was Queen Victoria’s grandson. ... Even though Russia had lost a war against Britain’s ally Japan and they had colonial and trade rivalries they succeeded to establish an alliance. ... All this tension made France and Britain have secret military discussion, which finally led Britain to send troops to the First World War. ... Britain intervened there and war seemed to be really close. ... The real Balkan Crisis started in 1908 and lasted until the war. ... First, there was a new king on the throne of Serbia. ... Russia was nearly going to war on Austria but she didn’t because she got no support from England and France but Austria had the support of Germany. ... These conflicts ended in a major war, which lasted from 1912 to 1913. ... In 1912 the First Balkan war took place and all the Balkan states formed the Balkan League and declared war on Turkey. ... The Second Balkan War started in 1913 with Bulgaria alone fighting all other Balkan countries. Now, finally we come to the direct or immediate causes of war. ... The final spark to make the war start was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who was the heir to the throne of Austria, on 28th of June in 1914. ... So Austria used this event as a reason to launch a war on Serbia but they also knew that this could lead to a war against Russia, too. ... Germany gave consent because they believed that the Russian Tsar would not interfere in a war involving the death of a future monarch. ... Austria calculated that Serbia would reject the ultimatum to give them an excuse to declare war. ... William II was satisfied with this reply and said: “A brilliant diplomatic triumph, no excuse for war. ... After declaring that the reply was not satisfactory they declared war on the 28th of July 1914. On the 29th the first bombardments started and one after another the other big European forces joined in. On the 4th of August 1914 the First World War officially started.