World History / Unit 10: The World Wars
10.1 Causes of World War I
Notes
World War I (1914 to 1918) grew out of long-term tensions in Europe. A common memory aid is MAIN.
- Militarism: building large armies and navies and glorifying military power (for example, the British-German naval race).
- Alliances: the Triple Entente (France, Russia, Britain) faced the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy). Germany, Austria-Hungary and their partners became the Central Powers; Italy later joined the Allies.
- Imperialism: competition for colonies created rivalries.
- Nationalism: pride and rivalry among great powers, and Slavic peoples in Austria-Hungary who wanted independence. The Balkans were called the "powder keg of Europe."
- Spark: on June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb nationalist, assassinated Austria-Hungary's Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo.
- Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia; Russia mobilized to defend Serbia; Germany declared war on Russia and France; Germany invaded Belgium, so Britain entered. The alliance system turned a regional conflict into a world war.
Practice
Which was the immediate cause (spark) of World War I?
Long-term causes made war likely; the assassination set it off.
How did the alliance system contribute to the outbreak of World War I?
Treaty commitments pulled one power after another into war.
The Balkans were called the "powder keg of Europe" because:
Competing claims by Serbia, Austria-Hungary, Russia and the Ottomans made the region unstable.
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