What Was The Most Important Cause Of Wor Essays - Military

What Was The Most Important Cause Of Wor? Before World War One, many of the major European powers were involved in two strategic alliances. The first of these two was the "Triple Alliance" or "Triplice." Formed in May of 1882, it consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. The second opposing alliance was the Triple Entente that was a companionship between France, Britain, and Russia. In World War I, these alliances became the cores of the two opposing sides, with the Triple Alliance becoming the Central Powers and the Triple Entente becoming the Allied Powers. The reason that the alliance system contributed to the First World War was that it meant that local conflicts, even minor disputes, rather than remaining local in nature would draw in all members of both alliances. Thus, conflicts between Austria-Hungary over Serbia drew in not only Russia, which had territorial ambitions in the area, but also their western European allies. Another cause was that European nations ruled smaller countries, called colonies, and competed to amass more colonies. Gathering colonies became known as Imperialism. Both France and Britain had many colonies in Africa and Asia. Now Germany and Italy decided they wanted a colonial empire too. They were jealous of the countries that had other places where they could gather raw materials and cheap labour. So, the countries would argue and fight against each other to enlarge their empires. This would contribute to World War One because it created even more tension between the two countries that could only be released by either a full-scale war or a peace treaty between the countries which was very unlikely due to the various other disputes between the countries. The arms race was also a factor towards the start of World War One, because the nations of Europe wanted to have the strongest military should war break out, so they could have a better chance of winning, and to protect themselves against aggression from their neighbours. Unfortunately, as one country builds up their army, other countries see this, and feel threatened. Therefore, they build up their own armies. This goes on and on in an unfortunate cycle. Seeing as the major powers in Europe now had these huge armies built up and mobilized, they had a tool that they could use to wage war. Had they not have had these large armies, then they wouldn't have had anything to wage a war with, and even if they did, their victory would have been too uncertain for them to risk waging a war. The Schlieffen Plan was a German war plan for a conflict with France and Russia. It called for an immediate invasion of France in the event of a conflict with either nation because France was considered the more powerful of the two nations. The Schlieffen plan contributed to the war because it meant that Germany entered Belgium and therefore, broke the treaty with London which said that Belgium would remain a neutral country. Britain then declared war to honor the treaty of London, which therefore dragged the countries into war because the alliance system meant that the Allies had to help their ally out if help was needed. In conclusion, I think that the most important factor to the beginning of World War One was the alliances. This is because without the alliances then as I mentioned in my first paragraph it was very unlikely that other countries would have gotten involved and the disputes would have been on a much smaller scale. Although I believe that war was inevitable, I think that without the alliances it would not be possible for a world war to start but instead there would just be various smaller wars between countries that had disputes between only the two of them causing much less bloodshed and damage to the world. Daniel Akowe