World War 1 And 2

The first half of the twentieth century was shaped by two global conflicts, World War 1 (WW1) and World War 2 (WW2). Both of these wars were the same in many ways, but different in some ways. For example, they were similar in causes, like, nationalism, militarism, and alliance system, but they were different in the events that shaped the causes of war.

One of the causes of WW1 and WW2 is the alliance system. During WW1 the alliance system consisted of the Triple Alliance (Austria, Germany, Italy) and the Triple Entente (Britain, France, Russia), both of the alliances were secret and hard to stop and limit. The alliance system caused problems in Europe, in that it created tangled alliances that drew all alliances in a conflict (Doc. 1). Unlike WW1, WW2 had open alliances, which included Britain and France, Germany and its allies. After Germany, Italy, and Japan formed the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis, Germany become stronger. The alliance system was also important in the causing of WW2, because after WW1, Germany was blamed for starting the war and had to pay $33 billion in reparations to the Allies (Doc. 4) which made Germany extremely upset and soon got revenge by starting WW2.

Nationalism was another cause of both WW1 and WW2. Nationalism is the love of ones country and both wars showed this. For example, in WW1 there was a strong competition between France, Britain, Russia, Austria- Hungry, and Germany, which was led by nationalism. For example, in June 1914 in Sarajevo, a Slavic nationalist shot and killed the Archduke Franc Ferdinand of Austria- Hungry (Doc. 3), which was the direct cause of WW1. Also nationalism led to several civil wars and the desire for "self-determination". After WW1 the Germans felt embarrassed so they supported a Nazi party that wanted to build a strong army. Italy and Japan also became more nationalistic, which led to cause WW2. WW1 and WW2 were different in that they were two different kinds of nationalism caused by two different