World War I: An Inevitable Outcome
World War I: An Inevitable Outcome
World War I: An Inevitable Outcome
World War I can best be depicted as a perfect storm, beginning with a single act of terrorism. This act would bring about the deluge to come, presenting as the catalyst to a particularly explosive state of affairs amongst the nations of the world. Persian statesman Otto von Bismarck “was quoted as saying at the end of his life that "One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans." (Archduke Franz, 2014). On June 28, 1914, as he predicted, Gavrilo Princip a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, Bosnia, assassinated the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand along with his wife. Set alight by this event and fueled by a collection of militaristic foreign policies, alliances, the practice of imperialism and the ideology of nationalism, WWI was an inevitably outcome. Nationalism and liberalism spread throughout Europe during the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars. Taking root, it influenced the peoples of Eastern Europe as well as Italy and Germany in Central Europe. Important to Eastern Europeans and peoples of the Balkans, in the southeast, was national independence. This desire by the Slavic peoples for separation from foreign rule would bring about the spread of nationalist ideas. Further destabilizing the already weakening Hapsburg and Ottoman empires were growing nationalist movements and Russia’s involvement in Balkan politics, “posing as the champion of Slavic liberties and nationalism against the Slavs ' Turkish and Austrian masters. This heightened tensions between Austria, Turkey, and Russia and would provide the spark to set off World War I.” (Nationalism, 2007). The unification of Germany and Italy bought about the embrace of nationalism by its people’s. Support for unification and the nationalist movement would come chiefly form the middle class. The establishment of a
World War I: An Inevitable Outcome
World War I can best be depicted as a perfect storm, beginning with a single act of terrorism. This act would bring about the deluge to come, presenting as the catalyst to a particularly explosive state of affairs amongst the nations of the world. Persian statesman Otto von Bismarck “was quoted as saying at the end of his life that "One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans." (Archduke Franz, 2014). On June 28, 1914, as he predicted, Gavrilo Princip a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, Bosnia, assassinated the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand along with his wife. Set alight by this event and fueled by a collection of militaristic foreign policies, alliances, the practice of imperialism and the ideology of nationalism, WWI was an inevitably outcome. Nationalism and liberalism spread throughout Europe during the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars. Taking root, it influenced the peoples of Eastern Europe as well as Italy and Germany in Central Europe. Important to Eastern Europeans and peoples of the Balkans, in the southeast, was national independence. This desire by the Slavic peoples for separation from foreign rule would bring about the spread of nationalist ideas. Further destabilizing the already weakening Hapsburg and Ottoman empires were growing nationalist movements and Russia’s involvement in Balkan politics, “posing as the champion of Slavic liberties and nationalism against the Slavs ' Turkish and Austrian masters. This heightened tensions between Austria, Turkey, and Russia and would provide the spark to set off World War I.” (Nationalism, 2007). The unification of Germany and Italy bought about the embrace of nationalism by its people’s. Support for unification and the nationalist movement would come chiefly form the middle class. The establishment of a
References: America in the First World War. (n.d.). U.S. History Online Textbook. Retrieved August 25, 2014, from http://www.ushistory.org/us/45.asp Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassinated Farewell to Isolation. (n.d.). U.S. History Online Textbook. Retrieved August 25, 2014, from http://www.ushistory.org/us/45a.asp Imperialism as a cause of World War I McDougall, W. (2014). 20th-century international relations. In Encyclopedia Britannica Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/291225/20th- Nationalism and its Impact in Europe (1848-1914) Over There. (n.d.). U.S. History Online Textbook. Retrieved August 25, 2014, from http://www.ushistory.org/us/45b.asp "Pan-Slavism." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. The Origins of WWI. (n.d.). Authentic History Center. Retrieved August 25, 2014, from http://www.authentichistory.com/1914-1920/1-overview/1-origins/index.html World War One - Causes World War I. (2014). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/648646/World-War-I World War I WWI Woodrow Wilson. (n.d.). International World History Project. Retrieved August 25, 2014, from http://history-world.org/wilson.htm