Cause Of World War 1 Essay

There was not one single cause of World War 1; many chaotic events lead up to it. Although the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand sparked the war, there were many other incidents that caused the tension that influenced his murder. Three major contributions gave rise to the war: imperialism, nationalism, and the new alliances. If these things had not happened, the war may not have occurred or may have turned out very differently.
In the age of New Imperialism, from 1881 to 1914, European powers were going into Africa and colonizing it. Belgium, Italy, Britain, Portugal, France, Spain, and Germany were the countries all fighting for power. This caused a lot of tension. Great Britain got a lot of economic gain from their African colonies which caused frustration for the other countries, while France had the most land, square foot wise. The tension caused by all of this lead up to all the different alliances being formed which directly induced the war. If the Scramble for Africa hadn’t happened, the war may not have happened. Obviously there were other instigators of the war and other problems between European countries, so the war may have still happened, but there probably wouldn’t have been so many different alliances between European countries and this may have prevented or cooled down the war by a lot.
This was a major cause of World War 1 because every major country in was fighting to come out on top and be number one. This mainly was happening between the major powers in Europe. Each country just had it’s own interests in mind. Nationalism was also caused the reunification of Italy and Germany. Without nationalism the war probably would have still happened because there were so many elements that lead up to it, but the tension between the European countries would have been much less and may have toned down the war a little