Wwi Essay

"The War to End All Wars!" was a common name for World War One. But when you actually take a look back at our history; did it really end all wars? No, this is quite false, as many wars have followed. Yet, many aspects of warfare were changed during this time. WWI was one of the bloodiest wars that the world has ever seen. Events taking place over a long period of time, such as imperialism, militarism, alliances and nationalism, as well as more immediate effects such as the assassination of Ferdinand, new countries involvements due to alliances, led to tension, and soon the outbreak of WWI.

The most important of the long term effects leading to the outbreak of war was imperialism. Seemingly all at once, the great European Empires broke free of their decided boundaries, and expanded into colonies spanning the entire earth. Most colonized was Africa, due to the fact that it seemed every country had a piece of her. Distances meant nothing, as many countries spread over thousands of thousands of miles to set up a new colony. England holds the best example of this, as it managed to colonize Australia. Unfortunately, Germany was in troubled times. Instead of a unified country, Germany saw herself in many states. When the great Empires began to spread, Germany pulled together. This, however, was too late, and Germany was left with little to colonize. They began to pick up the scraps, the chunks of countries not colonized, which tended to yield little resources to the motherland, in hopes of still keeping some power. Germany now felt jealous, and needed to prove its power to the rest of Europe. They fought for new colonies, although gained little. Soon, they felt the need to increase the army and navy, in the hopes of becoming the strongest militarized nation. Militarism was not unusual, and generally poses little threat. The Kaiser wanted Germany to be a strong world power, with a Navy enough to challenge Great Britain's. This began the Naval Race. Great Britain was