Alliances In The Early Twentieth Century

In the early 20th century, rivalries between European leaders and their countries created the conditions for war. These conditions were enhanced by militarism, alliances, imperialism, and nationalism. The Great Powers of Europe all used these causes to varying degrees. By 1907, most of the European nations had formed alliances to protect themselves from foreign aggression. Countries desires to maintain their culture and extend their borders frequently led to conflict. From 1914 to 1918, a war broke out that utilized the advancements in technology and weaponry that resulted in horrific casualties. The strategy of fighting was reduced to trench warfare. A system of trenches were dug along much of the Western and Eastern fronts which slowed down territorial gains. The use of tanks, planes, submarines, machine guns, and chemical weapons were introduced for the first time and they all contributed to the devastating results of the first total war. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary triggered the most horrific war known to man. A drastic increase in military spending, entangling agreements, border expansion, and
Alliances are established when two countries come together for mutual benefit. England and France had formed an alliance, the Triple Entente, and they were against Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary; which was called the Triple Alliance. As the excerpt from The Century of Total War by Raymond Aron states, these two alliances “...grew heavy with multiple incidents, which spread East [with the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand], where Russia and Austria were advancing contradictory claims…”. With the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, Serbia and Austria-Hungary were forced to go into war. Alliances were a major contributing factor to the brink of WWI because of the two rival alliances that experienced several incidents leading up to the