4. The Causes of WWI
• Militarism
• Alliances
• Nationalism
• Imperialism
• Assassination
5. Militarism
• A nation’s policy of enlisting, training, equipping,
and maintaining armed forces ready for war
• The armed forces come to dominate a country’s
national policy
• A glorification of the military and war itself
6. Militarism
• Industrialization (making things through power
driven machines) led to wealth and power
• This fueled an arms race, especially a naval race
between Britain and Germany
• During WWI, transportation and weapons
technology developed rapidly — resulting in a war
with more casualties than ever before
8. Alliances
• Franco-Prussian War, 1871: “Germany” defeats
France, forms a series of alliances to isolate France
• German plans to rival the British navy upset the
“balance of power”
• France, looking for an ally to balance the threat
created by Germany, turns to Russia
• Austria-Hungary, facing a threat from Russia,
sought support from Germany
11. Alliances
• Formed for defensive purposes, with the hope of
reducing the threat of war
• In reality, they had the opposite effect
• If one member of the alliance become involved in a
conflict, they could rely on the immediate
assistance of its allies
• Allowed boldness and made it impossible to
localize fighting
12. Nationalism
• Characterized by feelings of intense loyalty toward
one’s own country and culture
• Identification with a geographic area or an ethnic
group
• Can be thought of like a huge storm: can be
peaceful or violent, build or destroy
• Nationalism was a powerful force throughout
Europe and major cause of international tension
13.
14. Imperialism
• A deliberate policy of gaining territory and/or
control
• Nationalism + Industrialism = Imperialism
• Pre-WWI, imperialism is not new
• However, rivalry among imperial powers is (First
Moroccan Crisis, Second Moroccan Crisis)
15. Assassination
• June 14, 1914, Arch
Duke Franz Ferdinand
and his wife Sophie are
gunned down in
Sarajevo, Bosnia
• The assassinations are
the “spark” that start
World War I
16. Assassination
• Franz Ferdinand is the Crown Prince of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire
• Shot by Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian nationalist
• Princip was member of The Black Hand, a
Serbian Nationalist Group
