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Top 10 Causes of WWI
World War I is actually much more complicated than a simple list of causes. While there was a chain of events that directly led to the fighting, the actual root causes are much deeper and part of continued debate and discussion. This top list is an overview of the most popular reasons that are cited as the root top 10 causes of WWI:
10. Economic Competition
Although industrial capitalism had become a reigning business practice during the Industrial Revolution, traditionalist mercantilist economics still prevailed with regard to state economics. Mercantilism is the idea that there is a set amount of wealth in the world and in order to increase your wealth, you need to take someone else’s. Mercantilism goes hand in hand with imperialism. In order to get access to cheap raw materials needed for expanding industry in the nineteenth century, countries began to scramble all over the earth for regions they could control. Nowhere was this more apparent then in Africa. By the end of the nineteenth century, all of Africa was under foreign control with the exception of two states. Liberia, a tiny colony on Africa’s west coast was a refuge for freed slaves and was able to resist takeover by the British or French. The other free country was Ethiopia. Ethiopia was able to reflect and attack made by the recently unified Italy, a country that wanted to keep up with England and France. Italy’s failure allowed Ethiopia to remain independent. As for the rest of Africa, Britain controlled regions to the north, east, west, and south, and France controlled areas of the north and west. Belgium controlled the central regions of the African Congo.
9. Imperialism
Imperialism was also fueled in many countries by nationalist feeling, particularly in Germany and Italy. Prior to the 1860s, Italy was a patchwork of independent principalities or regions controlled by Austria. Prior to 1871, Germany was also a collection of independent states and principalities. However, nationalist fervor and a desire for a unified country drove these regions to unite through warfare. With a newly unified country, German and Italian peoples wanted to exert their greatness on the global scene. A good means to an end of greatness was to create a respectable empire constructed of colonies. Imperialism was often justified through cultural reasons. For example, Britain believed that it was the country’s duty to “civilize” barbaric or savage cultures in Africa and Asia. Rudyard Kipling’s famous idea of the “white man’s burden” sums up this world view. Russia also used cultural reasons to justify its pressure on the Balkans and Austria in the early twentieth century. The Russian Czar Nicholas II wished to pursue what was called “pan-Slavism” or an attempt to unite all Slavic-speaking people under the leadership of the Czar. However, what Nicholas most wanted in the Balkans was access to a warm-water port in the Black Sea that wouldn’t freeze over in the wintertime. Pan-Slavism was just a means to an end.
Imperialist desires had the adverse effect of stimulating arms races between the major powers in Europe at the time (late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries). Germany, wishing to challenge Britain for dominance of the oceans, began a comprehensive program of naval arms building. Britain responded by ramping up its own naval funding in order to counter the threat Germany potentially posed to its overseas investments. These arms races were affected by the new military/industrial complex that had formed in the nineteenth century and would result in the first wide-scale industrial war.
8. Militarism
Militarism means that the army and military forces are given a high profile by the government. The growing European divide had led to an arms race between the main countries. The armies of both France and Germany had more than doubled between 1870 and 1914 and there was fierce competition between Britain and Germany for mastery of the seas. The British had introduced the ‘Dreadnought’, an effective battleship, in 1906. The Germans soon followed suit introducing their own battleships.
All in all, militarism played a role in World War I due to the desire of the governments involved to want to maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend its national interests. Militarism was one of the causes of World War I which began in central Europe in July 1914. Militarism has been a significant element of the imperialist ideologies of several nations throughout history.
7. Nationalism
Nationalism means being a strong supporter of the rights and interests of one’s country. The Congress of Vienna, held after Napoleon’s exile to Elba, aimed to sort out problems in Europe. Delegates from Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia (the winning allies) decided upon a new Europe that left both Germany and Italy as divided states. Strong nationalist elements led to the re-unification of Italy in 1861 and Germany in 1871. The settlement at the end of the Franco-Prussian war left France angry at the loss of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany and keen to regain their lost territory. Large areas of both Austria-Hungary and Serbia were home to differing nationalist groups, all of whom wanted freedom from the states in which they lived.
6. Crises – Moroccan Crisis
In 1904 Morocco had been given to France by Britain, but the Moroccans wanted their independence. In 1905, Germany announced her support for Moroccan independence. War was narrowly avoided by a conference which allowed France to retain possession of Morocco. However, in 1911, the Germans were again protesting against French possession of Morocco. Britain supported France and Germany was persuaded to back down for part of French Congo.
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