1).Cause and Consequence: How are the direct causes of the war connected to the contextual causes (MAIN: Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, Nationalism)?
The causes of WWI has always been an intense and non-stop debate. It has even become one of the most controversial topics in history study. However, one thing we can be sure of is that the causes of WWI consist of many factors instead of being a one-way street.Below, Explains the causes of WWI in the perspective of militarism, alliances, imperialism and nationalism.
Nationalism increases the eagerness of war of Europeans and increases the tensions between European countries. In the 1900s the Slavic people in Bosnia and Herzegovina no longer want to be part of Austria Hungary but instead want to be part of Serbia. Many Slavic people want to go for war to achieve this. The hatred between Serbia and Austria Hungary triggers the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Black Hand Serbian nationalist. On The other side, many Europeans at the 1900s think that war is necessary. They also believe much in the idea of ‘war for glory’ and honour. Therefore that make more European want to go on for war.
Concerning imperialism, the imperialism of the British Empire and the German Empire have paved the way to WWI by increasing tensions and hatred between each other. Both Germans and British have great imperialism and want to colonize the most part of the world.Also Africa and Asia have many resources such as nature gas, coal etc.Therefore, imperialism increases tensions between European countries. At this point, a tiny incident is already enough to trigger a great war.
Alliance, mutual alliances formed by some European countries, which are supposed to maintain peace, ironically, has increased the chance of transforming a local war into a world war. In order to strengthen the countries’ power, many European countries formed mutual alliances with each other to unite the forces of other countries.the Triple Alliance formed by Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, and the Triple Entente consisting of the Russian Empire, the French Third Republic, and Great Britain, are formed.When another antagonist attacks one of the member countries, the other countries will also be involved in the war as they will send armies to help each other.
Militarism, there is arms race between European countries, especially between the British Empire and the German Empire. This not only increases tensions and rivalry between European countries, but also it increases the intensity of the World War. As mentioned above, imperialism of the British Empire and the German Empire causes a series of colonization activities. However, colonization requires strong naval forces. Moreover, in terms of naval supremacy, the German Empire wants to exceed the British Empire as the country with the greatest naval forces. Therefore, due to imperialism and race for naval supremacy, the British Empire and the German Empire race for military equipment and the number of dreadnoughts. Being afraid of other countries’ strong power, many European countries also race for arms, by inventing new weapons which are more deadly and increasing the size of army.