Land Changes After Ww2 Essay, Research Paper
Bruce Wayne
Per. 4
04-09-01
Events that led to World War One
When people are talking of war, they seem to always want to know what started
it. There are many things that can cause a war. For example, World War One was started
because of many things: nationalism, building of arms, entangling of alliances, and
imperialism.
Nationalism lead to war because Serbia encouraged the people in Austria
-Hungary to rebel and join Serbians. Serbia was tired of being bossed around by
Austria-Hungary and wanted to be left alone. Also, after the fall out of the Ottoman
Empire, later renamed Turkey, Russia and Austria-Hungary almost went to war. The
reason they almost went to war was that Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia and
Herzegovina.
During this time period Great Britain had the number one navy in the world.
Great Britain with their navy controlled the seas. Germany disliked this and started
building its own navy. The race was on, who would have the better navy Germany or
Great Britain? Germany did however have one advantage over Great Britain’s navy, their
ships would be newer. Germany already had the number one army and if they
accomplished their goal of building the best navy they could have been unstoppable.
Many countries were now forming alliances with one another to protect
themselves from other countries. There were six major countries involved in the war.
Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy formed the Triple Alliance. Great Britain, Russia,
and France formed the Triple Entente. Now that each country had a alliance with other
countries, nobody feared war.
Imperialism also played its role that lead to World War One. Germany got a late
start in the colony race. France was having problems with Germany over Morocco (a
French colony). Germany wanted to take this colony from France but France would not let
them have it. France alone could not handle Germany so Great Britain came to its aid.
Germany feared a defeat by these two countries so it retreated.
All these things led up to World War One but what started World War One was a
small accident compared to everything else that has happened. On June 28, 1914, Arch
duke Franz Ferdinand was visiting Sarajevo, capitol of the Austrian Province Bosnia. On
this day Franz Ferdinand was killed by a Slavic extremist named Gavrilo Princip.
Austria-Hungary used this incident as an excuse to start a war that was already building
up.
Many things lead to war. It’s not just one incident. It took many accidents for
World War One to begin, the death of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was just an excuse to
start a war.