What are the main factors that led to the start of WWI?
1 Answer
Militarism, alliances, nationalism, imperialism, and assassination.
Explanation:
There is an acronym that you can use to remember all of these factors, known as M.A.N.I.A. It essentially includes all of the main reasons that World War 1 started.
Militarism: With new technological advancements reeling in from the 19th century, much of Europe was eager to modernize its military and navy. With the introduction of military aircraft, submarine warfare, and machine guns, many European powers such as Great Britain and Germany began to equip their militaries with the latest technology.
This, of course, led to massive paranoia across the entire continent. Germany was already slowly becoming competitive with other powers like Britain and France, so when Britain and France saw Germany bulking up on its military, they only assumed that it was a deliberate attempt to compete with them and surpass their statuses as world powers.
This resulted in Germany and Britain entering in an arms race with each other, trying to see who could get the biggest and strongest military. Other countries responded by building up their own militaries to defend them from the threat of invasion. With massive militaries, navies, and the strongest weapons, Europe waited to see who would be the first to strike.
Alliances: It's impossible to give a full list of all European relationships and alliances during this time period as there were so many. However, this image does a pretty good job of showing the most obvious ones:
Basically, with so many alliances taking hold in Europe, lines were already beginning to be drawn in the sand. People knew Germany and Austria-Hungary were very friendly with each other; they also knew that relations between Russia and the Ottoman Empire were beginning to deteriorate.
Alliances were almost like gangs, in that certain countries talked more and traded more with other countries. They promised each other that if one member got involved in a war, the others would back them up.
The image depicts it very nicely, showing the two main alliances in Europe: the Triple Entente (Russia, France, and Britain) and the Triple Alliance (Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Germany). After Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Serbia's friend, Russia, came in to support them. In response, Germany intervened to support their friend, Austria-Hungary, which France responded to by declaring war on Germany in order to give support to Russia.
Once one member of an alliance needed help, the other members jumped in to offer their support, which prompted the members of the other alliances to get involved.
Nationalism: Nationalism, to describe it simply, is a person's pride towards their cultural heritage, community, and country. Austria-Hungary was a massive country, and naturally, it was made up of many different ethnic groups. Here's an image to put it into perspective:
Nationalism was the driving force behind people being resentful towards Austria-Hungary. For example, a Romanian living in Austria-Hungary didn't want to live in Austria-Hungary; they wanted to create their own country that they could live in to represent Romanian pride and heritage.
One of the ethnic groups residing in Austria-Hungary were Serbians, who, naturally, wanted to live in Serbia instead of Austria-Hungary. They demanded that Austria-Hungary give some of its land to Serbia so that the Serbians could be a part of its country. When Austria-Hungary refused, certain Serbian radicals took it into their own hands to get what they wanted. (see: Assassination)
Nationalism didn't just affect Austria-Hungary, though; it affected all other countries. Germans living in Germany were extremely proud of their country and heritage, so when France declared war on Germany, many Germans were eager to get onto the battlefield and fight for their country. Essentially, nationalism made every country believe that it was the best; something that they were willing to prove to the world, even if it meant war.
Assassination: After Serbians were denied the land that they demanded from Austria-Hungary, they took it amongst themselves to fight against Austrian rule and bring glory to the Serbian heritage and homeland.
The Black Hand society, a Serbian terrorist group, was eager to promote the pan-Serb movement (the creation of a state made for and led by Serbs, which would unify with Serbia). In an effort to get the land they wanted, Gavrilo Princip, a member of the society, assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, who was heir to the Austria-Hungary throne. Furious, Austria-Hungary blamed the assassination of Serbia and demanded reparation from Serbia, sending them a list of impossible demands that they expected for Serbia to adhere to.
When Serbia refused, Austria-Hungary declared war, which would bring Russia and France in to defend Serbia, with Germany entering to defend Austria-Hungary. The assassination is widely considered to be the beginning of World War I due to the series of events that it inevitably caused.
