The most anticipated war in history, World War One, started off with the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. That event launched the July Crisis- a period of time where Europe was in a fighting frenzy. Countries were declaring war on each other, gathering secret alliances and building their armies. The Crisis was another event that lead to this Great War along with the Triple Alliance pact and Russo-Japanese War. Other underlying causes for the war were alliances, imperialism, militarism, and most destructive, nationalism. Alliances, though not the strongest factor, caused a lot of tension leading up to the war. There were two “sides” to the war- the Triple Entente, and the Triple Alliance- commonly known as the Allied and Central powers. The Central powers were composed of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and temporarily Italy. As seen in Document 3, the Allied powers are shown to be France, the United Kingdom, Russia, and colonies in Africa. These alliances relied on each other to defend them when the July Crisis broke out, causing declarations of war on one another to defend one’s ally. A political cartoon in Document 4 portrays countries as military leaders, with the posed question: “Who did it [the War]?” Each country seems to be pointing at another country, trying to pass off the blame of who started the war. Through common hatred and similar genealogy, alliances are formed, forcing leaders to “pick a side.” Germany’s hatred of the United Kingdom sprouted from how imperialistically advanced they were compared to Germany. Document 11 supplies a chart of each country’s colonial empire area and population. In 1913, Britain acquired 11x the land Germany had and was more populated by 388,000,000. Germany was at a disadvantage due to their delay to stabilize their country and begin imperializing, something the UK was able to do very quickly. Germans’ jealousy of the UK is seen in Document 10 where the British are portrayed as a monster- the “Bloodsucker of the World,” with colonies all over the globe. This envy of Britain’s power built up inside Germans, until Germany develops their war plan to
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Before WWI, a French writer writes, “War is life itself. Nothing exists in nature, is born, grows or multiplies except by combat.” (Document 1.) Many citizens supported the mentality of pro-war and many soldiers were anticipating defending their country, being told “You will be home before the leaves have fallen from the trees.” (Document 2.)- supporting the idea of a quick, easy war. Military men were confident in this “brief” war due to the drastic increase in military weapon interest. The “Growth in Armaments, 1890-1914” chart ( Document 7.) expose both sides of the war on the millions, in British currency, spent towards new armaments, Germany leading by at least 10 million pounds. All countries recognized Germany’s strong army and kept an angry position about it, for example the political cartoon in Document 9, portrays Germany marching off a cliff holding a massive rifle, no doubt representing the country’s massive weapon supply. The man is marching the way of “war and barbarism”, and pointing the gun, marching away from “civilization, peace, and progress.” The British author is upset over how greedy Germany is for their “already monstrous armaments.” The nations were ready to humble Germany by any means necessary, particularly
Before WWI, a French writer writes, “War is life itself. Nothing exists in nature, is born, grows or multiplies except by combat.” (Document 1.) Many citizens supported the mentality of pro-war and many soldiers were anticipating defending their country, being told “You will be home before the leaves have fallen from the trees.” (Document 2.)- supporting the idea of a quick, easy war. Military men were confident in this “brief” war due to the drastic increase in military weapon interest. The “Growth in Armaments, 1890-1914” chart ( Document 7.) expose both sides of the war on the millions, in British currency, spent towards new armaments, Germany leading by at least 10 million pounds. All countries recognized Germany’s strong army and kept an angry position about it, for example the political cartoon in Document 9, portrays Germany marching off a cliff holding a massive rifle, no doubt representing the country’s massive weapon supply. The man is marching the way of “war and barbarism”, and pointing the gun, marching away from “civilization, peace, and progress.” The British author is upset over how greedy Germany is for their “already monstrous armaments.” The nations were ready to humble Germany by any means necessary, particularly