Transcript The Seeds of War

The Seeds of War
Mr. White’s World History Class
Big Questions
After this section, we should be able to
answer this question:
How did the main causes of World War I
combine to cause the war?
The Situation in Europe Before World War
I
 Between the French Revolution and World
War I, some changes had taken place in
Europe
 1871 – German states united and defeated
France quickly and completely in the FrancoPrussian War
Took the territory of Alsace-Lorraine
 These German states then formed into
Germany, unified by German nationalism
 Italy had formed from many small Italian
states, unified by Italian nationalism
The MAIN Causes
 World War I had four main causes, easy to
remember by using the word “MAIN”
Militarism
Alliance Systems
Imperialism and rivalries
Nationalism
 Each of these causes made the war more
likely to happen in the way that it did
Imperialism and European Rivalries
Rivalries between European nations
began to grow before World War I –
because…
Industrialization and economic competition
Imperialism – desire to take colonies
Imperialism and European Rivalries, 2
 Different nations had different imperialist
motivations
Great Britain – wanted to keep the seas open to
navigation, keep the balance of power in Europe
France – Alsace-Lorraine had been taken by
Germany in the last war, wanted to take it back
Germany – wanted to protect its colonies, take some
from the Ottoman Empire
Austria-Hungary – wanted the Balkans, and the
Aegean Sea
Russia – wanted the Bosporus, Dardanelles, and the
Black Sea
Nationalism
 Nationalism, a
person’s identification
with a nation first, had
intensified rivalries in
Europe
Germany had formed
because of nationalism
France wanted AlsaceLorraine back – symbol
of national pride
Slavic Nationalism
 Many Slavic people in the Balkans believed
that they should have their own nation
 Austria-Hungary thought this would lead to
revolts by Slavs
 Austria-Hungary took over BosniaHerzegovina in 1908
Serbia, a neighbor, called on Russia to do something
about this
Russia couldn’t – too weak from the war with Japan
Militarism
 Militarism is…
The glorification of war and the military – so…
Many European nations were prepared to use the
military to solve national problems
 European nations had begun to assess other
nation’s military strength
 Military leaders argued that countries had to
match the readiness of their rivals
All European nations except Great Britain adopted
conscription, or mandatory military service for men
Military Plans
 Many European nations adopted to-theminute strategic plans that would go into
effect when the war started
 Germans – had adopted the Schlieffen plan
in the case of war with both France and
Russia
Russians would take a long time to mobilize
Germans would attack the French and take Paris in
six weeks
Germans would then move their forces over to attack
Russia
Other Military Plans
Other nations had military plans, as well
France – Plan XVII; attack Germans in AlsaceLorraine and take it back
Austria-Hungary – Plans B and R; plans for
fighting in the Balkans or against Russia
Russia – Plans G, A, and 19; would trade lives,
land, and losses for time to mobilize
Britain – Didn’t really have any plans for fighting
this war; didn’t want to fight on the continent
Alliance Systems
By 1882, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and
Italy had formed the Triple Alliance
Opposed to any aggression by France
By 1892, France and Russia signed an
alliance against German or AustroHungarian aggression
France and Great Britain entered into an
entente in 1907 – not an alliance, but an
understanding between nations