These states included Germany -- whose aggressive policy of expansion and investment in a powerful navy -- and Great Britain -- which had territorial holdings throughout the world. Other parties in the conflict included France, with strong imperial ambitions in northern Africa, and Russia, whose imperial expansion complicated matters in the MIddle East and even East Asia. In short, with so many great empires in Europe, it was only a matter of time before a major conflict erupted. That it took as long as it did to occur is perhaps the one surprising aspect in the history of World War I. It took an appropriate political excuse -- the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand -- to motivate the great empires into the first World War.
When considered in terms of the imperial ambitions of these states, the aftermath of World War I begins to make much more sense. The Treaty of Versailles placed the lion's share of the blame for the conflict squarely on...
The breakup of many of the empires after World War I, like Austria-Hungary, led to the emergence of new nation-states built on the nationalist fervor that had already been sweeping the continent. But World War I also marked the beginning of a steeper decline in imperialism for all of the states involved. Even the nation's that essentially emerged victorious from the conflict -- Great Britain and France -- suffered significant economic and military hardship as a result of the conflict. After World War I, the ability of these states to hold onto globe-spanning empires became severely truncated. Thus, the imperialistic rivalries that led to World War I helped settle those rivalries by effectively precipitating the dismantling of European imperialism.
Works Cited
World War I." The Columbia Encyclopedia. 6th ed. The Columbia University Press (2000):…
