Causes of World War I

Cause lead world war.

In spite of the fact that it happened almost a century ago, the First World War continues to intrigue people as a consequence of the forces involved in it, as a result of the catastrophic number of casualties, and generally because it demonstrates the fact that people are (or at least, they were) unhesitant about committing great crimes in order to impose their absurd thinking on others. It is difficult to determine whether the motives behind the war can be considered reasonable, especially given the fact that Europe had been in a state of turmoil years before the Austro-Hungarian heir, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, was assassinated.

One cannot simply consider causes when dealing with the reasons for which the First World War commenced. The conflict's causes alone are impossible to understand when given the numbers associated with it. "Some 61 million troops of 16 nations were directly involved and suffered 7.8 million killed outright or died of wounds, 19.6 million wounded, treated and survived, and 7 million missing or prisoners of war" (Higham and Showalter ix). The obvious cause of the war was the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, an act that apparently forced Austro-Hungary in taking up arms against Serbia. This resulted in a chain of events involving most important countries from around the world into a massive conflict. It is, to a certain degree, probable that Austro-Hungary exploited Franz Ferdinand's death with the purpose of imposing itself over Serbia.

Imperialism stands as one of the most important motives behind the First World War, considering that the world's powers were still determined to expand their territories during the early twentieth century, even if this meant that they had to fight each-other while doing this. With most influential powers from around the world having raised notable armies up until 1914, it only seemed natural for them to feel threatened and determined to commence warfare at the same time.

Whereas the world's powers wanted to conquer even more vulnerable countries, the latter were determined to achieve independence. People in Bosnia and Herzegovina were no longer willing to be a part of Austro-Hungary and thus made pressures with the purpose to be granted independence. Thus, as a result of his nationalist convictions, a Serbian nationalist decided to go strike Austro-Hungary where it hurt the most, killing the soon-to-be heir of the Empire. Austro-Hungary declared war to Serbia as a response, influencing Russia (then Serbia's ally) to mobilize its troops with the purpose of protecting the Serbs. This led to Germany entering the war as Austro-Hungary's ally. Also, France and Britain took up arms against Germany as a result of feeling threatened by the German war campaign and as a result of wanting to comply with their alliances.

Tensions were high in Europe even from the late nineteenth century, at the time when the French and the Germans were interested in claiming their supremacy over Central Europe as a result of the Franco-Prussian War. In spite of the fact that the Russians were initially supportive toward Austro-Hungary and Germany because of Bismarck's diplomatic abilities, matters changed significantly after the German Chancellor was removed from command by Germany's Emperor at the time, Wilhelm II.