Causes of World War II

World War One marked the moment the Western world would challenge old models of governance, warfare, and national identity. As soon as Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, the old balance of power shifted from grandiose empires like the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman toward the smaller, yet in many ways no less powerful, nation-state. The spoils of imperialism and colonialism were being reaped across the globe with the United States standing poised to become a global superpower. New world powers like Russia emerged seemingly out of nowhere to challenge Western supremacy. The fall of centuries-old monarchies and regional blocs caused new political ideologies like Marxism, Communism, and Socialism to take root around the world and especially in Eastern Europe. At the same time, world trade, democracy, and capitalism were already shaping the 20th century. Known as the Great War, World War One also exhibited emerging military technologies and trench warfare that transformed the ways nation-states engaged each other during battle. Therefore, three primary causes that led to the First World War include militarism, imperialism, and nationalism.

Militarism entails the proliferation of weaponry and troops, arms racing, and the state support for military endeavors. The Industrial Revolution led to astounding developments in warfare technologies, which were quickly seized up by major players in the early 20th century arms race. France, Germany, Great Britain, Russia, Belgium, and the United States all played major roles in fomenting the arms race. Submarines, battleships, and especially airplanes took the world by storm. New chemical gases were being developed that marked some of the first weapons of mass destruction. Ground combat weaponry including advanced machine guns, tanks, artillery, and grenades also made military might one of the most important features of the new world order. As nation-states clamored for military supremacy vis-a-vis their neighbors and especially their enemies, the battlefield became ripe for the outbreak of total war. The effects of militarism on neighboring nation-states was palpable: mutual suspicion led to intense cross-border tension between nations like France and Germany, Germany and Prussia. However, even nations that did not share land borders grew wary of one another during the military proliferation that preceded World War One. For example, Great Britain vied for continued naval supremacy while Germany also developed its own seafaring military fleet. Naval warfare supplemented by the new airplane troops proved that the impending war would go beyond all prior ones.

Imperialism, or empire-building, became a key cause of World War One. A counterpart of colonialism, imperialism entailed spreading ideology and an expansion of the global market. Imperialism depended on militarism but required more extensive political and economic ambition. Moreover, imperialism did not require increased landholdings. Instead, imperial powers used their increased military might and economic clout to control vast amounts of wealth and capital around the world. In the wake of the colonial era, neighboring nations in Europe vied for control of Colonial resources that would boost their national economies. Yet each country wanted its own, larger slice of the pie. Before Europe dreamed of even considering itself to be a cohesive political and economic entity like it is today, in the early 20th century neighboring countries like France, Belgium, and Germany fought over landholdings in various regions of the world including Africa and the Middle East as well as the East Indies. Japan and the United States would also play an important role in the evolution of imperialism prior and during World War One.