America and World War I: Nationalism, Imperialism, and US Entry

Introduction: Root Causes of World War I

At face value, it might be concluded that World War I began as a result of increasing military power among the participating European nations, and that the arms race played a contributing role. However, a closer examination of the circumstances surrounding the outbreak of the war reveals a far more complex set of causes. The conflict grew from a web of interconnected forces — nationalism, imperialism, and militarism — that had been building for decades before the first shots were fired.

Countries across Europe experienced a powerful sense of nationalism that set them sharply apart from one another. This euphoric patriotism also became a seed of hatred toward other nations. Many people of that era believed that for one country to prosper, another must be subjugated or eliminated. Economic competition intensified these tensions, and the drive among European powers to expand their overseas colonies produced fierce rivalry.

Pan-Slavism and Nationalism Among German-Speaking States

Imperial ambitions, fear of encirclement, and economic competition together pushed nations toward formal military alliances. The arms race and naval competition added further pressure. Militarism across Europe continued to intensify throughout this period (How militarism, nationalism and imperialism contributed to the outbreak of World War One, 2016). Yet perhaps the single event that ignited full-scale war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, on June 28, 1914. A young Serbian nationalist affiliated with the Black Hand carried out the killing of Ferdinand and his wife. Military ambition, national pride, and imperial competition all combined to produce a conflict of unprecedented scale. Nations raced to conscript the largest armies possible, industrial development drove the scramble for colonial territories, and the desire for power planted seeds of separatism within multiethnic states. The year 1870 marked the beginning of a sustained period of arms competition in Europe. Weapons accumulated ostensibly for defense, but they generated suspicion among neighboring states — suspicion that hardened into fear and eventually into open hostility.

Pan-Slavism was a movement that emerged in the nineteenth century among Slavic-speaking peoples of Eastern and East-Central Europe. Its aim was to liberate and unite those peoples around common political, cultural, and social goals. Slav intellectuals from the western and southern regions are credited with initiating the movement in the early nineteenth century. The movement soon became explicitly political. Czech historian František Palacký convened a Slav Congress in Prague, attended by representatives of Slavic nationalities living under Austrian rule. The congress sought to inspire cooperation and to pressure the emperor to transform the monarchy into a democratic federation of equal peoples under Habsburgs rule (Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 1998).

How the Alliance System Contributed to the Outbreak of War

National rivalries between Germany and Britain were intense. Bitter competition also existed between Japan and the United States, and relations between Germany and Russia were deeply strained. The German Kaiser inflamed tensions when he declared that Germany had come of age as a world power. The unification of Slavic states into a Yugoslav state and the emergence of the Black Hand movement were both expressions of nationalist sentiment. The Balkans crisis added further pressure: three empires — Turkey, Russia, and Austria-Hungary — all sought influence in the region. Austria-Hungary was determined to absorb Bosnia and Herzegovina, an ambition that Russia could not accept. War, under these conditions, was nearly inevitable.

The system of interlocking alliances transformed a regional dispute into a continental war. The assassin who killed Archduke Ferdinand had intended to force Austria-Hungary to withdraw from the Balkans. Instead, the Austro-Hungarian government issued an ultimatum to Serbia, threatening military action if specific demands were not met. Russia was drawn into the conflict almost immediately. Austria-Hungary invaded Serbia on July 28, 1914. Germany mobilized its forces in response, and Russia followed. Germany declared war on France on August 3, 1914, launching its attack through Belgium — a neutral country. Britain entered the war to defend Belgium, with whom it maintained treaty obligations. The balance-of-power logic embedded in the alliance system had made a localized conflict global (Reference, 2016).