length: 486 words 1.4 double spaced pages there were many immediate and underlying or fundamental causes of world war i. The difference between an underlying and immediate cause is that an underlying cause develops over a long period of time and indirectly leads to a specific event, and an immediate cause is a specific short term event that directly leads to another event or series of events. While the immediate cause of world war i was the assassination of francis ferdinand, the archduke of austria, by a serbian member of the black hand secret society, there were various basic causes of the war. Three of them were nationalism, alliances between european powers, and militarism. Nationalism is a devotion and loyalty to one’s own nation, with primary emphasis on furthering its interests as opposed to those of other countries. This feeling widely spread throughout europe during the 19th and 10th centuries and caused many problems.

The slavic people of bosnia and herzegovina wanted to break away from austria hungary and unify with other slavic nations. Russia as a slavic nation backed up the two countries in this matter, therefore causing tensions between austria hungary and itself. Nationalism was also a source of anger between france and germany as france resented its defeat in the franco prussian war 1870 1871. Alliances between european nations can also be considered an underlying cause of world war i. As a result of the triple alliance consisting of germany, austria hungary, and italy, the triple entente understanding was formed between france, britain, and russia.

Although france and britain were natural enemies, their fear of germany united them together with russia. For example, if germany attacked france, britain and russia would help france, and italy and austria would help germany, dragging europe into a state of chaos and violence. As the alliance system divided europe into opposing groups, each nation began to increase spending on its military. This set a belligerent mood in europe as each nation was prepared to fight a war. A german officer once said in time of peace, prepare for war, and that is exactly what european nations did, eventually leading to the great war.

Without a doubt, the one underlying cause of the three described above that was most responsible for world war i was the system of alliances. The triple alliance and triple entente created extremely high tension in europe which motivated countries to move into war for an inane incident such as the assassination of the archduke of austria. Europe was divided into two opposing groups and each nation was ready to enter war due to militarism. The high tensions between european nations ultimately led to the declaration of war on serbia by austria on july 28, 1914, marking the beginning of world war i. 21 feb 2016 world war one:essay? hello i have written an essay on the causes of world war one. Show more world war one:essay? i have written an essay on the causes of world war one. Can you please read it and give suggestions? thanx on sunday 28th june, 1914, the heir to the austro hungarian throne, archduke franz ferdinand, and his wife, were assassinated by gavrilo princip, part of a serbian terrorist group, called the black hand at sarajevo, the capital of bosnia and herzegovnia.

This event and the tension between europe was a trigger that set off declarations of war and resulted in the great war. Tensions had been building up in europe for decades through nationalism, imperialism, militarism, and alliances, and these tensions had reach such a point that an event was needed to break these tensions. Therefore the assassination, nationalism, militarism, imperialism and alliances were causes of world war one. Australia was involved in the war because of the fact that it was part of the british empire therefore having duties towards britain, and also growing patriotic support for the mother country. This patriotism was a main factor in deciding australia’s fate in world war one. Around the 1900, there was a love and devotion that started to occur towards a persons country. Instead of belonging to different dukes or kings, people started to have nationalism or patriotism towards there country, a sort of pride towards their country.

This pride in one’s country resulted in countries thinking that they were superior than other countries, and that sacrificing other land, countries or people for the benefit of your own country was a good thing, because your country is better and therefore has more rights. This started alliances and unity between countries whom had same goals and therefore could fight together. For example in the case of the unity between britain and france, they united because they both believed they were fighting external aggression that threatened their security from a growing industrialized now unified germany. In purpose of defeating germany if needed, and alliance was formed, because in reality.

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The nationalism in russia and britain was that we are better than germany, and therefore together we can be superior to it. The prevailing thought line was germany needed to enter the war as soon as possible, because they were being surrounded by aggressors such as france, britain and russia. The german people also bought into this notion, as this nationalism that started to exist into germany soon turned into jealousy. When countries start assuming that they are better than others, jealousy forms between these countries and this in return turns into tension. Nationalism in germany had turned into jealousy when britain and france, turned allies, and therefore germany made allies with countries. This in return increased tensions between opposing countries until the assignation of the archduke.

In the decade that lead up to the war, most of the main powers needed a strong military to be able to exert their imperial dominance, and therefore strong militaries were popular during the period. As a result of that, european powers wanted to increase their military power and outdo other countries in terms of military power and dominance. As a country increased their military power with larger armies and more weapons, others countries would do the same, in order to avoid the balance of power tipping to far one way, and this in turn increased the prospects of world war one.

This became known as the arms race, and this militarism, helped build a foundation of war which was triggered by the assassination. India, australia, papua new guinea, in fact at the peak of its power, it was often said that the sun never sets on the british empire because its span across the globe ensured that the sun was always shining on at least one of its numerous colonies. This is known as imperialism and as means when a country takes over new lands or countries and makes them subject to their rule. Many countries such as the british empire were at the peak of their industrial revolution and their developments of industries were huge. When industrialism occurs, countries need foreign markets to sell their increase in goods.

When the war began all the major european powers had built up significant overseas colonial empires with britain and france leading the way. The germans were latecomers to this game and all the good countries were already taken. There was a great deal of jealousy in germany in regard to the british and french empires. Furthermore, britain in particular, used its navy and merchant navy to dominate overseas trade, which also provided a source of irritation to the germans.

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The germans embarked on a program of massive naval spending in order to create a navy capable of challenging britain 039 s domination of the sea. This caused considerable concern in britain and tensions between the germans and the britain. Once the trigger was fired, the assassination of the archduke, imperialism directly led to a naval arms race between the two countries.

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An alliance is an agreement made between two or more countries to give each other help if it is needed. This was the main reason that world war one turned from a balkan war to the great war involving more than just the countries in europe. On 1st august 1914, when war was declared by germany, the two main alliances came into play: the triple alliance and the triple entente. Because germany declared war on russia, russia’s allies because of the triple entente entered the war. Now during this the triple alliance came into play and the allies of germany, which included italy and the austria hungary empire, were at war against each other. Also in cases such as britain, countries that were part of the british empire, such as australia and india, being part of the british empire had a duty to assist britain in the war.

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As you can see these alliances caused this war, instead of being contained in europe, to spread and become a international affair. If there were no alliances during world war one, each country would have been fighting for themselves, and therefore the war would have been contained in the countries who wanted to go to war, but in this case, these alliances resulted in compulsory attendance in war as an alliance and this caused such a devastating war. In 1914, when britain declared war, it also declared war on behalf of the british empire. Being a part of the british empire, it was australia’s duty to assist britain in the war, and therefore to assist britain’s allies. Due to the large patriotism existing in australia towards the mother country, the decision, by the current time prime minister joseph cook, to send australia against war with germany and austria, was met with spontaneous outpouring of patriotism. Thousands of mean came to enlist in the army, men and boys were eager to fight in the war, and tackle the great adventure of war.