War Between Serbia And Austria Hungary example essay topic

WWI Causes World War I, a war that started out locally in Europe between Austria-Hungary and Serbia that later ended up including thirty two different nations. This war has been around for almost a century and yet the causes of it are still being debated. There are many different scenarios that have been considered. Some of the key reasons that were believed to have instigated WWI were nationalism, imperialism, militarism, and an arrangement of treaties.

Also the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was believed to be one of the immediate causes. Nationalism is the doctrine that your national culture and interests are superior to any other. From just reading the meaning of nationalism it is quit obvious to see that this idea will oppose some kind of conflict sooner or later, and as proved later on it did. At the settlement of Vienna in 1815, the idea of nationalism was ignored mainly because nations wanted to preserve the peace. Germany and Italy were left as divided states, but strong nationalist movements and revolutions led to the unification of Italy in 1861 and Germany also in 1871.

Another result of the Franco-Prussian War, which took place 1870-1871, was that France wasn't happy with the outcome of Alsace-Lorraine losing, and regaining what they lost from that was a major goal for the French. Nationalism was a problem for Austria-Hungary and the Balkans. Those areas had many conflicting national groups. The strong faith Serbia had for the movement advocating the political and cultural union of Slavic nations and peoples, also known as Pan slavism, and Russia's willingness to support them conflicted with Austria-Hungary's Pan-Germanism. Therefore you could say nationalism led to the war between Serbia and Austria-Hungary which later escalated into WWI. Another debated cause is imperialism, which is the policy of extending a nation's authority by territorial acquisition or by the establishment of economic and political hegemony over other nations.

This contributed to WWI because of the rivalry it caused in Europe between Great Britain, Germany, and France. They needed foreign markets after the increase in manufacturing caused by the Industrial Revolution. Great Britain, Germany, and France competed for economic expansion in Africa. Even though Great Britain and France came to an agreement several problems before the war had to do with the dislike of Germany against Great Britain and France in North Africa. Also the crumbling of the Ottoman-Empire in the Middle East was a big factor for Austria-Hungary, the Balkans and Russia. So the competition for colonies brought great powers into conflict and fueled the ideas of war and added to the present tension that already existed, and that tension keeps on building up.

Militarism is believed to also be one of the causes. Militarism is a policy in which military preparedness is of primary importance to a state. After the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Era vast citizen armies were thought of as being standard. The Prussian system of draft and reserved armies impressed a lot of the nations and was copied by everyone. An arms race after 1900 spent big amounts of money on arms to keep up with the other guy. From 1900-1910, German naval spending went up 300% as Germany tried to catch up to Britain.

The need to keep up with one another led to the armies, at that time becoming as powerful as they could and foreshadowed the intensity of the war that had yet to come.