The Contributing Factors to The Spark of World War 1

There were many contributing factors to the ignition of World War One or as it was also known, The Great War. One of the main causes was the Alliance System. The Alliance System was a number of treaties that countries such as Russia, Britain, Germany, France, Austria-Hungary and Italy had signed for protection. These treaties were the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente. The Triple Alliance was a treaty signed in 1882 by Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. The Triple Entente was a treaty signed France, Russia and Britain in 1907. Other factors included the arms race, imperialism and nationalism but all involved the Alliance System. The final catalyst was the assassination of Franz Ferdinand.

The Alliance System played a significant role towards the outbreak of World War 1 as it separated Europe according to their obligations towards other countries. After the Napoleonic Wars, the Great Powers met in Vienna to try and restore a ‘balance of power’ to Europe but in the 1870s this changed and individual nations moved increasingly to secure their own alliances, and establish their own ‘balance’ of power. In 1873 the Three Emperors League was formed on the condition that the three nations agreed to consult each other on major problems and to remain neutral in the event that one of the other members was attacked by any other nation. However this broke down during the Balkan Wars. A major alliance was the Triple Alliance which was a military alliance that lasted from 1882 to 1914. It was another attempt by Germany to isolate France further. Since Italy was concerned about France’s power in north Africa, it sought out to ally with Germany and AustriaHungary. Each member promised mutual support in the event of an attack by any two other great powers, or for Germany and Italy, an attack by France alone. Like some of the other European powers, Italy wanted to set up colonies and build up an overseas empire. With this aim in mind, Italy joined the German-Austrian Alliance to form the Triple Alliance. Source 3 is an extract from the 1882 Triple Alliance document. It outlines that a country that was part of the Alliance was not permitted to enter into any other agreement against any of their States. After Otto von Bismarck closed the German stock market in an attempt to cut off German financial assistance to the Russian war machine because it wanted to limit Russian influence in the Balkans. This opened a door for France who willingly supported Russia to protect itself from Germany and formed the Russo-French Alliance. Britain joined this alliance and formed The Triple Entente which was signed in 1907 and stated that each country had a moral obligation to support each other. The Triple Alliance was the defensive treaty in the war and the Triple Entente was the offensive treaty. The alliances quickly blew even minor problems out of proportion, since everyone felt obligated to “take sides.” To Germany, and many other, it seemed that the Great Powers of Europe had drawn themselves up into two armed camps.

The Anglo-German Naval Race and Militarism – Another contributing factor was the naval race between Britain and Germany. At that time Britain’s strength was its naval army. This army was bigger than any other nation in Europe and this fact was not pleasing to Germany. They felt threatened and hence were motivated to build an even bigger naval army. Source 1 shows that Germany was also surrounded by the countries of the Triple Entente which were too powerful for Germany alone to fight, motivating the nation to further improve their armies. Consequently when Britain revealed the HMS Dreadnought, the most powerful battleship afloat, Germany began copying this design. This militarism, which is when the army and military forces are given a high profile by the government, was also evident in the attempt of other great powers to expand their military capabilities. This increased tensions of an outbreak of war and countries began preparing strategies such as the Schlieffen Plan made by Germany and Plan 17 developed by France. By 1914, Germany had the greatest increase in military build-up and this had augmented their power in Europe significantly. This worried the nations involved in the Triple Entente as they knew how much potential Germany had to overpower other nations with its immense population and determination to increase its influence. They now had to together monitor Germany’s armies to ensure they were not going to be invaded.

Colonial Rivalries – Germany was a relatively new nation and hence had not had the chance to colonise and become an imperialist country. It did, however, realise how many colonies nations like Britain and France had acquired increasing their resources, power and wealth. It also knew that the “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 territories. Source 2 shows to compensate for their late start in colonization, Germans were very aggressive in their demands for an empire that would match their rapidly expanding economic growth. After all, several tiny countries, such as Belgium, Portugal and the Netherlands had vast overseas colonies. However, Germany was increasingly thwarted in its attempt to establish colonies, mainly by Great Britain. By the early 1900s, there were a number of growing conflicts between European powers over colonies such as fighting over east and southwest Africa with Britain.

The final trigger Franz Ferdinand – The final initiator was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. On the 28th of June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the AustroHungarian throne, and his wife, were shot dead in Sarajevo, by Gavrilo Princip, one of a group of six Bosnian Serb assassins. Austria-Hungary then declared war and mobilized the portion of its army that would face the already mobilized Serbian Army on 28 July 1914 because of an incident on the Danube River. Under the Secret Treaty of 1892 Russia and France were obliged to mobilize their armies if any of the Triple Alliance mobilized. Russia’s mobilization set-off full Austro-Hungarian and German mobilizations. Soon all the Great Powers except Italy and Great Britain had chosen sides and gone to war. Again, the reason for all main powers to go to war was the alliances and treaties that had been formed and the assassination was the climax of various causes that had been building for a century.

In the end, it was the Alliance System that heightened other causes and thus became the main factor in the outbreak of WW1. The remaining factors were simply blown out of proportion and involved even more countries because of the Alliance System. Although the final catalyst was the assassination in Sarajevo, the Alliance System was the main cause as it divided the Great Powers of Europe into two armies ready for battle.

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