World War 1 Dbq Essay

World War I was the first major war of the twentieth century. There were numerous immediate and long-term causes that triggered its start. It began with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and involved more countries than any war prior. Another key aspect that contributed to the outbreak was the emergence of Germany and Italy as unified states, which disrupted the fragile balance of power among Europe’s major countries. Growing popular nationalism in Europe, industrialization and industrialized militarism and competition among European powers for colonial empires also played significant roles. These major factors ultimately led to a war of historic proportions. Although many European countries established agreements with each other, …show more content…
Russia started mobilizing its troops, which Germany saw as a threat, and in “defense” decided to use their Schlieffen plan and attack France and Russia. This then caused all other nations to get involved and started the First World War. The Century of Total War by Raymond Aron conveys the idea of how Germany was to blame for starting the war. Although he credited the importance of the alliances in being a cause, he conclusively believed that Germany was at fault for almost inexplicably and unreasonably declaring war on France and Russia (Doc 7). In addition to the power of alliances, the effect of militarism and the increase in nationalism, imperialism was also seen as an important cause because of the jealousy that countries developed of one another seeing their opposing nations gather raw materials and utilize cheap labor. After Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles accepting the blame and responsibilities of Germany and her allies (Doc 4), the leader of the German delegation said that Germany alone was not to blame. He stated that they were fighting a defensive war, and “imperialism of all European states” was the essential cause. He believed the conflicts of imperialism led to the Russians mobilizing their military man who eventually took over and destroyed the alliance’s diplomacy (Doc

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