World War IChapter 16 Section 1

Causes of World War I

Alliances

Militarism

Nationalism

Imperialism

Events Before WWI

40 years of general European peace

1860s—Prussian wars to unite German Kingdoms

Attacked and defeated France gaining some French territory along the German border

1871—Birth of German EmpireRapidly industrialized

One of the most powerful nations

Alliances

To protect itself from French retribution, Germany allied with Italy and Austria-Hungary becoming the Triple Alliance

Russians afraid Germany would try to expand eastward. Also Russians supported the ethnic group known as the Slavs.

Russia and France signed the Franco Russian Alliance in 1894 promising aid if the other went to war

Militarism

Militarism encouraged by alliancesAggressive buildup of armed forces to intimidate and threaten other nations

German militarism led to Britain seeking alliesBritish policy was to support weak against strong to prevent total takeover of Europe

German-British arms race

Brits make informal alliance with Russia and France known as the entente cordiale, friendly alliance, or Triple Entente

Nationalism

Nationalism—intense pride in homelandCulture/interests of home country superior to others

Other nations = competitors

Self-determination—like cultures should have political independence

Imperialism

Imperialism—increase power and wealth by controlling other people

Empires

The Specifics

Groups that wanted independence—Serbs, Bosnians, Croats, and Slovenes

These all had similar language and saw themselves as one people

Called South Slavs or Yugoslavs

Serbs gain independence (establish Serbia) and wanted to unite South Slavs

The Specifics

Serbia in between Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires

Russians supported Serbs (similar peoples)

Austria-Hungary did not

1908—Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia, which the Serbs wanted

This showed that Austria-Hungary had no intention of letting the Slavic people in its empire become independent.