The First World War was a global war that originated from the European countries and involved approximately seventy million military soldiers. The war lasted for a period of four years as it started on 28th July 1914 and ended on 11th November 1918 leading to the death of over seven million civilians and nine million combatants, making it one of the deadliest wars in history. During this period, more than thirty countries declared war against each other with the main participants being two European central powers. One party consisted of Russia, Serbia, Britain, France, United States and Italy. The other conflicting party comprised of Germany, Bulgaria, Austria, and the Ottoman Empire. The war started in western Europe but later spread in other continents like Africa, Middle East and southern and eastern Europe.
The causes of this war are considered controversial and are not clearly defined. However, there are various theories that explain the possible causes. The theories are categorized into institutional theory, structural theory, and balance of power theory among other. Factors that led to the outbreak of the first were rooted in the history of the old European powers, which included Germany, Russia, Italy, France, Britain, and Hungary. The real causes of the war included secret alliances, imperialism, politics, and nationalistic pride due to power difference. The war originated because of a conflict between Austria and Serbia, which later involved Russia, France, Germany, Italy, Britain, and Austria.
The war resulted in the death of many people while others became permanently disabled and involved high costs. The First World War was the first war in history that involved the use of submarines, long-range artillery, poison gas, and airplanes. The war also resulted in the collapse of four countries, that is, Russia, Austria, Germany, and Turkey. This paper explains the causes of the First World War about the balance of power among the European nations that were involved in the war.
In the years before the war, the European nations desired to acquire great power and influence and as a result formed alliances. The phenomena combined the power of several countries to complement each other in their areas of weakness. In 1881, German made an alliance with Italy and Austria-Hungary. The three countries made an agreement to protect each other if France attacked them.
However, Italy breached the covenant and made a secret alliance with France with the promise that it would not support Germany is war. France, on the other hand, responded to the German alliances by joining hands with Russia in 1892. In 1904, France and Britain signed a covenant, and the Triple Entente alliance was established between Russia, France, and Britain in 1907. The main aim of the alliance formation was to join power of the army and navy forces of the countries involved . The alliance caused fear to Germany as it felt that the alliance between Russia, France, and Britain posed a huge threat to the power and existence of the German nation.
Some countries like Britain and France were a great empire and had become very rich before the start of the war. Other countries in Europe such as Germany and Russia were also struggling to attain the same level of power and influence as that exhibited by France and Britain. The struggle for power created conflicts between the countries.
The World War 1 started after the death of Archduke Franz Ferdinand since Austria believed that the assassination was organized by Serbia. Austria at the time considered itself more powerful and stronger than Serbia and saw the situation as a good opportunity to take over Serbia. Austria issued harsh demands on Serbia and threatened to invade Serbia if they failed to comply with the demands. There was a war outbreak, which was declared by Austria on 28 July 1914 after Serbia failed to respond to the demands within the short period of 48 hours that was allocated. In this case, it is evident that difference in power played a key role in the outbreak of the war since Austria declared the war because they viewed themselves as being more powerful that Serbia.
Austria hoped that they would quickly take over Serbia since they regarded the country as being inferior and thought that Russia would not join to help Serbia during the war due to fear of creating a major war. On the other hand, Russia regarded itself as being more powerful than Austria and prepared itself to defend Serbia. As soon as Austria declared the war, Russia started mobilizing its troops to prepare for war . It is due to power difference that Russia decided to fight Austria since it considered itself as being stronger and hoped to fight Austria quickly and defend Serbia from the take-over that had been organized.
In response to the Russia fight against Austria, Germany planned to join hands with Austria to fight Russia and declared war against Russia on 1 August 1914. France planned to help Russia to fight German during the war, and Germany declared war against France a few days later. German hoped that it would conquer France in the west before embarking to fight the Russian army on the west showing that Historians argue that Germany had plotted to start the war since it considered Russia and France as being their enemies. Also, German considered itself as being more powerful that the two countries and it felt that the sooner it started the war, the higher the chances that they would win. Germany regarded itself as being more powerful and well prepared for the war and as a result declared the war against Russia and France.
The last step, which led to the outbreak of world war one was the Britain war declaration against Germany. Britain was the largest empire comprising of Australia, Canada, India, and most African countries. The empire thus considered itself as being strong enough to fight Germany, and this is the reason why Britain declared the war. The war declaration was the attempt to help Russia and France in fighting the German army . The parties involved hoped that the war would come to a stop before the end of the year. However, the war continued to heighten and even involved The United States, which had hoped to stay out of it.
The reason behind the formation of alliances was a power imbalance. France had a weak navy but a strong army. Britain, on the other hand, had a small army but a powerful navy. The two nations joined hands to form a powerful force that could deal with the powerful Navy that was established by Germany.
Russia also had a strong army and the alliance of the three countries made German feel that two big armies on both sides of its borders were confronting it. As a result, Germany also focused on building a strong defense force and acquired a new and strong navy . On acquiring a powerful navy, German felt that it had acquired the ability to fight the two states and declared a war between both France and Russia.
Britain felt that the reason why German expanded its navy was to threaten Britain’s naval power in the North Sea. The British Government felt that being on an island; they required a huge navy and could not accept the threats posed by Germany . The situation created a conflict between Germany and Britain leading into a naval race. Both countries spent a large amount of money equipping their armies and navy for war. It is during this period that Britain launched the Dreadnought, a new type of warship. German responded by constructing a similar weapon. The move heightened the conflicts and tension between the two nations and ultimately led to war.
Various factors contributed in disagreements among the European powers. The cause of rivalry between Britain and Germany was due to economic reasons and the naval arms race. France disagreed with German because France demanded a return of the provinces of Lorraine and Alsace, which had been taken by German. There were conflicts between Russia and Austria due to the strained relationship between Austria and Britain and because Austria had taken control over the Balkans and territorial disputes. Italy was also involved in disputes with Austria because large Italian community resided in the Austrian empire. The level of powers exhibited by each of the countries made dialogue impossible. Each country wanted their needs to be addressed urgently by the rivaling country failure to which war was declared.
In brief, it is evident that power imbalance was one of the major cause of world war one. The countries declared war against each other because they felt that they were superior to their opponents. Austria invaded Serbia because they felt that the takeover would be easy due to the inferiority of Serbia. Russia considered itself more powerful than Austria and thus joined to help Serbian army fight Austria. Germany considered itself superior and therefore declared war on both Russia and France. Lastly, Britain being the largest empire declared war on Germany to defend Russia and France. Alliances were also formed based on power, and this divided the European region into two groups that are the Triple Entente and Triple Alliance. Triple Entente consisted of Britain, Russia, and France while Triple Alliance comprised of Germany, Italy, and Austria. These alliances largely contributed to the outbreak of the world war.
Historians argue that German is to blame for the onset of the world war since German leaders considered France and Russia as enemies and opted to start a war, which they felt that it would eventually happen. German felt that the sooner the war started, the higher the chances of them winning. Austria is also responsible for the outbreak of war since it took the first step of invading Serbia and this resulted in a series of more events that ultimately led to the war. The war began when Britain intervened to protect Belgium, which had been invaded by Germany.
The First World War was one borne of destruction, innovation and production. The war caused destruction and altered the political and social landscape across the globe. The war also provoked innovation since nations had to come up with new weapons which were used during the war and production since nations mobilized their national resources to supply enough equipment and men to their armies.
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