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The purpose of this essay is to discuss the conflicting evidence relating to the debate on what factors and who are responsible for the outbreak of world war I. This war is one of the most controversial and is a repeatedly debated subject in history. There are three main viewpoints when it comes to the responsibility debate; Germany was planning an aggressive war, Germany was planning a defensive war, and the cock-up theory. There are many factors that could have led to the outbreak of world war I and throughout this essay, they will be discussed.
The initial outbreak of the war was in 1914 Europe when the heir to the Austrian throne, Archduke Francis Ferdinand was assassinated. The archduke and his wife traveled to Sarajevo in June 1914 to inspect the army. During this official visit, he and his wife were assassinated by a Serbian nationalist who was part of the black hand gang which was a secret military society in Serbia. This itself did not cause the war but did set off a chain of events which was a storm of intense nationalism in all European countries. Austria-Hungary blamed Serbias government for this attack which then lead to alliances being formed between countries as they were hungry for power and control.
There are many factors that could have started the outbreak of the war and not just one of them was the cause but each in conjunction with the other, the great powers reached boiling point. One of the causes was militarism. Militarism is a belief or system that emphasizes the importance of military power. It was an important force in several European nations before World War I and military leaders had influence over civil governments and placed their interests and priorities first. There was a race for creating more weapons of mass destruction among nations. The alliance system grew stronger as they began to make agreements with other powers to protect each other. The triple alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy was soon to be counter-balanced as the Triple Entente of France, Russia, and Great Britain emerged. As a result of this by 1907 Europe was divided into two armed camps. The alliance between the nations of Europe had all agreed to be of assistance to each other which meant any small conflict between them had the potential to turn into war. Nationalism was a major factor in the outbreak of world war I as it made tensions grow even further. Nationalism is extreme patriotism and pride in ones country this was a problem as the aim of nationalists movements was the establishment of a new independent state for their nation’s own racial group. Imperialism made an impact too as most European nations were engaged in empire-building, this led to tensions rising even further as the animosity in Europe made it easier for countries to join in on the conflict that erupted as a result of the assassination of Archduke Franz Fernand.
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