NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
In 1914, there were many things that placed Europe at the brink if war. Nationalism, militarism, imperialism, social darwinism, and Jingoes where five of the main forces that were pushing Europe to the brink of war. Another main force was the development of Alliance systems. These ideas and systems threatened the balance of power which could then cause a major war to break out. In Europe at the time, there were many ideas which were causing friction. Nationalism, which was the desire for a country was causing friction because people in old empires sought to be free.
The leaders of these people would not be happy and a war would definitely break out. If they became free they would also need to take land from someone else and this again may cause a war and usually did. Another idea which was contributing to the shifts of power in Europe was Militarism. This was when a country believed its power was reflected in its army. They believed that war was the right thing to do and that all countries needed to be ready for war. If a country felt they had a lot of power they would, no doubt, try to conquer a weaker neighbor or just any other country.
Imperialism which was the countries want to build an empire was another reason. For a country to become an empire they would have to colonize and conquer other territories. This would easily start wars and it's not that hard to figure out why. A good example of this is Italy. They wanted to become an empire so they attacked a country which they thought was weaker then them (Abyssinia).
This caused a war which in the end was won by Abyssinia. Another cause was the idea of social darwinism. This meant the survival of the fittest. The best would win and the weaker would parish.
The stronger country would attack weaker countries and in the end the weaker would usually lose. This caused a lot of tension just like militarism. The last of the ideas, was the idea of jingoes. These were people who lived for war. All they wanted was to go to war. Jingoes where very aggressive talkers and they caused a lot of friction between many countries.
These ideas where some of the main reasons Europe was pushed to the brink of war. Then came the alliance systems which completly messed up the balance of power in Europe. The triple Alliance which was made up of Austria, Germany, and Italy in 1879 was the frist of these systems. They made this alliance with each other for military backup. What is meant be this is that if one got attacked the other two would send troops to help. When these three joined forces it made other countries feel threatened.
They then sought out alliances and this is what caused the major shift in the balance of Europe. Soon all the countries had someone to back them up and this made them feel powerful and safe. This would cause major wars because if two countries disagreed and caused a war, there would be four to six countries fighting. Another alliance that was formed which affected Europe was the Triple Entente. It was made up of France, Great Britian, and Russia in 1907. France and Great Britian where brought together because of a mutual distrust for Germany.
France then worked to bring Great Britian and Russia closer together. Russia joined for economic backup as well as military backup. They mostly wanted to find a place for a new seaport. Anyways this alliance caused friction in Europe because two major enemies joined forces and because they had a huge advantage over Germany which would ask for help from another country causing a huge war once again. Alliances never solved anything in this time.
They just served as a reason to start wars. There were never any alliances that never caused problems in one way or another. In closing I would just like to say couple important things. Even though all the ideas caused a great deal of problems in that time, many of them were understandable or reasonable. For example, the want to become a nation or an empire.
These are reasonable things and there is nothing you can do to prevent the problems which they caused. Another thing I'd like to mention is that the alliance systems where good ideas but they where just used in the wrong ways. If they would have used them right there would have been less conflict. I guess it's easy for me to say that but these things had to happen.
We had to learn from the mistake that happened in the past to improve the future and that's what they did.
Free research essays on topics related to: joined forces, balance of power, power in europe, great britian, social darwinism
Research essay sample on Power In Europe Balance Of Power
