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World War I was a very complicated war. It goes back as far back as 1870. Of course the was didn't last for that many years, but it had many cases. Not just one spark that started it off. The Franco-Prussian War was one of these cases. There were several Franco-Prussian Wars.
The last Franco-Prussian War started in 1870. Prussia was in a confederation. A confederation is a group of states that are loosely joined together and have more power than the government of the whole country. Prussia was the biggest state. France and Prussia always fought over Alsace-Lorraine. It was land with very rich soil.
It was on the border between France and Prussia. They kept fighting over the land. One time Prussia would win and would take the land. The the next time France would win and would take the land. This kept happening, but in the last war, which started in 1870, Germany finally won Alsace-Lorraine. They signed a treaty in Versailles, France.
The Franco-Prussian War ended in 1871. After the Franco-Prussian War, Bismarck, who was Prussia's leader made the unification of Germany. That meant that all the separate states joined together to be one county. After this, Bismarck became the leader of Germany. After the Franco-Prussian War, France was afraid that Germany would attack France for more land. So then France started building up it's army so that Germany wouldn't attack.
Germany wanted a war. This caused the six strong counties in Europe to start building up their armies and get ready for the war. The six strong countries were England, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, and Turkey. All of these counties were competing to be the strongest. Russia and Germany did not get along. Russia, too, was africa Germany would attack, so Russia started to build up it's army to make Germany africa.
Russia and Austria-Hungary also didn't get along. Austria-Hungary was africa Russia would attack so they started to build up their army to intimidate Russia. Turkey didn't get along with Austria-Hungary. Turkey saw that Austria-Hungary was building up their army, and that frightened Turkey, so they started building up their armies to scare Austria-Hungary. All of the countries were competing to be the best and the strongest. This is an example of militarism and nationalism.
Nationalism is a deep feeling of pride for one's country with a desire to prove that it's better than all other counties. Nationalism could get very dangerous becasue it could start a war. It was one of the factors that started World War I. What all the countries were doing was also an example of militarism. Militarism is the way countries build up their armies to build up for war.
Before the war, all young males had to train to be soldiers in school. This was called universal military training. Another one of the cases of World War I is alliances. An Alliance is and agreement of friendship with two or more countries. The countries all started to make alliances becasue they needed help incase of a war. So if country A got into a war with country B, and country A had an alliance with country C, country C would help country A fight against country B.
Then maybe country B would have an alliance with country D, and country D would ahve an alliance with country E. So countries B, D and E could fight against counties A and C. So what would be a little war between countries A and B would turn into a very big war. In 1872, Germany Russia and Austria-Hungary made the first Triple Alliance. Russia left after the Franco-Prussian War. Instead of Russia, Italy came, and in 1882, it became known as the Second Triple Alliance.
After Russia backed out of the first alliance, it became friends with France. In 1891, France and Russia made the Dual Alliance. In 1904 England joined the Dual Alliance, and then it became the Triple Extent. If a big country makes and alliance with a small country, it doesn't mean that they " re trying to be nice. It's because they want something. All the big countries in Europe wanted something in the Balkans.
Russia wanted land for sea ports. They couldn't use thiers by the Black Sea becasue they hads to pass through a turkey and they were enemies with Turkey. They also couldn't use the one by the Pacific Ocean because it always froze. Germany wanted a railroad that went from Been to Baghdad. The railroad would go threw Austria-Hungary.
That's why Germany made an alliance with austria-Hungary and Germany. It also had to go threw Turkey so Germany made an alliance with them in 1914. Austria-Hungary wanted sea ports as well. Italy wanted natural resources.
The people in the Balkans though, wanted all the big countries out and they wanted to become part of Serbia. All of this was somewhat and example of Imperialism. Imperialism is a foreign policy where a country tries to benifit it's self at the expense of other countries. All the big countries were jus using the Balkans for what they wanted. Another way that the alliances are a form of Imperialism is that maybe country D has nothing has nothing against country A, but they " re still fighting. Also, country D has to waste their soldiers becasue they had an alliance with country D had alliance with country B.
In order to have Imperialism you need to ahve a strong army and navy. England had the strongest navy so they had the biggest empire. Austria-Hungary and Turkey also had big empires. Germany and France were just starting. The only place left to get colonies was Africa, but it wasn't big enough. All the countries completed for colonies.
This built bad relationships between some countries. becasue they were all competing and nto all the countries actually got colonies. It was only a matter of time before the war started. All of these element together case World War I.
Not only one factor case it. Now only one small thing would case the war. These are short range cases. Such as the Balkan Wars and the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. These were the short range cases. Archduke Ferdinand got assassinated on June 28, 1914.
Austria-Hungary sent Serbia and ultimatum and said that they had to admit to the killing of Archduke Ferdinand and to stop trying to get Bosnia away from Austria-Hungary. Leaders from other countries also tried to convince other leaders to stop the war, but Serbia refused. Austria-Hungary gave Serbia one month to fill the ultimatum. On July 28. 1914, World War I began. Therefore, many aspects caused World War I. Some of which are the Franco-Prussian War, nationalism, militarism, imperialism and alliances.
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