Causes of WWI

Nationalism - having pride in your country, willing to defend it.

Patriotism

Nationalism

• Nationalism led European nations to compete for the largest army and navy, or the greatest industrial development. It also gave groups of subject peoples the idea of forming independent nations of their own.

Nationalism

Strong feelings of nationalism fed the fires of hatred in pre-war Europe. It turned Frenchman against German and Russian against Austrian. Nationalistic speeches and writings speed up the war by saying it as the best test for proof of national superiority.

Nationalism

ImperialismImperialism - trying to build up an Empire.

ImperialismA large Empire was important not only for trade but also national pride. The larger your empire, the more important your country was. In 1800 France and Britain both had large empires, and these continued to grow throughout the 1800s.

ImperialismIn 1870s Italy and Germany became united countries for the first time. They too wanted an overseas empire. The result was that in the years up to 1900 competition between European powers grew more intense. There was a scramble for territory, especially in Africa with its rich minerals and resources.

ImperialismThis competition for colonies caused several disputes and disagreements. For example, in 1906 and 1911 Germany and France argued about who should own Morocco. However, none of these arguments lead to a war, but they did lead to anger and caused bad relations between some European countries.

Militarism• Militarism - building up armed forces,

getting ready for war.

Militarism• Militarism means that the army and

military forces are given a high profile by the government. The growing European divide had led to an arms race between the main countries. The armies of both France and Germany had more than doubled between 1870 and 1914 and there was fierce competition between Britain and Germany for mastery of the seas.

MilitarismArms Race -A competition between nations

to have the most powerful weapons.

Militarism• The British had introduced the

'Dreadnought', an effective battleship, in 1906. The Germans soon followed suit introducing their own battleships. The German, Von Schlieffen also drew up a plan of action that involved attacking France through Belgium if Russia made an attack on Germany. The map shows how the plan was to work.

AllianceAlliances - agreements or promises to

defend and help another country.

AllianceBetween 1900 and 1914 the great powers of Europe became suspicious of each other and began to increase the size of their armed services. Eventually this turned into an arms race.

AllianceBoth France and Britain were afraid of Germany’s want to build a larger empire. The only way that Germany could achieve this in 1914 was by attacking and taking other European countries colonies.

AllianceEventually, each of the great powers realized that if there was going to be a war they would need friends and allies to help them defeat their enemies. They formed two gangs. These gangs were called alliances. The Map below shows the gangs or alliances that each of the great European powers had joined by 1914.

Alliance

Triple Entente: Britain France RussiaTriple Alliance: Germany Austro-Hungary Italy