Although the First World War which involved every continent happened in 1914, it is believed that the conflicts between these European powers, Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Britain, and Russia had been going on for the previous 300 years. In order to understand fully the roots of the Great War, this paper will provide a full picture of the transformation of European powers and the development of many aspects in these countries such as militarism, imperialism, and nationalism. The Great War was caused from the imperialism of the new great power Germany which desired to enter or influence the territories of the existing Great Britain, France, and Russia. Nationalism is also responsible for the outbreak of the First World War because the international tension was increased after the crises such as the Balkan wars a few years before the outbreak of war in 1914.The improvement in military of each country was also a force to push these empires to war to prove their statuses.
B. International relations
Over time, there was the establishment of mutual defence agreements" among European powers and this was the factor leading to war because when one country was in the battle with another country, its ally would be involved in the game. By 1914, there were two mutually antagonistic alliance systems in Europe. The first alliance included Australia-Hungary and Italy headed by Germany. This alliance was known as the Central Powers because the countries were relocated in the centre of Europe .The second alliance which was formed by France, Russia and Britain was called by different names such as Entente powers, the Entente, the Allied Powers, or the Allies.
European order of power was changed dramatically after the unification of German Empire and the Franco-Prussian war in 1870-71 in which France lost two provinces, Alsace and Lorraine, to Germany. German rapidly developed industrial and military power became "potential for destabilizing the balance power in Europe". However, in 1971-90, under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck's leadership, Germany was success in avoiding direct conflict with other powers. In fact, Germany became the new "balancer in European international relationship". Germany started great power activities in European international relations.
The conflict between Russia and Austria-Hungary happened in period of 1875 -78 because "a series of Anti-Turkish revolts swept through the Balkans and threatened the integrity of the Ottoman Empires", Bismarck chose to support Austria-Hungary because the failure of Austria-Hungary might endanger his "whole strategy of great power conservation". In 1879, Bismarck worried that Austrian government might get closer to France to support its diplomatic and politic position, he planned to maintain French diplomatic isolation by concluding an alliance between Austria-Hungary and German who was the "pre-eminent European power". In 1881, France expanded its colonial ambition to Africa threatening interest of Italy in this continent. Italy turned to Germany seeking for support in event of a conflict in the future. As a result, in 1882, the Triple Alliance was formed between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. Although the bonding with Italy in the alliance was not as strong, Bismarck at least succeeded to maximize support from one more great power to isolate France, in this case was Italian support. Triple alliances (Austria-Hungary, Germany and Italy) " outlined its objective to increase guarantees of general peace, to strengthen the monarchical principle, and by that to assure the maintenance of social and political order in their respective states".The development of population and economic in the central, eastern and south-east Europe after the existence of "German-Austrian bloc" was a threat to destroy any semblance of European balance of power especially to France, Russia and Britain. The relationships between those three countries were improved in later years. Britain allied with Japan in 1902 against Russia to strengthen its power in the Far East. Now, it was facing an aggressive Germany in Europe. In its calculation, Britain could not effort to support its military power in both Asia and Europe. An alliance with Russian was the option to encircle German power. Also in 1902, Britain allied with Japan to prevent Russian expansion and to enforce the Royal Navy in Asia facing "the Franco-Russia naval combination". The Russian-Japanese war starting in 1904 brought Britain and France together. Both powers did not want to fight each other and realized it was essential to collaborate. They came to an Entente agreement and settle the remaining conflicts in Africa. Germany felt the need to challenge the "alliance" as its early state. In 1905, Germany demonstrated its naval power in Morocco. Its intension was to gain support from Britain thus weaken Britain-France relationship. However, seeing the aggression from Germany, the Entente even became stronger. In 1904, France and Britain ended war which was started at Fashoda on the Upper Nile River in 1898 with an agreement in North Africa and South Asia. In 1907, another similar agreement was made by Britain and Russian.
Although Germans already had the most powerful army in the world, Britain still seemed to be her competitor in for quantitative and qualitative superiority in ships. According to Morrow, the relation between German and British became worse when the British concluded no formal alliances except that with Japan, the Germans complained that the British were "weaving a web to encircle and imprison them." Another event was Germans attempted to humiliate the French by challenging their influence in Morocco with a naval demonstration off Agadir". Since then many people in Britain and German considered each others as natural enemies. Beside the relation between Britain and Germany, relations between Austria-Hungary and Russia were not any better. The Balkan crisis had increased the tension in the relation between the great powers. Nationalism and liberalism threatened the existence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Russia also had interest in the region . The crisis "almost brought war between Austria-Hungary and Russia". However, prior to the Balkan crisis, the Morocco crisis also almost started the war between France and Germany. In 1887, "Germany concluded the secret Reinsurance Treaty with Russia" in an attempt to isolate France. However, the decision to choose Austria-Hungary as a principle alliance brought France and Russia together. "Russia needed French capital for its industrial and railway development"
C. Roots of outbreak of Great War
The First World War was inevitable because the European conflict had been building for decades with the existence of two hostile alliance systems, imperialist and trade rivalries. The origins of the First World War were started with the formation of the state of Germany which had the potential for "destabilizing the balance of the power in Europe" and it was considered as a historical "German problem". In fact, until the year of the outbreak of war German Empire became the most powerful empire among the great powers of Europe.
Nationalism
Nationalism was the main factor behind the First World War.The chain of events happening in Europe show that nationalism of the different countries throughout Europe was not only responsible for the beginning of war but also its extension in Europe. Each countries tries to prove dominance and power .The emphasis of nationalism became political and Balkan peoples comprehended it as a "justification for the creation of specific geopolitical entities".In 1876, Serbia and Montenegro went to war against the Ottoman Empire to establish national states in the western Balkan Peninsula. In 1877, Russia intervened in the Balkans on the side of the Bulgarian nationalists. In 1878, Russo-Turkish war ended with a large independent Bulgarian state and enlarged Serbia and Montenegro. The force of liberalism and nationalism which spread powerfully throughout Europe was threats to Russia and Austria-Hungary because of they are multinational. The strength of nationalism was proved with the defeat of Austria to Prussia in 1866 with Ausgleich agreement, domination of Germans and Magyars to empires of other people. Slavic nationalism threatened the stability of the Dual Monarchy. In 1908, by the Dual Monarchy winged Bosnia-Herzegovina, this even almost led to war with Russia. Under pressure of organizations such as Supremeists, and Black Hand, Serbia and Bulgaria settle their conflict in Macedonia to moving forward to against Ottoman. After losing the war to Japan in 1905 and backing down from the Bosnia crisis in 1909 ,Russia started influencing Serb and Bulgaria to gain back its position in Balkan. In 1911, Italia attacked Ottomans in Libya. Balkan states saw that as an opportunity to completely end Ottoman Empire. With encouragement from Russia, the Balkan League, a coalition consisting of Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Montenegro was formed. In 1912, Ottoman was defeated in the first Balkan war and pushed out of most of the areas in Balkan. However, after the defeat of the common enemy, Bulgaria turned back to its alliances Serbia, Greece. Bulgaria could not win the war in 1913 to gain back Macedonia. In fact it lost other territories instead in the Peace of Bucharest.All of above events proved that one of the roots of war came from nationalism.
Militarism
Militarism is also considered as a cause of war at the turn of twentieth century. In The Balkan Wars, Richard stated that: "all of these military establishments viewed the possibility of war with the Ottoman Empire as an exciting opportunity".Germans had a greatest increase in her military build-up. At that time Russia and Germans strongly improved their military power and had great influence on public policy. Weapon entered Europe to create a "crushing superiority" to others by European intruders with gunboats armed with cannon, rapid firing artillery, and automatic weapons as Gatling and Maxim guns .Each country tries to support their armies with every possibilities and latest equipment but national resources were quite limited; therefore, these demands led to the rise of weapon prices and social services. In the words of German Chief of Staff Alfred von Schlieffen, by "armies of millions of men costing milliards of marks" was taken to heart.This matter was the reason of "The continent as a whole was never as ready for war as in 1914".
The decision to war had come when Austria-Hungary made their ultimatum to Serbia in July 1914.With the support from Germany. Austria-Hungary was determined to crush the Serbs by using military force because Germany could stop Russia from intervening because military power of Germany was "at the peak of its strength" comparing to its adversaries. However, Russia also had the same plan because abandoning Serbs would ruin what had been gained in the Balkans since the beginning of the century. For France, supporting Russia would maintain her "rank of third rate power" as well as avoid German hegemony of Europe.
The competition between Germany and Great Britain for naval expansion was particularly strong. The British established principle that in order to have a navy which was two and a half times as large as the second largest navy. With that determination, they launched the Dreadnought, invented by Admiral Sir John Fisher in 1906.Germany also corresponded with their naval production, including the Dreadnought.
Imperialism
In the 1980s.,the pressure of competition and desires for greater empires to prove and increase their power and wealth by bringing additional territories under control of European powers contributed to reasons of World War 1. "New imperialism" forced European countries to expand their power and dominion over the globe with various reasons: economic, geopolitics, politics and ideologies. Especially, demand s for raw materials had been increasing especially which was an attraction of Africa and parts of Asia to European countries. Although some countries had no value of economic advantages such as raw materials, they were still colonized because the actions proved the power in military of a country to other observers. Great Britain and France were considered as leaders in "conquest of new empires". In the 1890s, the "race for empires" was enlarged with the United States in the Americas and in the Pacific, and Japan on the Asian continent. The conquered territories in Europe were an extension for the imperial power to guard, exploit, expand and trade to another European country as compensation. In the words of John H.Morrow, imperialism and its war were a "perceptual necessity" and a choice of "to expand or die" .Imperialism was not only existing in the relationship of Europeans to others but also change the attitudes of Europeans to themselves. Europeans divided the world into races but also conflated nationality with race. For examples, Gauls feared the savage Tuetons to the east, Tuetons feared the barbaric Slavic hordes to their east, and German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg feared the rising of Slavs in 1914, the Boer War in South Africa between the Dutch and the English, the Ottoman Empire was alluring Austria-Hungary, the Balkans and Russia in the Middle East. In 1898, British defeated the Mahdi and also confronted France over the Sudan at Fashoda. French predicted their disadvantages against British. In general view, imperialism is a determined factor which led to war because it came from the desires of taking control of raw materials, for political, cultural and economic power, and for dominance in the markets by using military force to gain colonies globally.
D. Conclusion
The origins of the First World War have been an ongoing study because it is difficult to establish a precise reason for such a big event in the human history "a turning point of the twentieth century"; therefore analyzing the roots of Great War became an obsession for many historians. The investigation of the origins of the First World War particularly focus on the history of Germany because "Germany was blamed for the outbreak of the war by the Allies at the Versailles Peace Conference" and Germany had seen herself surrounded by her enemies which created intensive relations between those great powers. However, the whole picture shows that the First World War was a result of battles of many other European countries in order to empower themselves. We have discussed many factors which contributed to the outbreak of the First World War such as nationalism, militarism, imperialism and the establishment of mutual defence alliances; however, with a chain of events happening in Europe for a long period of time, we acknowledged these causes was linked together and were all responsible for pulling these European empires into war.
