Free Sample Essays > World History
What Caused the First World War to break out
to their own international position. They were further worried when the Germans announced a massive expansion of their navy.
Following with a link to the above cause, the naval race played a considerable part in the lead up to the outbreak of the First World War. Britain led the naval race. In the 1880’s she adopted the Two-Power Standard which said that the Royal Nay should be at least as large as any other two fleets combined. At the time, these were assumed to be France and Russia. When either of them laid down new ships, Britain laid down an equal number. The situation grew more complicated with the emergence of three new powers – Japan, USA and Germany. As the Japanese and Americans were friendly powers, their naval expansion caused Britain few worries. On the other hand, the build up of the German navy was more responsible than anything else for a serious deterioration in Anglo-German relations before 1914.
Yet another factor was the underlying tension between the Balkan states. Turkey had once ruled the Balkans. Turkey became very weak in the nineteenth century. Slav people living in the Balkans gradually drove out their hated Turkish rulers. New Slav nations – Serbia, Rumania and Bulgaria –were set up. Austria-Hungary wanted to control the Balkans, as it was afraid that Slavs living in Bosnia and other Balkan states within the Austro-Hungarian Empire would want to break away to join Serbia.
Russia desperately needed to use ports on the Mediterranean Sea. This would make trade easier. Russia also needed to be able to sail its war ships out of the Black Sea in times of trouble and so needed to control the Balkans. Russia felt that she was under obligation to support Serbian ambitions, as a fellow Slav state. She also hoped to use her connections with Serbia to gain influence on the Mediterranean coast.
To top this tension off Germany needed the Balkans to be friendly, as they wanted to run a railway through the Balkans. It was to link Berlin with the capital of Iraq, Baghdad as Germany needed the oil Iraq could provide to fuel its economic growth.
The rivalries and tension between these nations continued to grow and finally exploded following the assassination of the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungry, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife the Duchess who were shot dead by a Serbian nationalist on the 28th June 1914 in Sarajevo in the Balkans. This was because there was a dispute between Austria-Hungary and Serbia about who should rule over the Serbs of Bosnia, the Balkans.
Linking the alliance system to this problem was the fact that Austria-Hungary decided to go to war against Serbia. Because of the system of European alliances, this conflict drew in several other countries. Serbia was allied with Russia. Germany was ready to fight alongside Austria-Hungary. Russia was prepared to go to war in support of Serbia. France and Britain [next page]