Alliance System, Nationalism, and Militarism as the Causes of World War I Essay Sample

To what extent did the alliance system, nationalism, and militarism contribute to the start of World War I? Well, they are pretty much the whole reason why the war started. Growing nationalism led to the growth in self in nations. Nationalism and militarism are also closely related, and the alliance system is what splits European powers into two. 

We define nationalism as “an idea and movement that promotes the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), especially with the aim of gaining and maintaining the nation's sovereignty (self-governance) over its homeland” (Akansha). Nationalism caused nations to become greedy, it gave false hope to those that wanted to win the war. An example of nationalism is when France, Germany, and Austria-Hungary felt the need to prove their nations worth to the world, they did this by building up their armies as well as weapons. Nationalism is also what influenced the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary, this event is heavily linked to the outbreak of World War one.

Imperialism is what set the war in motion. Imperialism is what causes nations to fight against each other for territory. We see this play out in the Scramble for Africa. European nations sought to win territory in Africa, leading to “increased rivalry between the European nations as they fought against each other for territory in Africa and control over different regions'' (Beck). In the end, Britain and France were able to win the largest territories in Africa. But this event made Germany upset, they were angry they had less territories in Africa. This anger would lead to the two Moroccan crises that would occur before World War one. This would heighten tensions between the nations that would, inevitably; set the stage for the first world war. 

The alliance system is an important part of the contribution to the start of World War one. The alliance system split the two European power houses into two military camps. The camps being The Triple Alliance and The Triple Entente. The Triple Alliance consisted of Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary. The Triple Entente consists of the Soviet Union, France, and Britain. This conflict would spread into a sort of web of alliances that would cause more countries to hop into the conflict. We can see how these alliances affected the first world war through Kronebitters words, “The pre-war alliances did not help to extend Europe’s long peace, but they made it easier to fight a long war.” These alliances did not help, alternately they caused conflict to increase, making it easier for war to erupt. Which is exactly what happened. 

The first world war happened for three reasons, the alliance system, nationalism, and militarism. All of these factors heightened tensions and caused nations to become more uneasy. Causing a very long war to erupt as well as putting a stain on every person involved.