Alliances Led to World War I Historical Essay Example

Ever since the first event of the first world war, there was always a rivalry between the great powers of Europe, whether it came from economic pressure, militarism or nationalism. These things led to countries being hostile to each other and as a result tension built up. The part that linked all these factors together was the alliances of countries that appeared in the late 19th century with two parties, Austria-Hungary, Germany, Italy on one side, and France, Russia, Britain on the other. These are why alliances are the leading factor in the outbreak of The Great War. 

The first sign of alliance in the first world war was the dual alliance between Germany and Austria-Hungary. Germany strongly disliked France and wanted revenge after being defeated in a war against them and was motivated to keep Austria-Hungary as an empire. Austria-Hungary wanted to claim the Balkan countries as their territory to preserve their empire, however, Russia supported Serbia as they were all Slavs and it would make Russia look good in the eyes of Slavs. Germany also wanted to ally with Russia, however, Wilhelm II came to power, and France allied with Russia so this alliance couldn’t happen. Austria-Hungary was bothered by Russia and allied with Germany for support. Britain allied with France and Russia, but this relationship wasn’t very firm. Italy joined a little later because it was also detesting France at that point. This alliance was only used for defending each nation, the alliance would only take effect if one of them said nations were attacked.  This was the first sign of the two parties coming into play in the first world war and signs of division between Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Britain, France, and Russia. However, this event doesn’t cement the alliances because the countries wanted to benefit them in their endeavors.

One of the most prominent alliances that occurred in the first world war was the triple entente. The triple entente was created as Britain and Germany had an economic and military rivalry as Germany was the quickest to expand and had a huge army. France and Britain allied together as they ended their hostility with Egypt. After Germany aggressively claimed Morocco, France, and Britain strengthened their ties as they saw this as uncalled for and violent. After Japan defeated Russia it made Russia seem like less of a threat to Britain as it had an interest in China which established a relationship between the two. Russia and France allied together as they disagreed with Germany’s policies. As a result, the triple entente was formed. This is significant as these countries all disagreed with Germany, they all agree that Germany is aggressively expanding inland and the military was violent and annoying, this is important for the events that follow suit. The three allied forces would make a strong trio as they kept fighting the central powers and eventually led to Germany surrendering and the signing of the treaty of Versailles. 

The final nail in the coffin was the assassination of  Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary. As Serbia wasn’t particularly happy about Austria-Hungary is trying to take control of them and Bosnia so while Archduke and his wife were traveling to Sarajevo to inspect the armed forces in Bosnia which was annexed by Austria-Hungary. This didn’t make Serb nationalists pleased as they believed Bosnia was part of  Serbia, so a group of Serb nationalists banded up and planned to shoot the Archduke. After some tries a Serbian nationalist called Gavrilo Princip shot the Archduke at point-blank range, after this happened, Austria-Hungary immediately blamed Serbia for this ordeal and started the war. This event implemented the allied forces and central powers as this was the event where they fought. All the hate and tension with all of the countries finally manifested in this one moment.