Causes of the 1st World War

World War I Unit

Focus Activity

Causes Excerpt from May 7 1919 Count Brockdorff-

Rantzau, leader of German delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference:

No one would want to assert that the disaster began only at that disastrous moment when the successor of Austria-Hungary fell a victim to murderous hands. In the last fifty years, the imperialism of all European states has chronically poisoned international relations. Policies of retaliation, policies of expansion, and disregard for the right of peoples to determine their own destiny, have contributed to the European malady which cam to crisis in the World War… and placed the issue in the hands of the military…

Causes of the First World War

n  Alliances n  Triple Alliance: Germany, Austria-

Hungary and Italy

n  Triple Entente: France, Russia and Great Britain

Causes of the First World War

n Imperialism n Spheres of Influence n Berlin Conference

and the “Scramble for Africa”

The Rhodes Colossus

Causes of the First World War

n  Nationalism n Definition? n Unifications (Italy, Germany) n Self-determination and Ethnic

Struggles (e.g. Serbia and Austria-Hungary)

n  Irredentism n Italy – Trieste, Istria and

Gorizia n France – Alsace-Lorraine

Causes of the First World War

n Militarism n Massive military buildup in the late

19th and early 20th centuries n Impact of industrialization n Nervous, tense environment (Invasion

Novels The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers)

Militarism – Per Capita Expenditures on Armaments

1870 1880 1890 1900 1914

Great Britain

3.54 3.46 3.84 12.6 8.23

France 2.92 4.02 4.66 5.21 7.07

Russia 1.28 1.5 1.26 1.44 3.44

Germany

1.28 2.16 2.8 4.06 8.19

Austria 1.08 1.70 1.5 1.46 3.10

Italy 1.38 1.74 2.52 2.34 3.16

Immediate Cause n  Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand

and wife Sophie n  Heir to the Austrian Imperial throne n  Murdered by Gavrilo Princip

n  19-year-old member of Black Hand n  Serbian

n  Sarajevo, Bosnia (recently annexed by A-H) n  St. Vitus Day (June 28, 1914)

n Commemorates 1389 Battle of Kosovo

n  Austria blames Serbia; sends ultimatum

Immediate Cause

n  Balkans – “powder keg of Europe”

Gavrilo Princip

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Who’s who?