History

Many people have cited the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife on 28th June 1914 in Bosnian by a Serbian nationalist triggered the World War I (Heyman, 1997). This provoked a series of war declaration between countries leading to the ultimate entry into the World War I. however this can only be seen as the immediate reason behind the war. There are other deep rooted reasons such as imperialism, nationalism and militarism that where quite common during those days. In this essay, the author gives a critical discussion on the underlying reasons that led to the declaration of the First World War.

First, the First World War was caused by imperialism. This practice involves the expansion of power control and wealth by a nation through the acquisition of new territories. Imperialism is seen as the cause of the World War I due to the territorial control conflicts that existed among Germany, Britain and France to own African and some Asian nations (Henig, 2001).  With increased desire to acquire more raw materials for their industries while expanding their empires, European nation were increasingly engaged in confrontations, a factor which triggered the world to enter into the First World War

Another cited reason for the First World War was the many alliance agreements among nations for mutual defense partnerships (Heyman, 1997). Because of the biding nature of these agreements, allies were bound to engage in war to save their partners. Some of this agreement included Russia and Serbia, Japan and Britain, Germany and Austria-Hungary, and France and Russia among others. From the sequence of the way to the First World War, Austria-Hungary declared war to Serbia, leading to Russias involvement to defend Serbia (Heyman, 1997). Due to the agreement between Austria-Hungary and Germany, Germany decided to attack Russia. This serial increase in conflicts led to the declaration of the WWI.

Nationalism attitude by nations also factored in causing the First World War (Henig, 2001). War is mainly caused by the desire by nations to prove their dominance and power over others. WWI began as a conflict between Serbia and Austria-Hungary due to Serbias desire to take control of Bosnia and Herzegovina from Austria-Hungary (Henig, 2001). Still on nationalism, the divisions that were evident among Europe concerning the Serbia and Austria-Hungary war can only be attributed to the desire of nations to gain respect through power dominance thus contradicting the principles of dialogue in conflict resolution.

The start of the WWI was further triggered by militarism among nation (Henig, 2001). According to available historical information, the beginning of the 20th century was marked with army racing among nations. By mid 1910s both Germany and Britain had heavily invested in their navies in a struggle for military power supremacy. Still, Germany had engaged Russia on military establishment competition (Henig, 2001). Therefore, these military army races among powerful nations of the time forced the nations to enter into the war.

The last cause is the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife on 28th June 1914 and how it led into the World War I. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by a Serbian in protect of Austria-Hungarys presence in Bosnia. Austria-Hungary nation responded to the assassination by declaring war over Serbia (Heyman, 1997). This was followed by the involvement of other nations based of mutual defense agreements. Such increasing involvements by nations allied to both Austria-Hungary and Serbia coupled with the other factor discussed above thus forced the world to enter into the World War I.