1. Fundamental and Immediate Causes of WWI
Socials 11
Fundamental and Immediate Causes of WWI

2. Fundamental & Immediate Causes
Fundamental cause:
Underlying larger issues that cause an event to occur (the big problems)
Immediate cause:
The spark that starts the event
The event starts immediately after the spark

3. Fundamental Causes of WWI
Militarism
Alliances
Imperialism
Nationalism

4. Militarism Definition: Background:
The policy of making a country’s armed forces strong
Background:
Britain = world’s largest navy
Two Power Standard
Germany begins to increase their navy -> arms race
Competition between Britain & Germany for strongest military
Arms race = increased tensions & possibility of war

5. Alliances Definition: Background:
Close associations of countries to achieve a common goal -> “I help you, you help me”
Usually military protection (security)
Background:
Triple Alliance (a.k.a. the Central Powers)
Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy
Triple Entente (a.k.a. the Allies)
France, Russia, Britain

6. Imperialism Definition: Background:
One country extending authority over another country/ territory
i.e. Empires with colonies
Background:
Resulted from industrialization -> need for raw materials
European Empires -> conflict over competing areas
Britain & France vs. Germany -> fear of German expansion
Austria-Hungary vs. Russia -> fighting over Balkans

7. Nationalism Definition: Background:
Strong feelings of pride based on common bonds of language/ ethnicity/ religion
Whole country or group within a country
Background:
Many ethnic groups within Austria-Hungary
A-H takes over Bosnia -> Serbs in Bosnia unhappy -> Black Hand (terrorist group) forms w/ goal of creating a “Greater Serbia”

8. Immediate Cause of WWI
June 28, 1914 – Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary assassinated by a member of the Black Hand
Countdown to war:
A-H and Germany discuss how to deal with crisis
Germany gives A-H “Blank Cheque” -> we will support you
A-H sends Serbia an ultimatum -> hand over terrorists or go to war
Serbia agrees but needs clarification on ultimatum
A-H thinks this is a rejection and invades Serbia

9. Immediate Cause of WWI July 28, 1914 – A-H declares war on Serbia
Russia mobilizes
Thinks Germany is trying to occupy the Balkans
Germany declares war on Russia
Supporting A-H
France mobilizes
Supporting Russia
Germany declares war on France
Threatened by France supporting Russia

10. Which Cause Does This Cartoon Represent?

12. What are these quotes saying ?
The nations slithered over the brink into the boiling cauldron of war without any trace of apprehension or dismay...   The nations backed their machines over the precipice ....confident they would be victorious
David Lloyd George, War Memoirs (1934)
Lloyd George was a minister in 1914 and Prime Minister during the war.   
There was no "slide" to war, no war caused by "inadvertence," but instead a world war caused by a fearful set of elite statesmen and rulers making deliberate choices.
Book review in The American Historical Review of
Richard F. Hamilton and Holger H. Herwig, The Origins of World War I (2003)