1. World War I Chapter 16 Section 1

2. Causes of World War I Alliances Militarism Nationalism Imperialism

3. Events Before WWI 40 years of general European peace 1860s—Prussian wars to unite German Kingdoms Attacked and defeated France gaining some French territory along the German border 1871—Birth of German Empire Rapidly industrialized One of the most powerful nations

4. Alliances To protect itself from French retribution, Germany allied with Italy and Austria-Hungary becoming the Triple Alliance Russians afraid Germany would try to expand eastward. Also Russians supported the ethnic group known as the Slavs. Russia and France signed the Franco Russian Alliance in 1894 promising aid if the other went to war

5. Militarism Militarism encouraged by alliances Aggressive buildup of armed forces to intimidate and threaten other nations German militarism led to Britain seeking allies British policy was to support weak against strong to prevent total takeover of Europe German-British arms race Brits make informal alliance with Russia and France known as the entente cordiale, friendly alliance, or Triple Entente

6. Nationalism Nationalism—intense pride in homeland Culture/interests of home country superior to others Other nations = competitors Self-determination —like cultures should have political independence

7. Imperialism Imperialism—increase power and wealth by controlling other people Empires

8. The Specifics Groups that wanted independence—Serbs, Bosnians, Croats, and Slovenes These all had similar language and saw themselves as one people Called South Slavs or Yugoslavs Serbs gain independence (establish Serbia) and wanted to unite South Slavs

10. The Specifics Serbia in between Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires Russians supported Serbs (similar peoples) Austria-Hungary did not 1908—Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia, which the Serbs wanted This showed that Austria-Hungary had no intention of letting the Slavic people in its empire become independent.