Causes of World War 1

Archduke Franz Ferdinand and family

Causation of any historical event is disputed, especially over the long term events that led to it. While it’s easy to see what short term events led to the initiation of an event, the longer term causes are not as self-evident. In the case of the First World War, causes are a battleground for a wide number of historians. Some seek to empathise the role of leaders or parties, some seek to apportion blame to social issues or the development of capitalist imperialism, others yet see the arms race or the diplomatic events leading up to World War 1 as the key factors. This article will not pretend to have a clear answer to the question, but will present you with various events and theories and provide links for you to investigate them further for yourself to help you come to your own judgement.

Background – Setting the Scene

Relative shifts in world power

In 1914 Europe dominated the world. The metropols (capital cities of large powers) of Europe were the decision making centers of almost the entire globe. Events which happened here affected everywhere and thus a European war was bound to become a World War. Some non European countries were still significant powers in their own right, the USA especially which by 1914 produced more coal, steel and pig-iron than any one European country, but also Japan which had shown its might in the Russo-Japanese War in 1904-5. However the main empires of the world – including Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands were all within the continent and all had countries under their control elsewhere.

But the relative power of the European nations had changed considerably in the past years. Britain, once the unchallenged economic power of the world due to its early Industrial Revolution, had fallen relatively behind Germany in many key aspects. Germany now produced more pig-iron and steel that Britain, and was catching up on coal. The other powers were still considerably behind both, although Russia was fast expanding due to its size and government policies assisted by loans from other powers.

Growth of Empires

Imperialist expansion had increased greatly in the years following 1880. The ‘Scramble for Africa’, an attempt to gain new markets for products and new sources of raw materials and labour through the conquering of countries, involved many European countries – especially France and Britain, but also later Italy and Germany, as well as other powers such as Belgium and Portugal.

Imperialism did not always involved the direct rule but sometimes simply forcing favorable trading agreements on countries. The decline of the Chinese Empire led to European powers, as well as the USA and Japan exhorting these. This led to the Chinese revolting against the almost moribund rulers of the Manchu dynasty and setting up a republic in 1911.

Political systems of the powers

The nineteenth century had seen many countries adopt democratic forms of government. For most, this would not be recognisable today as democratic due to qualifications on suffrage meaning many working people, women and ethnic minorities (and other groups) were denied the vote or ability to stand for election. The extent that countries had adopted this form of government was varied. The USA, Britain and France all had democratic legislative bodies elected by the people, as had Germany. In Germany however despite the election of the lower house, the Reichstag, the power of this assembly was very limited compared with other parliaments and real power lay with the Chancellor and Kaiser. Italy and Japan too had limited forms of democratic government. Austro-Hungary and Russia however had strongly undemocratic regimes and are often labelled as autocratic with absolute rulers in the form of the Tsar of Russia and Emperor of Austro-Hungary. The parliaments that existed in these countries were explicitly there to give advice to the rulers, not to govern the country themselves. While the First World War is sometimes painted as a war for democracy, the presence of non-democratic regimes on both sides makes this claim false. This is especially true given that most of the ‘democratic’ powers held large empires which were denied the ability to either self-rule or participate in elections in the country that ruled them.

The Alliance System

Europe had divided itself into two Alliances. These had happened at different times, but the two main groups were the:

The Triple Alliance

• Germany
• Italy
• Austria-Hungary

First Events of World War 1

On the night of the 5th August 1914, Germany ordered five columns of assault troops, who just two days earlier had entered Belgium soil, to attack the town of Liège. While the command expected this to be an easy battle, the defenders of Liège fought back from forts near the town. This was the first set back in the strategy of quick assaults – the Germans needed to capture Liège in order to attack France - and the first indication that the war might not proceed as quickly as everyone expected. The Germans ordered heavy Howitzers to fire shells down on the forts to break through their armour plating. By the 13th the first fort had surrendered, and just three days later the entire town was in German hands.

Books about the Causes of the First World War