World War I
World War I, also known as the Great War, was a military conflict that lasted from1914 to 1918. It started off as a local European War between Serbia and Austria -Hungry, but expanded into a global war between 32 nations. (Microsoft Encarta, 1996) Twenty-eight of these nations were known as the Allies and included the United States,Italy, France, Russia, and Great Britain; the opposing forces were Germany,Austria-Hungry, Turkey, and Bulgaria. The assassination of the Archduke FranzFerdinand on June 28, 1914, became the immediate cause of the war between Austria-Hungry and Serbia. Several other factors played predominant roles in theoutbreak of such a catastrophic war which inundated the nations of Europe for manyyears. Problems with the Alliance System, Imperialist Governments, Nationalism, and Militarism are some of the other major causes of the war.Nationalism, one of the primary causes, became a powerful force in Europe during this particular time period; it led European nations to compete for the largest army andnavy or the greatest industrial development. (Geocities.com, 2000) Militarism wasanother big influence of the war. At the time, Britain was the largest empire in the World with the largest navy. (Geocites.com, 2000) As one nation built up its' army or navy,other nations followed. The other major cause of World War I was imperialism; the European nation's ruling of smaller countries were colonies. All the nations competed with each other for the gain of more colonies. As France and Britain already possessed African and Asian colonies, Germany and Italy decided they wanted a colonial empire as well. On July 28, Austria declared war against Serbia either because it felt Russia would not actually fight for Serbia, or because it was prepared to risk a general European conflict in order to put an end to the Greater Serbia movement. (Microsoft Encarta, 1996)Russia responded by partially mobilizing against Austria. Russia was warned byGermany that continued...
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