Causes of world War One
...world’s major economic and imperial power. Another major cause of World War One was the system of alliances. Alliances are the formal treaty agreements of co-operation between nations. It was developed by Otto Von Bismark of Germany in the 1800’s. Bismarks plan was to isolate France. He signed agreements with Austria-Hungary, which formed the Dual Alliance. Then he singed with Italy to form the Triple Alliance. He then signed a secret treaty with Russia. He stayed out of conflict with Britain by not pursing a colonial empire and by resisting navel expansions. The treaty with Russia collapsed and Russia joined forces with suspicions of Russia and France’s alliance and even more distrustful of Germanys growing economic power and increasing imperialism and navel expansion so they joined with Russia and France to form the Triple Entente. The cause that is known as the thing that “triggered” World War One was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophia. Franz Ferdinand was heir to the Austria-Hungary thrown. They were assassinated by Gavrilo Princip. He was a Bosnian Serb belonging to a Serbian nationalist group known as the Black Hand. The Serbian government claimed that they had no responsibility, but Austria-Hungary blamed them and attempted to gain control of Serbia. With Germany’s support Austria-Hungary presented Serbia with a 48-hour ultimatum. When Russia steps in to support Serbia, France declares support for them as well. Serbia then agrees to all but two of Austria-Hungary’s demands and mobilizes its troops. When Austria-Hungary mobilized their troops and declared war on Serbia, Russia declared war on Austria-Hungary and within a month all of Europe was at war. Of course, there were two other factors which caused World War One. One of the other factors which caused the war was Economic Rivalry. Germany and Britain were economic competitors. Ger...