Major Cause of WW1?

Question

I need to write an essay on why THE ALLIANCE SYSTEM was a major cause of WW1
Please help

Answer 1

The Alliance System was based on these elements:

Germany was allied with Austria-Hungary because of their common heritage. The Ottoman Empire was allied with the Germans and the Austrians and Hungarians because of the British threat in their region of the world.

On the other side stood the Serbians who started the fuse of the powderkeg with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo. the Serbians were allied with the Russians due to a common Slavic background. The Russians were allied with the English due to the common ancestry of Queen Victoria and her relative Alexandria who was married to Czar Nicholaus II of Russia . The French were allied with the French because of the German threat to French territories and ther humiliating defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 under Bismarck in which the French lost Alsace- Lorraine, a coveted region for both parties due to the richness of natural resources and was the backdoor into France. After the assassination there was a lull and it was broken after the negotiations broke off from the contending parties. War was declared on August 1, 1914.

Answer 2

The alliance system was effectively an (unsuccessful) pre-cursor to the nuclear deterrent.

The Triple Entente of France, Russia and Britain and the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and ltaly (though the Italians did not go to war in 1914) lined up against each other with vast standing armies. The thinking was that such vast armies could not go to war; as the result would be catastrophic, so instead of the constant bickering between individual European nations (usually over foreign possessions) the alliance system would bring stability amongst the imperial powers.

In reality the vast spending on arms, the growing tension and the nationalist public feeling, led to a powder keg that was eventually set off in Sarajevo with the assassination.

Answer 3

When Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Russia backed Serbia; Germany then declared war on Russia when they saw Russian mobilization. France, bound by a treaty to Russia, declared war on Germany, and by extension Austria-Hungary. The British have strong ties with France and wanted to safeguard neutral Belgium. Germany invaded Belgium and Britain declares war on Germany. Japan, a British ally, declares its alliance with Britain!

Answer 4

Very interesting answers. However, I think, based on my studies, that it was simple jealousy. Kyle Wilhelm II was jealous of his cousin, George V. He hated the fact that George had a huge navy and he wanted to prove that he could out do him.

Gavril Princep could not have set off a world war by himself. Wilhelm used that as an excuse.

Answer 5

Assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand