Causes of the first world war
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Because Austria-Hungary didn't like Serbia this caused Germany to declare war on Russia. Germany also began to move its army towards France and Belgium, because France was a member of the Triple Entente along with Russia. The French army was aware of this and was put on war alert, ready to fight a German invasion.
On the 3rd and 4th of August Germany invaded France through neutral Belgium. Britain, being on France's side, ordered Germany to leave Belgium. When Germany refused, Britain declared war.
On the 6th August Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia, because Russia was friendly with Serbia, whom Austria-Hungary had already declared war on and Russia had tried to defend. Also Austria-Hungary had had previous conflicts with Russia about the Balkans.
The German's meticulously planned Schlieffen Plan actually failed. It was a lot weaker in practice than the German's had expected because they were slowed down by fierce resistance in Belgium. The British succeeded at the Battle of Mons and pushed the Germans to the east of Paris. The French had sent the Russians money to develop the army, who mobilized more quickly than the Germans had expected. The Germans had to send two divisions of the army to try to stop them on the Eastern front.
There was a deadlock on the Western front by the end of September 1914 because both sides dug trenches which eventually stretched from the channel coast to the Swiss border. The war of movement was over.
I will now try to work out which were the most important and relevant causes of the war, which country or countries actually caused World War 1 and whether the long term or the short term causes were more important. Because many of the countries declared war on each other, one country can not be solely to blame.
The disputes between the different countries before and after they joined the alliances were about nationalism. From 1870 to 1914 the French wanted the Alsace Lorraine back. Russia wanted to gain ports on the coast, Serbia wanted independence in the Balkans and Austria-Hungary was worried about nationalism within its empire.
This nationalism led to imperialis ...
