World war 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

World war 1 - Essay Example he abrupt cause of the war was entrenched in the conclusions reached by statesmen and generals during the July Crisis of 1914, which saw the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife by an irredentist Serb (Ferguson 1-11). The conflict came after a long and complicated series of diplomatic collision between the Great Powers including France, British Empire, Italy, Austria-Hungarian Empire, Germany and Russia over colonial and European concerns in the decade before 1914 that had precipitated a high tension. Consequently, these diplomatic collisions can be traced to amendments in the balance of power in Europe since 1867. The more abrupt cause for the war was tensions over territory in the Balkans. Russia and Serbia competed with Austria-Hungary for territory and power in the region and they pulled the rest of the Great Powers into the collisions through their various coalitions and treaties. In November 1912 Russia, mortified by its incapacity to support Serbia during the Bosnia crisis of 1908, announced a major reconstruction of its military (Harrison 30-45). The start of World War I has exceedingly been attributed to imperialism. Countries such as France and British Empire amassed great wealth in the late 19th century through direct control over foreign trade in foreign resources, territories, markets and people. Further empires, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Italy and Germany held high hopes of controlling foreign trade too. Their humiliated dreams and United Kingdom guidelines of strategic omission precipitated tensions. Furthermore, the limits to natural resources in many European nations began to gradually change trade balance, and made national industries hunt for new territories rich in natural resources. Profit-making interests contributed considerably to Anglo-German competition during the scuttle for tropical Africa. This was the landscape of the sharpest disagreement between particular German and British money-making interests.