WW1 Causes

The Spark that led to the War:
   The spark that led to the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. On June 28, 1914 he and his wife were visiting the Bosnian Capital of Sarajevo. Franz ignored warnings of potential terrorist attacks and carried out his visit as planned. They were parading around the city in a convertible car when a revolutionary named Gavrilo Princip rushed their open car and shot them both to death. He was a member if a Serbian nationalist group nicknamed the "Black Hand." The Austria-Hungary empire had been looking for an excuse to take down Serbia for a period of time, now they had their excuse. War was declared after Austria-Hungary ensured their alliance with Germany. This declaration of war opened a network of alliances that were already in place, 'World War I' was in full effect.

Main Causes of World War I:
   Militarism, alliance system, imperialism and nationalism.
-Militarism is the idea that a country should have a strong military and they should be able to use it when necessary. The navies for this war were so powerful because of the competition. Initially Britain had the strongest navy and had for hundreds of years. Germany saw this and began expanding theirs as well. It was a race to see who could build the most ships and be best equipped for battle. This prepared countries for the war with a strong naval force.
-This was the formal agreement that countries made with each other. They were agreeing that in case of a war they would back each other up. This made the war bloodier because instead of two countries there was a web of others in the alliance system who were brought in.
-Imperialism is the idea that a bigger, more powerful country takes over a smaller weaker company either to annex it or get some gain. Countries also did this to gain military forts in different locations around the world so they could be closer if a fight broke out. Building their colonies was a big thing and countries competed heavily to imperialize, especially in the early 1900s. This rivalry sparked argument and confrontation among countries.
-Nationalism is a deep loyalty to one's country. Gavrillo Princip was a Serbian nationalist who triggered the war by killing the archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary. Because Austria-Hungary controlled Serbia at the time this killing was an example of a deep loyalty to one's country. Unfortunately this little spark led to WWI and opened a web of alliances.

A) Unrestricted submarine warfare(January 1915-1918). Germany announced they would sink any ship they found in the waters around Britain. This angered the United States and other alike, this broke a treaty saying U-boats couldn't attack civilian vessels. This led to the sinking of the Lusitania and was a main reason to why the U.S entered the war.

B) The Lusitania was a British passenger liner that entered the German war zone despite warnings. A German U-Boat fired on the ship, killing nearly 1,200 people-including 128 Americans on May 7, 1915. Many Americans were outraged and regarded this as an act of terrorism not war. This was one of the sparks that influenced the Americans to enter World War I.

C) The sussex pledge occurred as a result of Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare. In Late March, 1916 President Wilson demanded that the German government abandoned its methods of submarine warfare or risk war with the United States. Germany, not wanting to strengthen the allies further, agreed with certain conditions not to sink the ships without warning. The Sussex Pledge met the foreign policy goals of both Germany and President Wilson and kept the U.S out of the war a little longer.

D) In January 1917, a German official named Arthur Zimmerman cabled the German ambassador in Mexico to propose an offer to the Mexican government. This proposed Mexico to ally with German incase they went to War with the U.S. In return Mexico would return some of its lost territory in the U.S. This message was intercepted by British intelligence and they informed the U.S. Now the furious Americans concluded war with Germany was necessary. This helped the U.S join the allies side and become part of WWI.