World War Why?

The First World War lasted more than four years and killed between 15 and 19 million people. The war also devastated the global economy and contributed to massive disease outbreaks that killed millions more people. So why did this war happen?

Historians have three explanations for what caused the First World War. The first points to a specific event: the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. The second explanation looks at global trends that had been building over many years before the war. The third explanation suggests that the war almost started by mistake. Leaders did not manage the aftermath of Archduke Ferdinand’s assassination well. Let’s look at each of these theories, and ask whether the causes of this deadly worldwide conflict were simple, complicated, or accidental.

One shot: The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

You probably have learned a bit about the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. However, the importance of the event may not be obvious. Ferdinand was a member of the Habsburg family, who ruled Europe’s Austro- Hungarian Empire for nearly 400 years before the war broke out. Located in the middle of Europe, this empire was huge and multi-ethnic, but by the end of the war, it was torn apart. Franz Ferdinand’s uncle was the emperor, and he struggled to rule the empire’s different ethnic communities. First of all, nationalism pushed these groups to pursue independence. One group was the Serbs, who had already created their own country of Serbia after gaining independence from the Ottoman Empire. However, many Serbs still lived in the Habsburg region of Bosnia. Serbian nationalists began plotting to get the Habsburgs out of Bosnia. It didn’t help that the Habsburg’s rival, Russia, was supporting the Serbs. However, the Serbs had a bigger plan when they plotted to kill Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914. They hoped the Austro-Hungarian Empire would declare war on them for assassinating Franz Ferdinand. Then, Russia would step in to help them defeat the Habsburgs and give Bosnian Serbs their independence.

Within two days of the assassination, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had put a list of demands before the Serbians called the July Ultimatum. These unreasonable requirements would have violated Serbia’s rights as an independent nation. Serbia said no thanks and turned to Russia, who agreed to support Serbia if it were attacked. Within a month, much of the world was at war.

Deeper trends: Help me help you help me

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the immediate cause of a war between Russia and the Austro- Hungarian Empire. But why and how did this conflict become a world war? Some historians argue that the answer lies in deeper trends. The good news is we have already introduced many of those trends in this course.

Let’s start with the alliance system. These were “communities” of nations that pledged to support each other. After the devastation of the Napoleonic wars in the early nineteenth century, the large European powers made alliances to keep a balance of power in Europe and avoid future wars. Two great alliances were pitted against each other. Russia, France, and Great Britain made up the Triple Entente. Austro-Hungary, Germany, Italy and eventually the Ottoman Empire formed the Triple Alliance. It was later called the Central Powers. These opposing alliances pretty much guaranteed that if Russia and Austro-Hungary went to war, they could drag in their allies and make the conflict even bigger.

Growing nationalism also added fuel to the war. Nationalism promoted the idea that national pride was a good enough reason to go to war. For example, France joined the war in the hopes of regaining territory that they had previously lost to Germany.

National sovereignty¹ also widened the war. Sovereignty refers to a nation’s ability to rule itself. Britain, for example, joined the war to protect Belgian sovereignty after German troops invaded Belgium on their way to France.

Imperialism was another trend that helped expand the war. Many countries joined the war in the hopes of gaining territory that would benefit them. Britain and France wanted control over parts of the Ottoman Empire. Japan, for example, supported the Triple Entente in hopes of seizing German colonies in the Pacific Ocean. This imperialism had an economic motive as well. Empires were looking to seize important trade routes and raw materials from their opponents.

The big powers were convinced war would be short and easy. They had successfully used their military power in Africa and Asia, so why would Europe be any different? They considered themselves superior to people from Africa and Asia, so it was easy to believe they were superior to other Europeans.

Finally, industrialization had brought new technologies, like weapons and transportation. This meant that once war preparations began, conflict was unavoidable. Everybody believed that the first country to get their troops moving would have an advantage. Railroads could now transport large numbers of troops and materials. All of this meant that when Austro-Hungary began to mobilize troops against Serbia, all of the other powers also had to start sending troops. They did not want other powers to have an advantage. Everyone thought that the war would be over very quickly, but boy were they wrong!

Accidental war: Missed the memo, hit the target

It may seem like there were many states who saw the war coming, but did not try to stop it. This leads us to another theory about why the First World War happened. The world at this time didn’t have really strong diplomatic systems. Diplomats represent their country’s interests in other nations. Communication between diplomats and governments had been slow and limited. Unfortunately, technology outpaced the way people thought about international relations. When troops began mobilizing faster than before, diplomats could no longer keep up with the pace of events. They missed many opportunities to slow down the mobilization of troops. Some historians argue that governments’ slow response was the real reason for the war. Other historians argue the war would have happened anyway. All these big trends would have eventually forced a war. What do you think?

1 Yes, these terms can get confusing. Nationalism was introduced to you as the idea that a state should govern itself, and not have some empire as its boss. But at some point, that feeling that you should get to govern yourself can turn into the idea that you are better than other nations, and becomes a kind of extreme patriotism. We call that nationalism as well. As we will see, nationalism is a pretty flexible thing, and it can be used for lots of different purposes.