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Why did WW1 break out?

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Asha Samrai History 'Dry Run' WW1 Coursework Essay Why did WW1 break out? 1. War broke out as a result of a combination of short and long term factors. The system of alliances contributed to the outbreak of war as this caused tension between the countries and everyone became suspicious of everyone else. The triple alliance consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy, and the triple Entente consisted of Britain, France and Russia. There was a lot of mistrust between the alliances and if say Russia and Britain were to fall out, then all of the countries would be involved. The Moroccan crises played an important role to the cause of World War One as the alliance between Britain and France was strengthened, which threatened the Kaiser and his plans as he didn't expect Britain to take France's side over Morocco. They made it very difficult for Germany to climb down in any future crisis. ...read more.


By the third of August Germany had declared war on Russia and now on France, and now had invaded Belgium. Under the 1839 Treaty of London, Britain had promised to 'guarantee Belgium's neutrality.' On 4th August Britain declared war on Germany. Two days later Austria declared war on Russia and then Britain and France declared war on Austria on the 16th of August. The reason that war broke loose was due to the alliances (the Triple alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy, and the triple Entente alliance of Britain, France and Russia). When Austria-Hungary and Serbia had fallen out, both Germany and Russia were pulled in, shortly followed by Britain and France. So when two countries from the alliances fell out, all of the other countries were involved and so by August 1914 all major European powers except Italy had become involved. 3. The tension in the Balkans and the arms race were both significant factors which led to the outbreak of World War One. ...read more.


There was a lot of mistrust between the alliances as when Germany was re-arming the surrounding counties felt threatened by this and so they began to re-arm producing more tension and more of a probability of a world war. Another significant cause of the war is the July crisis as this was when trust between the alliances fell apart due to Germany's desire of greater power and international influence. Everybody had declared war on everybody else as nobody trusted anyone (except their allies), yet this is not as important as the Balkans because this was a short term affect and if it wasn't for all the other factors that contributed to the outbreak of war, then there would have been at least some trust between the alliances and peace may have been achieved. Therefore it wasn't just one factor that contributed to the outbreak of war but a number of them put together that broke down the relationships between the countries and separated them into alliances that would eventually fall out and lead to a world war. ...read more.

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