Causes and Effects of World War one

Tyquan Bazemore

United States History

Historical Essay 2

15 August 2013

Causes and Effects of World War One

        World War One of 1914 marked the transition from the usual, individual battles between two nations or within a single nation, to a more international approach of war the involved many allies, each of which became active fighters within the war. The increased interest in nationalism, imperialism, and militarism inevitably led to the first world war because each nation was overly competitive with one another and would go to great extents in order to make themselves look better than other nations. Germany, in particular, spent the years prior to World War One focusing on enhancing its nations military and nationalism in order to more effectively practice imperialism with support from its citizens and a strong army and navy to carry out the operation. The Rise of Pan-Slavism along with German nationalism directly led to the First World War. These ideas, as well as the alliances of the period, sparked the war. The United States later became involved in the foreign, European conflict. Overall, World War One and the US involvement in the war, was caused by several events and concepts that occurred and were developed during this period. These topics will be discussed throughout this writing.

        Nationalism, imperialism, and militarism were enhanced during the 1900s. During this period, European nations began to compete with one another rather than working as a unit to better the entire continent. There was an increase in nationalism and the idea that each person was devoted and gave a certain respect to their particular nation; this idea helped define the individualism within the continent full of diverse cultures and languages. Each nation wanted their beliefs to reign over the other countries within the continent. The Triple Alliance between Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary, was a threat against the Triple Entente of Britain, France, and Russia. The competitive edge of the six nations led to bad relations between the countries; these changes between the nations would eventually continue to grow into enough disagreements that led to a world war. This war was also caused by Germany's want to expand their army. This increased the tensions already existent because of the alliances when Germany continued to threaten other nations with their navy (Causes).

        The United States was initially remained neutral when observing the events and disputes occurring in Europe during the period. However, this nation too eventually joined the war cause to defend its country and its beliefs, as well as to assist its allies that became involved in the international war. President Woodrow Wilson announced that America was neutral in 1914; the nation was originally a neutral country towards the start of the war, from 1914 to 1917, because the majority of Americans supported neutrality—amongst other reasons, such as not being directly attacked by the European nations until they were finally forced to join war (U.S. Proclaims). Ethnicity also played a role in the neutrality of the United States during the early years of World War One because the United States did not want to be associated with the ethnic issues present in central and eastern Europe during the time. These issues concerned more than war over political reasons, but also war over ethnic and racial reasons. These issues surrounding the culture and background of a group of people was more personal and the US did not want to be associated with taking a stand against a certain body of people in general, rather than simply taking a stand against an idea as in most issues unrelated to ethnicity.