The Causes of World War I

The event that triggered the outbreak of World War I was the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in 1914 (Baldwin, 1962). He was heir to the Hapsburg or Austro-Hungarian Empire until his untimely death at the hands of a Serbian nationalist by the name of Gavrilo Princip. However, prior to his assassination, a number of political events took place between 1870 and 1914 that have been considered by historians to be major factors in the outbreak of World War 1(Baldwin, 1962). …

…Purcell, 1998). The unchecked rise of nationalism, military expansion and the formation of alliances had led to a terrible conflict involving more than thirty-two nations. After seeing all the suffering that occurred in World War I, there were many attempts to make peace treaties but they were not properly enforced. Many countries still did not understand the power of nationalism and this lack understanding ultimately lead to World War II (Electronic article a, Burg and Purcell, 1998).