Causes of World War I
Introduced| English | Meaning |
|---|---|
| alliance system/əˈlaɪəns ˈsɪstəm/ | A network of agreements linking states through commitments of support, often including military assistance. |
Four causes in one CED sentence
- The causes of World War I included imperialist expansion and competition for resources.
- In addition, territorial and regional conflicts combined with a flawed alliance system 联盟体系 and intense nationalism to escalate the tensions into global conflict.
- So four causes: imperial competition, territorial and regional conflicts, the alliance system, and nationalism.
Select all the causes the CED names for World War I.
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Intense nationalism completes the four; the Depression is a cause of the second war.
Imperial competition connects unit 6
- Imperialist expansion and competition for resources is the direct continuation of 6.2 and 6.4.
- States that had been competing for colonies and commodities brought that competition home to Europe.
- So the war is the CED's own answer to "what did imperialism eventually cost the imperial powers?"
Four conditions converge- three explain tension, only the alliance system explains escalation
The CED's verb for what the alliance system did is...
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It is a cause of the war's scale, which is a precise claim.
A flawed alliance system escalated
- The CED's verb for the alliance system is escalate — it did not start the war, it enlarged it.
- Alliances designed to deter aggression converted a regional conflict into a general one by obligation.
- So the alliance system is a cause of the war's scale, which is a precise and defensible claim.
Assemble the causes, then find the escalator
Three conditions explain tension; only the alliance system explains escalation.
The CED's phrase is ____ nationalism.
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It made disputes non-negotiable and mass mobilisation politically possible.
The alliance system escalated the war rather than starting it. The CED's own verb is escalate — alliances converted a regional conflict into a global one by obligation. Naming them as the cause of the war, rather than of its scale, states more than the CED does.
Imperial competition connects this subtopic to unit 6.
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States competing for colonies and commodities brought that competition home to Europe.
Nationalism supplied the intensity
- The CED's phrase is intense nationalism, and unit 5 already taught what nationalism was.
- It made territorial and regional disputes non-negotiable, and made mass mobilisation politically possible.
- That second effect is what turns a diplomatic crisis into a war millions of people will fight.
Match each cause to what it contributed.
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Separating what caused the conflict from what enlarged it is the skill here.
Causes and consequences
- The objective asks for causes and consequences, and the consequences run into 7.4, 7.5 and 7.6.
- The peace settlement, the economic disruption and the collapse of empires are all consequences of this war.
- So an answer here should point forward as well as back — the CED will call that settlement unsustainable in 7.6.
A dispute between two states in one region draws in their allies, and each ally's allies. Nothing about the original quarrel required a world war; the obligations did. That is why the CED separates the tensions from what escalated them, and why an answer should too.
The causes of World War I included imperialist expansion and competition for resources, and territorial and regional conflicts combined with a flawed alliance system and intense nationalism to escalate the tensions into global conflict. The alliance system is a cause of the war's scale; nationalism made disputes non-negotiable and mass mobilisation possible.
Write from alliances after Sarajevo
- A nationalist assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo.
- Allied commitments then pulled other powers in.
How did a Balkan killing become a wider war?
Treaties turned a local crisis into a general war.
What widened the war after Sarajevo?
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Allies treated the local crisis as their own war.