what were some reasons why alliances would have started world war 1?
470207
Basically, there was a lot of tension between counties at that point due to the world order that came out of the Napoleonic Wars. Due to this tension, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo was all that was needed to set off the war. After the assassination, Austria-Hungary send out an ultimatum to Serbia (once they had the promise of Germany's help if war should break out). Serbia had a problem with one demand, so once they had the promise of support from Russia, they rejected the ultimatum. This led to Austria-Hungary declaring war on Serbia. Austria-Hungary attacks Serbia, Germany declares war on Russia but attacks France due to Schlieffen Plan, Belgium refuses Germany free passage to France which brings England into the picture...\n\nWhat if the Archduke wasn't shot? Well, some other event may have happened that would have had these alliances invoked. It is hard to say whether war would definitely occurred, however, it is easy to say that it was probable, as a conflict between two countries quickly grew to involve all of Europe (and even Northern Africa and the Middle East with the Ottoman Empire as well as a large part of Asia with Russia).
241448
World War was was inevitable. If it wasn't started by the assassination, it would've been started by something else.\n\nHowever, Germany should not assume the blame. The Brits, Russians, French, and Austrians are just as much at fault.
147844
Couple of reasons.\n\nFirst, we had closer economic ties to Great Britain.\n\nSecond, Great Britain and France had a better propaganda machine, and made US citizens think of the war in terms of the evil German Empire versus the noble French and English democracies.\n\nThird, the Germans eventually adopted unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917, which meant that civilian American ships carrying goods to Britain and France were sunk.\n\nFourth, also in early 1917 (January 16), the British interecepted a telegram from the German Empire to the German ambassador in Mexico saying that if Mexico would declare war on theside of Germany and attack the US, they would be rewarded with the return of the terrority Mexico lost in the Mexican-American War. The British promptly gave this information to the US, and combined with the sinking of American ships by German subs, this caused the entry of the US into WWI on the side of the Allies.
83816
Well, to work backwards, then forwards: The men who owned the military equipment factories and other factories, wanted to take over the world's markets.  The American businessmen and the German businessmen wanted to conquer the world, but the Germans got greedy and wanted it all, so we split.  This is what caused the war with Germany and America.  Japan was allied with Germany, as was Italy and Mussolini wanted colonies in Africa, as did Germany.  The United States put an oil blockade around Japan, which in Napoleon's time was considered an informal declaration of war, so Japan bombed Pearl Harbon on December 7th, 1941.  \n Before that, General Motors made Tanks for the Germans and engines for one of their fighter bombers, (the JU-88, I think).  Germany had a Steel Empire called KRUPP steel.\n  This steel company financed Hitler and later used slave labor in the war. Krupp steel also built steel mills in Japan, which were used to make Japanese weapons, guns, cannons and aircraft carriers.  After the war, that steel company was called Mitsubishi steel, which now makes automobiles.  Krupp steel was divided up into 68 companies after the war.  \n  World War I was also financed by Krupp steel, which made a lot of money selling guns and cannons to the government.\nIt involved Trench Warfare, and almost became a stalemate, since until the Tank was invented, there was no way to go across No Man's Land to attack the enemy with enough force to destroy him. \n  By the way, in 1916, an epidemic of flu broke out which later became the Pneumonia Pandemic of 1918, which killed millions of people and is supposed to come back any year now, (but Bird Flu has taken the spotlight in the news.)  But the bad weather and unsanitary and unhealthy conditions in the trenches gave the soldiers this sickness in WW1.\n  For the causes of World War I and World War II, we have to go back a long time.  The land called Alsace-Lorraine, in France now, has/and had iron ore and coal.  During the Black Plague a lot of people left this area and a man named Krupp bought up 243 deeds.  About two hundred years later, one of his descendents started making iron, and later, an heir wanted to make steel, and learned how to do that.\n  With this steel he first made spoons, but they were too small for him to sell in Austria.  He later started making gun barrels, and made a lot of money selling gun barrels.\n  At that time cannons were made out of brass, and brass cannons start to melt when they are fired too much.  The land where the steel was made was in what used to be called Prussia, which had a king named Frederick the Great, who was a Despot.  A despot is an isolated, individual will who is unchallenged.  Frederick the Great was considered educated, or Enlightened.  Other examples of a despot are Catherine the Great of Russia, and Louis XIV of France, Hitler, Stalin, and Franco.  Also, Henry VIII could be called a despot.  Anyone that says The State is Me, or I am the Law, who can have your head cut off if you disobey them, is a despot.  In a democracy we can challenge despots because we have the Bill of Rights, which allows freedom of assembly, and of speech, and of belief, etc.\n  Also, we have three branches of governement, so each branch checks the other to keep it from becoming despotical.\n Otherwise the President would be a despot.  But the people must maintain eternal vigilance to preserve their Liberty.\n  And other people do not have our system of government.\n France lost Alsace-Lorraine to the Prussians in 1871.  France got the land back after WWI, at Versailles.  The Germans took it over from the French when it invaded France after it invaded Poland, Austria, and cut Czechoslovakia in half.  If France had resisted with 3 divisions it could have stopped the german advance.  If the german tanks had not stopped to call Berlin for directions, they could have gone all the way to the Atlantic the first few days without any resistance.  The german c
961250
B-definitely\nBy the end of th 19th century almost all of Africa and Asia were control ed by both Britain and French hands, and the Caribbean has been a European possession for hundreds of years.  The control of Asia and Africa by the French and British was one of the main causes of the first world war, as Germany was forced to take possession of the most undesirable locations.  This was a root cause of the rivalry that lead to WWI.
536943
For Europe:\n\nThe Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand (not the Band) assasination which ultimately sparked the war between the nations in the Balkans, (Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia etc)...and Austria. Then, the maticulous alliance ladder fell down, Germany who was friends with Austria declared war on Russia who was freinds with Serbia who was a close friend of another nation, then France declared war on Germany to keep in check their booming armed forces, which when invaded drew Britain and then the poles into the war...throw in Japan too.\n\n(FOR EUROPE IT WAS ALLIANCES)\n\nFor the US however, it was mainly triggered by the Zimmerman Telegram to the Mexican government; the British MI detected the telegram that was intended to provoke Mexico to invade the US in turn to keep the US out of Europe's war, and keep Germany safe from having a harder war to fight on the Western Front. Also, we can't leave out the excessive U-boat sinkings that the Germans committed against US and British merchant ships, the Lusitania carrying some odd number of civillians, it was a bloody mess. Wilson didn't want to go to war, nor did the nation, but in the end, the man who won reelection on the slogan "He kept us out of war," led the nation to its first World War...The Great War to end all wars.
206818
In World War I, the six major powers were set against each other. At the time, the US was an isolationist (which means that we didn't want to get involved in European affairs) There was a lot of nationalism in the countries, and each country built up their armies. Russia, France, and Britain against Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. Noone expected it to cause as many causualties as it did, but since each nation was so powerful, it did. The troops were in trenches, (trench warfare) for several years. At the time, they had machine guns, and the only way to advance was to cross the area between the trenches called "No man's land" When they crossed no man's land, they were mowed down with machine guns. So the generals, instead of looking for other methods, chose instead to send more troops, causing more casualties.
350086
In the first World War, which began in 1914 America didn't join until 1917. It joined right at the end, when France was getting beaten on by the Germans and helped win though it's expected because America's troops were fresh and new.French troops had been fighting endlessly in their territory for 3 years already. \nIn WWII, America joined since the beginning in the fight against the fascism of Germany,Italy,& Japan which later included the Soviet Union as well until it was betrayed by Germany.It didn't really take a great part in it itself until Pearl Harbor, where Japan attacked us.
385121
Japan invaded China in 1936 some say that was the start of World War Two.  The war in Europe started when Germany invaded Poland in 1939 and France and England declared war on Germany.\n\nThe cause of the 2nd World War was the treaty that ended the first world war.
203365
Because a lot of world powers(the US, Germany, China, Italy, etc) were fighting in the war, and it wasn't just one country against the other.
361374
Nationalism....everyone had a heightend sense of pride in their own nation. It would be easier to bring up soliders for the "great war" since everyone believed their nation to be best and worth fighting for. Also like nations got into alliances and often these alliances got quite tangled and would eventually be seenas probably the one of the main causes for the war. Imperalism....the powers that be in Europe were all competing on the international level for resources, markets, and prestige. The highly hostile and competitive atmosphere because of conflicting interests helped add to a war climate. Militarism... since most of the main powers needed a strong military to be able to exert their imperial dominance, strong militaries were popular during the period. As one nation built up their arms, the others would follow suit in order to avoid the balance of power from tipping to far one way. Each of these causes helped build a foundation for war which was sparked because of the archdukes assination.
676487
World War 1 is a big one.  Australia became  a federation (1901), Russian revolution.
502329
The causes is over simplified as tangle of allainces and the breakway republic of Serbia was the powder keg. As soon as Arcduke Ferdinand was assasinated Austria-Hungary went on to mobolize against Serbia. This could have just resulted in a war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, but Russia had to protect its Slavic neighbors. Since there were Slavs in Russia it was good policy to protect another Slavic country. Germany didn't have to honor it's treaty obligations to Austria-Hungary, but it did. The Germans were not expecting war. Since, Germany was mobolizing and it's ally Russia was under threat France had no choice,but to call up its armed forces too. Two other great powers still sat out because they did not think a world war was possible. The Ottoman Empire and the British Empire were on the sidelines in August 1914. Britian was a sea based empire and if Europe went to war Britian would too, because it had to prtotect is worldwide colonies. It was important for the British to keep the supply lines to the home islands and to the colony of India. The Ottoman's had no choice either because Russian forces border them and could close access to their sea routes. The British were in North Africa and that was also was seen as a threat. Theses countries had high nationalism, which propelled them to war and the citizens of all theses nations beleived their country was invincible. Another problem was ethniciy because the Austrian-Hungarians viewed the Slavs as second class citizens. By Austria giving Serbia and ulitmatum started WWI off and there was no turning back.
1035245
It was a knock on affect. If one country on one side went to war with one on the other they would ALL go to war. Sebian nationalist kills Austro-Hungarian Prince, AustroHungary demands nationalist. Serbia refuses to hand him over, Austria Hungary declares war on Serbia, so Serbia's ally Russia declared war on Austria Hungary so AustriaHungary's ally Germany declares war on Russia so Russia's ally France declares war on Germany and England joins in coz they'd finished their Splendid Isolation and didn't wanna be left out and declred war on Germany. So the Alliance(Germany&co) and the Entente(France &co.) were at War-WW1!
152406
The Allies in WWI were almost the same Allies in WWII. Here's the Wikipedia entry on the matter:\n\nWorld War I, also known as the First World War, and (before 1939) the Great War, the War of the Nations, and the War to End All Wars, was a world conflict lasting from August 1914 to the final Armistice (cessation of hostilities) on November 11, 1918.The Allied Powers (led by Britain, France, and, later, the United States) defeated the Central Powers (led by Germany, Austria and the Ottoman Empire), and led to the collapse of four empires and a radical change in the map of Europe.
352271
Whose reason? Germany's reason? Italy's? America's? Japan's?\n\nTwo main reasons: Axis aggressions and Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.\nCatalyst prompting war in Europe: Blitzkrieg - Hitler's invasion of Poland.\n\nGeneral reasons: imperialism (German, Japanese, and Italian), alliance systems, appeasement, racism (anti-semitism), expansionism.\n\nAxis powers: Germany, Italy, Japan. \nAllies: USA, Britain, USSR, France.
743035
After the 1st World War, many in the U. S. were wary of becoming entangled in another war.  Senator Henry Cabot Lodge led a group of senators who were afraid the U.S. might get pulled into another war trying to enforce the Leagues wishes..or that the League might try to interfere with the business and wishes of our country.  They were called "isolationists'  and this was called the "isolationist era."  TODAY  the United States is very much involved in other coutries business, and in wars in other countries ...and now many people  again believe that we should back off from that.  Some Democrats say it was the fault of Republicans that we did not join the League.  Yet, it is the Democrats now who are saying we should get out of Iraq and mind our own business.  So, you  see, nothing is new...history repeats itself with different names.   There is a fine balance between isolationism and "assisting" other nations?  Understand?\nThis needs more thought than some of the flippant answers I see were given.  Also, I see one person said something about Israel...Israel did not exist until after the League was disbanded.  And, the United Nations was formed AFTER the League was disbanded.