Causes of World War I

You will need three different colored pencils to start today.

There is a box in the front of the room.

Focus ActivityLabel the countries that are numbered.

Color the Central Powers one color.

Color the Allied Powers another color.

Color the neutral nations a 3rd

color.

Create a key in the box.

Causes Excerpt from May 7 1919 Count Brockdorff-

Rantzau, leader of German delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference:

No one would want to assert that the disaster began only at that disastrous moment when the successor of Austria-Hungary fell a victim to murderous hands. In the last fifty years, the imperialism of all European states has chronically poisoned international relations. Policies of retaliation, policies of expansion, and disregard for the right of peoples to determine their own destiny, have contributed to the European malady which cam to crisis in the World War… and placed the issue in the hands of the military…

Causes of the First World War

AlliancesTriple Alliance: Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy

Triple Entente: France, Russia and Great Britain

Causes of the First World War

ImperialismSpheres of Influence

Berlin Conference and the “Scramble for Africa”

The Rhodes Colossus

Causes of the First World War

NationalismDedication to one’s own country/ethnicityUnifications (Italy, Germany)Self-determination and Ethnic Struggles (e.g. Serbia and Austria-Hungary)Irredentism

(wanting your land back)Italy – Trieste, Istria and GoriziaFrance – Alsace-Lorraine

Causes of the First World War

MilitarismMassive military buildup in the late 19th and early 20th centuriesImpact of industrializationNervous, tense environment (Invasion Novels The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers)

"...a story with a purpose" in the author's own words, written from "a patriot's natural sense of duty", which predicted war with Germany and called for British preparedness.

Militarism – Per Capita Expenditures on Armaments

1870 1880 1890 1900 1914

Great Britain

3.54 3.46 3.84 12.6 8.23

France 2.92 4.02 4.66 5.21 7.07

Russia 1.28 1.5 1.26 1.44 3.44

Germany

1.28 2.16 2.8 4.06 8.19

Austria 1.08 1.70 1.5 1.46 3.10

Italy 1.38 1.74 2.52 2.34 3.16

Immediate CauseAssassination of Archduke Ferdinand and wife Sophie

Heir to the Austrian Imperial throneMurdered by Gavrilo Princip

19-year-old member of Black HandSerbian

Sarajevo, Bosnia (recently annexed by A-H)St. Vitus Day (June 28, 1914)

Commemorates 1389 Battle of Kosovo

Austria blames Serbia; sends ultimatum

Immediate CauseBalkans – “powder keg of Europe”Circle and label the Balkans on the map you did at the beginning.

Gavrilo Princip

Archduke FranzFerdinand

Who’s who?