world war one

• Four main causes - Militarism, alliances, imperialism, and nationalism
• A policy or attitude whereby military threats are used to solve problems is militarism
• Alliances – A series of secret and public treaties were in place to protect countries.
• Imperialism - this is the policy or attitude whereby a country builds an empire,

  or a collection of colonies to increase its own strength and wealth, with

  resources and strategic location of bases.
• Nationalism - this is a strong sense of pride in ones cultural & ethnic

  background.
• On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo
• Gavrilo Princip, member of the Black Hand, shot the Archduke.
• Russia, (supporting Serbia), declared war Austria-Hungary.
• Germany, (supporting A-H), declared war on Serbia & Russia
• France, (supporting Russia), declared war on Germany & Austria

  Hungary.
• The Germans faced a 2 front war with

  France & Russia. Solution: The Schlieffen Plan
• Schlieffen plan was to defeat France quickly by invading through Belgium then turn southwards to face Russia. However it failed as Britain joined the war against Germany due to invasion of neutral Belgium.
• The trench line from the English Channel to the Swiss Border was known as the Western Front.