UNIT 4: World War 1 - CAUSES

Territorial nation:

(common “soil”) - same birthplace or territory

Ethnicity/Kinship

(common “blood”) - relationship to others

Common origin story

(“common past”) - shared history

Ethnic nationalism:

More exclusive definition of who belongs to a nation with intolerance based on race, ethnicity language. Theres one dominant history and solve our problems-less cooperation or global standards (“zero-sum” = us or them)

Civic nationalism

Universal values with those who had a shared commitment to freedom, equality etc. History is diverse histories and they depend on others to solve problems together (globalism, rules-based order)

Extreme ethnic nationalism

Nation is most important part of identity with popularized war “you should die for your country”

4 causes of WW1

imperialism, militarism, nationalism, alliances

Causes of ww1 - Imperialism

Imperialism led to competition (“scramble for africa”) and advancements in technology

causes of ww1 - militarism

All European powers spend millions on their military to increase their defence. By the 1910s, many countries had focused their funds on militarism.

causes of ww1 - nationalism

Ottoman empire decline → territories are unstable and need a leader so nations combined, separated, and took over each other

causes of ww1 - unquestioning alliances

austria-hungary backed by germany, serbia backed by russia, allies, entente and the spark that caused the war was the inevitable war between serbia and austria because austria took over serbia

triple alliance

Germany, Austria-hungary, italy

triple entente

france, britain, russia

pan-slavism

Unity between Russia and Serbia (Slavs)

gavrilo princip

Bosnian Serb who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand who was going to become the leader of Austria-Hungary

black hand

Serbian nationalist group responsible for the Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassination

zimmerman telegram

Ger. Foreign Minister Arthur Zimerman sent msg to Mexico (Jan. 16, 1917) saying “join our side on the war, when we win the war, we’ll return all the terrirory you lost from the US”. British Intelligence intercepted and deciphered and became furious

unrestricted german submarine warfare

Germans sink any boat crossing the Atlantic Ocean with U-Boats (submarines) with the fear that they were carrying weapons or supplies for the Allies, but this was the last straw for America and they join the war.