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Why Did World War One Break Out?

In: Historical Events

Submitted By SommerDHussain
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Why did World War One break out?
There are many reasons as to why war broke out in 1914, which included many intertwined factors, such as the conflicts and hostility of the four decades leading up to the war. Moreover, Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, and Nationalism played major roles in the conflict. All of these factors where established in many of Europe's 'Great Powers' which consisted of; Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia. Many of the reasons as to why war broke out were built up over years and even decades thus, were long term causes. However, a handful of events occurred over a few months and years prior to the event, consequently were short term causes. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his pregnant wife, acted as a trigger that ultimately led to war breaking out. As a result of this T.F. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.
The assassination gave Austria-Hungary the ideal excuse to declare war against Serbia. An ultimatum was issued to Serbia stating that it must agree to all the terms described in the ultimatum in order to avoid war. Austria-Hungary gave Serbia 48 hours to reply and clearly stated that all the terms must be met and complied with. Serbia agreed to all terms except one.
WW1 had many countries involved but not all of them entered at the same time. There were three sides to choose from at the beginning of WW1. One option was the Central Powers which included; Germany and Austria-Hungary, and were later joined by Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire, who were neutral at first then joined at a later date. There were The Allies which were made up of; Great Britain, France, Belgium, Russia, Montenegro and Serbia. The Allies were later joined by Portugal, Italy, Greece and Romania who all left the neutral nations. The neutral nations were made up of; Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Switzerland,

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