Causes Of World War One
The long-term origins to World War One start back in 1870 with the Franco-Prussian War. In the Franco-Prussian war France lost to Germany which lead to the two countries never being in an alliance with one another. Once the war was over it lead to the forming of the triple Alliance which was one of the main alliances during the first world war. The Triple alliance was made up of the countries - Germany, Austo-Hungery and Italy, and it was first formed because Germany needed help to guard Alsace-Lorrain from France as France wanted to get back its stolen land.
Another of the long-term origins to World War One was Weltpolitic. Weltpolitic was a policy Kaiser Wilhelm the second, who believed that Germany had a right to become a global imperial power and should develop an army and navy to support its colonial objectives. Kaiser Wilhelm's personality and his policy of Weltpolitic were seen as contributing to international tensions. The policy lead Germany to construct a huge navy which lead to domestic problems as the navy cost heaps, It also lead into the start of the Boer wars and the Morrocan Crisis. Many Historians have said, 'Weltpolitic was only a half-hearted policy' (Paul Schroeder), and that it was only inviting the other countries to go to war. Fritz Fischer argued that - 'Germany provoked war and ensured that compromise was impossible in order to achieve Weltpolitic, to economically dominate central Europe, to create an colonial empire and to solve its own internal political and economic problems'. Fischer was an Historian that believed that the majority of the responsibility for the Start of the war relied in Germany.
Another of the long-term origins to World War One was the Morrocan Crisis of 1905 and 1911. In the crisis of 1905 the Kaiser went to Morocco to say he wanted Morocco to be independent, but the French were furious that he should suggest such a thing and they went to a meeting with German officials in...
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