world war 1 caused essay

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World War I

By: History.com Editors

Updated: August 11, 2023 | Original: October 29, 2009

World War I, also known as the Great War, started in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. His murder catapulted into a war across Europe that lasted until 1918. During the four-year conflict, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire (the Central Powers) fought against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Canada, Japan and the United States (the Allied Powers). Thanks to new military technologies and the horrors of trench warfare, World War I saw unprecedented levels of carnage and destruction. By the time the war was over and the Allied Powers had won, more than 16 million people—soldiers and civilians alike—were dead.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Tensions had been brewing throughout Europe—especially in the troubled Balkan region of southeast Europe—for years before World War I actually broke out.

A number of alliances involving European powers, the Ottoman Empire , Russia and other parties had existed for years, but political instability in the Balkans (particularly Bosnia, Serbia and Herzegovina) threatened to destroy these agreements.

The spark that ignited World War I was struck in Sarajevo, Bosnia, where Archduke Franz Ferdinand —heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire—was shot to death along with his wife, Sophie, by the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip on June 28, 1914. Princip and other nationalists were struggling to end Austro-Hungarian rule over Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The assassination of Franz Ferdinand set off a rapidly escalating chain of events: Austria-Hungary , like many countries around the world, blamed the Serbian government for the attack and hoped to use the incident as justification for settling the question of Serbian nationalism once and for all.

Kaiser Wilhelm II

Because mighty Russia supported Serbia, Austria-Hungary waited to declare war until its leaders received assurance from German leader Kaiser Wilhelm II that Germany would support their cause. Austro-Hungarian leaders feared that a Russian intervention would involve Russia’s ally, France, and possibly Great Britain as well.

On July 5, Kaiser Wilhelm secretly pledged his support, giving Austria-Hungary a so-called carte blanche, or “blank check” assurance of Germany’s backing in the case of war. The Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary then sent an ultimatum to Serbia, with such harsh terms as to make it almost impossible to accept.

World War I Begins

Convinced that Austria-Hungary was readying for war, the Serbian government ordered the Serbian army to mobilize and appealed to Russia for assistance. On July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and the tenuous peace between Europe’s great powers quickly collapsed.

Within a week, Russia, Belgium, France, Great Britain and Serbia had lined up against Austria-Hungary and Germany, and World War I had begun.

The Western Front

According to an aggressive military strategy known as the Schlieffen Plan (named for its mastermind, German Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen ), Germany began fighting World War I on two fronts, invading France through neutral Belgium in the west and confronting Russia in the east.

On August 4, 1914, German troops crossed the border into Belgium. In the first battle of World War I, the Germans assaulted the heavily fortified city of Liege , using the most powerful weapons in their arsenal—enormous siege cannons—to capture the city by August 15. The Germans left death and destruction in their wake as they advanced through Belgium toward France, shooting civilians and executing a Belgian priest they had accused of inciting civilian resistance. 

First Battle of the Marne

In the First Battle of the Marne , fought from September 6-9, 1914, French and British forces confronted the invading German army, which had by then penetrated deep into northeastern France, within 30 miles of Paris. The Allied troops checked the German advance and mounted a successful counterattack, driving the Germans back to the north of the Aisne River.

The defeat meant the end of German plans for a quick victory in France. Both sides dug into trenches , and the Western Front was the setting for a hellish war of attrition that would last more than three years.

Particularly long and costly battles in this campaign were fought at Verdun (February-December 1916) and the Battle of the Somme (July-November 1916). German and French troops suffered close to a million casualties in the Battle of Verdun alone.

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World War I Books and Art

The bloodshed on the battlefields of the Western Front, and the difficulties its soldiers had for years after the fighting had ended, inspired such works of art as “ All Quiet on the Western Front ” by Erich Maria Remarque and “ In Flanders Fields ” by Canadian doctor Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae . In the latter poem, McCrae writes from the perspective of the fallen soldiers:

Published in 1915, the poem inspired the use of the poppy as a symbol of remembrance.

Visual artists like Otto Dix of Germany and British painters Wyndham Lewis, Paul Nash and David Bomberg used their firsthand experience as soldiers in World War I to create their art, capturing the anguish of trench warfare and exploring the themes of technology, violence and landscapes decimated by war.

The Eastern Front

On the Eastern Front of World War I, Russian forces invaded the German-held regions of East Prussia and Poland but were stopped short by German and Austrian forces at the Battle of Tannenberg in late August 1914.

Despite that victory, Russia’s assault forced Germany to move two corps from the Western Front to the Eastern, contributing to the German loss in the Battle of the Marne.

Combined with the fierce Allied resistance in France, the ability of Russia’s huge war machine to mobilize relatively quickly in the east ensured a longer, more grueling conflict instead of the quick victory Germany had hoped to win under the Schlieffen Plan .

Russian Revolution

From 1914 to 1916, Russia’s army mounted several offensives on World War I’s Eastern Front but was unable to break through German lines.

Defeat on the battlefield, combined with economic instability and the scarcity of food and other essentials, led to mounting discontent among the bulk of Russia’s population, especially the poverty-stricken workers and peasants. This increased hostility was directed toward the imperial regime of Czar Nicholas II and his unpopular German-born wife, Alexandra.

Russia’s simmering instability exploded in the Russian Revolution of 1917, spearheaded by Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks , which ended czarist rule and brought a halt to Russian participation in World War I.

Russia reached an armistice with the Central Powers in early December 1917, freeing German troops to face the remaining Allies on the Western Front.

America Enters World War I

At the outbreak of fighting in 1914, the United States remained on the sidelines of World War I, adopting the policy of neutrality favored by President Woodrow Wilson while continuing to engage in commerce and shipping with European countries on both sides of the conflict.

Neutrality, however, it was increasingly difficult to maintain in the face of Germany’s unchecked submarine aggression against neutral ships, including those carrying passengers. In 1915, Germany declared the waters surrounding the British Isles to be a war zone, and German U-boats sunk several commercial and passenger vessels, including some U.S. ships.

Widespread protest over the sinking by U-boat of the British ocean liner Lusitania —traveling from New York to Liverpool, England with hundreds of American passengers onboard—in May 1915 helped turn the tide of American public opinion against Germany. In February 1917, Congress passed a $250 million arms appropriations bill intended to make the United States ready for war.

Germany sunk four more U.S. merchant ships the following month, and on April 2 Woodrow Wilson appeared before Congress and called for a declaration of war against Germany.

Gallipoli Campaign

With World War I having effectively settled into a stalemate in Europe, the Allies attempted to score a victory against the Ottoman Empire, which entered the conflict on the side of the Central Powers in late 1914.

After a failed attack on the Dardanelles (the strait linking the Sea of Marmara with the Aegean Sea), Allied forces led by Britain launched a large-scale land invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula in April 1915. The invasion also proved a dismal failure, and in January 1916 Allied forces staged a full retreat from the shores of the peninsula after suffering 250,000 casualties.

Did you know? The young Winston Churchill, then first lord of the British Admiralty, resigned his command after the failed Gallipoli campaign in 1916, accepting a commission with an infantry battalion in France.

British-led forces also combated the Ottoman Turks in Egypt and Mesopotamia , while in northern Italy, Austrian and Italian troops faced off in a series of 12 battles along the Isonzo River, located at the border between the two nations.

Battle of the Isonzo

The First Battle of the Isonzo took place in the late spring of 1915, soon after Italy’s entrance into the war on the Allied side. In the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo, also known as the Battle of Caporetto (October 1917), German reinforcements helped Austria-Hungary win a decisive victory.

After Caporetto, Italy’s allies jumped in to offer increased assistance. British and French—and later, American—troops arrived in the region, and the Allies began to take back the Italian Front.

World War I at Sea

In the years before World War I, the superiority of Britain’s Royal Navy was unchallenged by any other nation’s fleet, but the Imperial German Navy had made substantial strides in closing the gap between the two naval powers. Germany’s strength on the high seas was also aided by its lethal fleet of U-boat submarines.

After the Battle of Dogger Bank in January 1915, in which the British mounted a surprise attack on German ships in the North Sea, the German navy chose not to confront Britain’s mighty Royal Navy in a major battle for more than a year, preferring to rest the bulk of its naval strategy on its U-boats.

The biggest naval engagement of World War I, the Battle of Jutland (May 1916) left British naval superiority on the North Sea intact, and Germany would make no further attempts to break an Allied naval blockade for the remainder of the war.

World War I Planes

World War I was the first major conflict to harness the power of planes. Though not as impactful as the British Royal Navy or Germany’s U-boats, the use of planes in World War I presaged their later, pivotal role in military conflicts around the globe.

At the dawn of World War I, aviation was a relatively new field; the Wright brothers took their first sustained flight just eleven years before, in 1903. Aircraft were initially used primarily for reconnaissance missions. During the First Battle of the Marne, information passed from pilots allowed the allies to exploit weak spots in the German lines, helping the Allies to push Germany out of France.

The first machine guns were successfully mounted on planes in June of 1912 in the United States, but were imperfect; if timed incorrectly, a bullet could easily destroy the propeller of the plane it came from. The Morane-Saulnier L, a French plane, provided a solution: The propeller was armored with deflector wedges that prevented bullets from hitting it. The Morane-Saulnier Type L was used by the French, the British Royal Flying Corps (part of the Army), the British Royal Navy Air Service and the Imperial Russian Air Service. The British Bristol Type 22 was another popular model used for both reconnaissance work and as a fighter plane.

Dutch inventor Anthony Fokker improved upon the French deflector system in 1915. His “interrupter” synchronized the firing of the guns with the plane’s propeller to avoid collisions. Though his most popular plane during WWI was the single-seat Fokker Eindecker, Fokker created over 40 kinds of airplanes for the Germans.

The Allies debuted the Handley-Page HP O/400, the first two-engine bomber, in 1915. As aerial technology progressed, long-range heavy bombers like Germany’s Gotha G.V. (first introduced in 1917) were used to strike cities like London. Their speed and maneuverability proved to be far deadlier than Germany’s earlier Zeppelin raids.

By the war’s end, the Allies were producing five times more aircraft than the Germans. On April 1, 1918, the British created the Royal Air Force, or RAF, the first air force to be a separate military branch independent from the navy or army. 

Second Battle of the Marne

With Germany able to build up its strength on the Western Front after the armistice with Russia, Allied troops struggled to hold off another German offensive until promised reinforcements from the United States were able to arrive.

On July 15, 1918, German troops launched what would become the last German offensive of the war, attacking French forces (joined by 85,000 American troops as well as some of the British Expeditionary Force) in the Second Battle of the Marne . The Allies successfully pushed back the German offensive and launched their own counteroffensive just three days later.

After suffering massive casualties, Germany was forced to call off a planned offensive further north, in the Flanders region stretching between France and Belgium, which was envisioned as Germany’s best hope of victory.

The Second Battle of the Marne turned the tide of war decisively towards the Allies, who were able to regain much of France and Belgium in the months that followed.

The Harlem Hellfighters and Other All-Black Regiments

By the time World War I began, there were four all-Black regiments in the U.S. military: the 24th and 25th Infantry and the 9th and 10th Cavalry. All four regiments comprised of celebrated soldiers who fought in the Spanish-American War and American-Indian Wars , and served in the American territories. But they were not deployed for overseas combat in World War I. 

Blacks serving alongside white soldiers on the front lines in Europe was inconceivable to the U.S. military. Instead, the first African American troops sent overseas served in segregated labor battalions, restricted to menial roles in the Army and Navy, and shutout of the Marines, entirely. Their duties mostly included unloading ships, transporting materials from train depots, bases and ports, digging trenches, cooking and maintenance, removing barbed wire and inoperable equipment, and burying soldiers.

Facing criticism from the Black community and civil rights organizations for its quotas and treatment of African American soldiers in the war effort, the military formed two Black combat units in 1917, the 92nd and 93rd Divisions . Trained separately and inadequately in the United States, the divisions fared differently in the war. The 92nd faced criticism for their performance in the Meuse-Argonne campaign in September 1918. The 93rd Division, however, had more success. 

With dwindling armies, France asked America for reinforcements, and General John Pershing , commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, sent regiments in the 93 Division to over, since France had experience fighting alongside Black soldiers from their Senegalese French Colonial army. The 93 Division’s 369 regiment, nicknamed the Harlem Hellfighters , fought so gallantly, with a total of 191 days on the front lines, longer than any AEF regiment, that France awarded them the Croix de Guerre for their heroism. More than 350,000 African American soldiers would serve in World War I in various capacities.

Toward Armistice

By the fall of 1918, the Central Powers were unraveling on all fronts.

Despite the Turkish victory at Gallipoli, later defeats by invading forces and an Arab revolt that destroyed the Ottoman economy and devastated its land, and the Turks signed a treaty with the Allies in late October 1918.

Austria-Hungary, dissolving from within due to growing nationalist movements among its diverse population, reached an armistice on November 4. Facing dwindling resources on the battlefield, discontent on the homefront and the surrender of its allies, Germany was finally forced to seek an armistice on November 11, 1918, ending World War I.

Treaty of Versailles

At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, Allied leaders stated their desire to build a post-war world that would safeguard itself against future conflicts of such a devastating scale.

Some hopeful participants had even begun calling World War I “the War to End All Wars.” But the Treaty of Versailles , signed on June 28, 1919, would not achieve that lofty goal.

Saddled with war guilt, heavy reparations and denied entrance into the League of Nations , Germany felt tricked into signing the treaty, having believed any peace would be a “peace without victory,” as put forward by President Wilson in his famous Fourteen Points speech of January 1918.

As the years passed, hatred of the Versailles treaty and its authors settled into a smoldering resentment in Germany that would, two decades later, be counted among the causes of World War II .

World War I Casualties

World War I took the lives of more than 9 million soldiers; 21 million more were wounded. Civilian casualties numbered close to 10 million. The two nations most affected were Germany and France, each of which sent some 80 percent of their male populations between the ages of 15 and 49 into battle.

The political disruption surrounding World War I also contributed to the fall of four venerable imperial dynasties: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia and Turkey.

Legacy of World War I

World War I brought about massive social upheaval, as millions of women entered the workforce to replace men who went to war and those who never came back. The first global war also helped to spread one of the world’s deadliest global pandemics, the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, which killed an estimated 20 to 50 million people.

World War I has also been referred to as “the first modern war.” Many of the technologies now associated with military conflict—machine guns, tanks , aerial combat and radio communications—were introduced on a massive scale during World War I.

The severe effects that chemical weapons such as mustard gas and phosgene had on soldiers and civilians during World War I galvanized public and military attitudes against their continued use. The Geneva Convention agreements, signed in 1925, restricted the use of chemical and biological agents in warfare and remain in effect today.

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• 20th Century

The 4 M-A-I-N Causes of World War One

Alex Browne

28 sep 2021.

It’s possibly the single most pondered question in history – what caused World War One? It wasn’t, like in World War Two, a case of a single belligerent pushing others to take a military stand. It didn’t have the moral vindication of resisting a tyrant.

Rather, a delicate but toxic balance of structural forces created a dry tinder that was lit by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo . That event precipitated the July Crisis, which saw the major European powers hurtle toward open conflict.

The M-A-I-N acronym – militarism, alliances, imperialism and nationalism – is often used to analyse the war, and each of these reasons are cited to be the 4 main causes of World War One. It’s simplistic but provides a useful framework.

The late nineteenth century was an era of military competition, particularly between the major European powers. The policy of building a stronger military was judged relative to neighbours, creating a culture of paranoia that heightened the search for alliances. It was fed by the cultural belief that war is good for nations.

Germany in particular looked to expand its navy. However, the ‘naval race’ was never a real contest – the British always s maintained naval superiority.  But the British obsession with naval dominance was strong. Government rhetoric exaggerated military expansionism.  A simple naivety in the potential scale and bloodshed of a European war prevented several governments from checking their aggression.

A web of alliances developed in Europe between 1870 and 1914 , effectively creating two camps bound by commitments to maintain sovereignty or intervene militarily – the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance.

• The Triple Alliance of 1882 linked Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy.
• The Triple Entente of 1907 linked France, Britain and Russia.

A historic point of conflict between Austria Hungary and Russia was over their incompatible Balkan interests, and France had a deep suspicion of Germany rooted in their defeat in the 1870 war.

The alliance system primarily came about because after 1870 Germany, under Bismarck, set a precedent by playing its neighbours’ imperial endeavours off one another, in order to maintain a balance of power within Europe

‘Hark! hark! the dogs do bark!’, satirical map of Europe. 1914

Image Credit: Paul K, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Imperialism

Imperial competition also pushed the countries towards adopting alliances. Colonies were units of exchange that could be bargained without significantly affecting the metro-pole. They also brought nations who would otherwise not interact into conflict and agreement. For example, the Russo-Japanese War (1905) over aspirations in China, helped bring the Triple Entente into being.

It has been suggested that Germany was motivated by imperial ambitions to invade Belgium and France. Certainly the expansion of the British and French empires, fired by the rise of industrialism and the pursuit of new markets, caused some resentment in Germany, and the pursuit of a short, aborted imperial policy in the late nineteenth century.

However the suggestion that Germany wanted to create a European empire in 1914 is not supported by the pre-war rhetoric and strategy.

Nationalism

Nationalism was also a new and powerful source of tension in Europe. It was tied to militarism, and clashed with the interests of the imperial powers in Europe. Nationalism created new areas of interest over which nations could compete.

For example, The Habsburg empire was tottering agglomeration of 11 different nationalities, with large slavic populations in Galicia and the Balkans whose nationalist aspirations ran counter to imperial cohesion. Nationalism in the Balkan’s also piqued Russia’s historic interest in the region.

Indeed, Serbian nationalism created the trigger cause of the conflict – the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

The spark: the assassination

Ferdinand and his wife were murdered in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, a member of the Bosnian Serbian nationalist terrorist organization the ‘Black Hand Gang.’ Ferdinand’s death, which was interpreted as a product of official Serbian policy, created the July Crisis – a month of diplomatic and governmental miscalculations that saw a domino effect of war declarations initiated.

The historical dialogue on this issue is vast and distorted by substantial biases. Vague and undefined schemes of reckless expansion were imputed to the German leadership in the immediate aftermath of the war with the ‘war-guilt’ clause. The notion that Germany was bursting with newfound strength, proud of her abilities and eager to showcase them, was overplayed.

The first page of the edition of the ‘Domenica del Corriere’, an Italian paper, with a drawing by Achille Beltrame depicting Gavrilo Princip killing Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo

Image Credit: Achille Beltrame, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The almost laughable rationalization of British imperial power as ‘necessary’ or ‘civilizing’ didn’t translate to German imperialism, which was ‘aggressive’ and ‘expansionist.’ There is an on-going historical discussion on who if anyone was most culpable.

Blame has been directed at every single combatant at one point or another, and some have said that all the major governments considered a golden opportunity for increasing popularity at home.

The Schlieffen plan could be blamed for bringing Britain into the war, the scale of the war could be blamed on Russia as the first big country to mobilise, inherent rivalries between imperialism and capitalism could be blamed for polarising the combatants. AJP Taylor’s ‘timetable theory’ emphasises the delicate, highly complex plans involved in mobilization which prompted ostensibly aggressive military preparations.

Every point has some merit, but in the end what proved most devastating was the combination of an alliance network with the widespread, misguided belief that war is good for nations, and that the best way to fight a modern war was to attack. That the war was inevitable is questionable, but certainly the notion of glorious war, of war as a good for nation-building, was strong pre-1914. By the end of the war, it was dead.

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5 Key Causes of World War I

Illustration by Hugo Lin. ThoughtCo.

• M.A., History, University of Florida
• B.A., History, University of Florida

World War I, known as the "war to end all wars," occurred between July 1914 and November 11, 1918. By the end of the war, over 17 million people had been killed, including over 100,000 American troops. While the causes of the war are infinitely more complicated than a simple timeline of events, and are still debated and discussed to this day, the list below provides an overview of the most frequently-cited events that led to war. 

Watch Now: 5 Causes of World War I

Mutual defense alliances.

Countries throughout the world have always made mutual defense agreements with their neighbors, treaties that could pull them into battle. These treaties meant that if one country was attacked, the allied countries were bound to defend them. Before World War 1 began, the following alliances existed:

• Russia and Serbia
• Germany and Austria-Hungary
• France and Russia
• Britain and France and Belgium
• Japan and Britain

When Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Russia got involved to defend Serbia. Germany, seeing that Russia was mobilizing, declared war on Russia. France was then drawn in against Germany and Austria-Hungary. Germany attacked France by marching through Belgium pulling Britain into war. Then Japan entered the war to support its British allies. Later, Italy and the United States would enter on the side of the Allies (Britain, France, Russia, etc.).

Imperialism

Imperialism is when a country increases their power and wealth by bringing additional territories under their control, usually without outright colonizing or resettling them. Before World War I, several European countries had made competing imperialistic claims in Africa and parts of Asia, making them points of contention. Because of the raw materials these areas could provide, tensions around which country had the right to exploit these areas ran high. The increasing competition and desire for greater empires led to an increase in confrontation that helped push the world into World War I.

As the world entered the 20th century, an arms race had begun, primarily over the number of each country's warships, and the increasing size of their armies—countries began training more and more of their young men to be prepared for battle. The warships themselves increased in size, number of guns, speed, method of propulsion, and quality armor, beginning in 1906 with Britain's HMS Dreadnought . Dreadnought   was soon out-classed as the Royal Navy and Kaiserliche Marine quickly expanded their ranks with increasingly modern and powerful warships. 

By 1914, Germany had nearly 100 warships and two million trained soldiers. Great Britain and Germany both greatly increased their navies in this time period. Further, in Germany and Russia particularly, the military establishment began to have a greater influence on public policy. This increase in militarism helped push the countries involved into war.

Nationalism

Much of the origin of the war was based on the desire of the Slavic peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina to no longer be part of Austria-Hungary but instead be part of Serbia. This specific essentially nationalistic and ethnic revolt led directly to the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand , which was the event that tipped the scales to war.

But more generally, nationalism in many of the countries throughout Europe contributed not only to the beginning but to the extension of the war across Europe and into Asia. As each country tried to prove their dominance and power, the war became more complicated and prolonged.

Immediate Cause: Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

The immediate cause of World War I that made the aforementioned items come into play (alliances, imperialism, militarism, and nationalism) was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand  of Austria-Hungary. In June 1914, a Serbian-nationalist terrorist group called the Black Hand sent groups to assassinate the Archduke. Their first attempt failed when a driver avoided a grenade thrown at their car. However, later that day a Serbian nationalist named Gavrilo Princip shot the Archduke and his wife while they were driving through Sarajevo, Bosnia which was part of Austria-Hungary. They died of their wounds.

The assassination was in protest to Austria-Hungary having control of this region: Serbia wanted to take over Bosnia and Herzegovina. The assassination of Ferdinand led to Austria-Hungary declaring war on Serbia. When Russia began to mobilize to defend its alliance with Serbia, Germany declared war on Russia. Thus began the expansion of the war to include all those involved in the mutual defense alliances.

The War to End All Wars

World War I saw a change in warfare, from the hand-to-hand style of older wars to the inclusion of weapons that used technology and removed the individual from close combat. The war had extremely high casualties over 15 million dead and 20 million injured. The face of warfare would never be the same again.

• Causes of World War I and the Rise of Germany
• The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, 1914
• World War I Timeline From 1914 to 1919
• Biography of Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria
• The Causes and War Aims of World War One
• World War I Timeline: 1914, The War Begins
• World War I Introduction and Overview
• World War 1: A Short Timeline Pre-1914
• The Major Alliances of World War I
• World War I: Opening Campaigns
• The First Battle of the Marne
• The Fourteen Points of Woodrow Wilson's Plan for Peace
• Key Historical Figures of World War I
• The Black Hand: Serbian Terrorists Spark WWI
• The Consequences of World War I

Home — Essay Samples — Sociology — Connection — Unveiling the Causes and Consequences of World War I

Unveiling The Causes and Consequences of World War I

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Published: Mar 1, 2019

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165 World War 1 Topics for Essays with Examples

Looking for good World War 1 topics to write about? This area of study is exciting, controversial, and worth analysing!

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• ❓ WW1 Essay Questions

In your WW1 essay, you might want to focus on the causes of the conflict, its participants, or answer the question of who started the First World War. In this article, we’ve gathered 139 WW1 ideas that you can use in any project, presentation, or even debate. There are also great World War 1 essay examples to inspire you even more.

🔝 Top 10 World War 1 Topics to Write about

• Causes of World War I
• Political and military alliances before the WWI
• Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand as the starting point of WW1
• Naval warfare of World War I
• Ottoman Empire in World War 1
• The role of technology in World War 1
• The use of chemical weapons in WWI
• The most cruel war crimes of WW1
• Armenian genocide as a part of World War 1
• The effects and consequences of WW1

📝 World War 1 Essay: How to Write

With over 60 million people mobilized and involving countries all around the world, any World War 1 Essay is bound to touch upon a wide variety of topics.

The mechanics behind the start of the war, its process, and results all interconnect, which may make the subject seem hard to understand and harder to outline.

However, navigating your way around World War 1 essay questions is only a matter of taking note of a few cornerstone historical processes.

Before You Start Your Outline

Do some research on your assigned issue. The more books and journals you peruse, the more aware of your subject you will be. You will not use all of them, but you will form an understanding of which titles your essay needs.

As you continue your research, start compiling your bibliography, which will be the backbone of your essay’s credibility. World War 1 is a highly historiographical event, and you will be sure to find a wide variety of literature on it on the internet.

Write down some essential terms and think about how they relate to your essay. Imperialism, nationalism, the Versailles treaty are good starter examples of omnipresent processes and results of World War 1. Doing so may help you give your essay a new, previously explored perspective.

Structuring your Thoughts into an Essay Outline

After you have finished with your sources and key terms, think about how you can split your main theme into subtopics.

Even if your essay is a single page, doing so will allow you to divide your ideas evenly between paragraphs. If it is on the longer side, think about including subheadings in your work.

This action gives your essay a more rigid structure that is easy to read. Additionally, now is the time to think about your essay’s title. World War 1 essay titles should reflect your stance as the writer and hint at the conclusion that you will draw.

You may feel like your outlined subheadings are overlapping, making your essay seem messy. In this case, find and read a World War 1 essay sample. Plagiarism is a severe academic offense, but getting inspired by someone else’s work, while giving credit, is not.

Beginning to Write

You should try to start your essay with something that attracts the attention of your readers. This World War 1 essay hook can be a fact or an intriguing explanation of a process central to your topic. Then, in this paragraph:

• Give your readers a brief overview of the events that are relevant to your essay;
• Hint at your intent, explain your methods and make your point of view clear;
• Make sure your readers are aware of what problems you will touch upon;
• Create a working thesis statement that will be your guideline throughout your work.

Each paragraph you include should link back to your thesis statement. Always be sure to ask yourself when writing:

• Does this further my argument?
• Can my facts be used against me? How can I fix that?
• Is there a different perspective on this issue?
• Could I remove this without hurting the quality of my essay?
• Is my structure reflective of the problem it is covering? What can I do better?

Remember that a good structure reflects the amount of effort you put into your work. Need a sample to get inspired? Head over to IvyPanda!

🏆 Best World War 1 Essay Topics & Examples

• First World War: Causes and Effects This later led to the entry of countries allied to Serbia into the war so as to protect their partners. In conclusion, the First World War led to the loss of many lives.
• Positive and Negative Effects of WW1 on Canada: Essay Nonetheless, the war led to great negative impacts such as loss of lives, economic downtrend, and the generation of tensions involving the Francophones and Anglophones who disagreed after the emergence of the notion of conscription.
• American Dream After World War I People lost vision of what this dream was supposed to mean and it became a dream, not of the vestal and industrious, but of the corrupt coterie, hence corrupting the dream itself.
• World War I Technology Although the question of the origins of the Great War is highly debated, and although this war is considered by many as the beginning of a new stage in history and the real starting point […]
• Total War of World War I The paper will demonstrate that the First World War was a total war since it bore most the hallmark characteristics of the total war including unlimited warfare, prioritization of armament efforts, involvement of the civilian […]
• Effects of the Industrial Revolution in Relation to World War I During the last period of the 19th century all the way to the early 20th century, Europe and America experienced revolutions in communication, transportation and weapons which were very crucial particularly in the manner in […]
• Causes of WWI and WWII: Comparing and Contrasting In the following paper, Kenneth Waltz’s levels of analysis will be used for the comparison and contrast of causes of WWI and WWII. The second similarity refers to the distribution of power and the division […]
• Ernest Hemingway’s Personality and His Reflections on WWI The events of World War I and Hemmingway’s personal experiences seemed to have an impact on his writings as he sought to establish himself alongside great writers in the Lost Generation, thus portraying his sensitivity.
• Federal Government Expansion During World War I The period between 1914 and 1918 was marked by the increased role of the federal government in the United States and the dramatic expansion of its bureaucracies.
• The Aftermath of World War I for Germany In spite of the fact that Germany was one of the most powerful European states before the war’s start in 1914, World War I led to the political, economic, and social decline in the country […]
• America’s Involvement in World War I The issues that led to America’s involvement in this were the German’s resumption of unexpected submarine attacks and the Zimmerman telegram.
• Effects of World War I on the Development of Modern Art For the artists and most of the people in Europe, the time that preceded the World War I, the actual war period and the aftermath of the was presented a period of profound disillusionment 13.
• Aboriginal Soldiers in the World War I and II Additionally, the paper will argue that the role and experiences of Aboriginal soldiers and the manner in which they have been overshadowed by other significant events in Australian history.
• The Causes and Effects of World War I To this end, the Commission on the Responsibility of the Authors of the War and the Enforcement of Penalties met in Paris in 1919. It is impossible to name a single reason for the initiation […]
• Life of Soldiers During the World War I In this paper, we are going to discuss how the World War I affected live of people and what was the life of soldiers and civilians serving and living on the frontlines.
• Eastman Kodak Company and Fujifilm The Eastman Kodak Company has been focusing on photography and has currently added the use of technology in combining images and information in order to alter the ways through which businesses and people communicate.
• World War 1 Origins (How and Why the War Started) William Anthony Hay claims that according to McMeekin, a tutor of international relations, “The war’s real catalyst lay in Russia’s ambition to supplant the waning Ottoman Empire in the Near East and to control the […]
• Events Leading Up to WWI This move also contributed to the start of the conflict and eventually to the war. This decision was vehemently opposed by the Slavs, which saw Russia come to the aid of Serbia while on the […]
• The Progressive Era and World War I To achieve the intended goals, many progressives began by exposing the major evils and challenges that were affecting the United States towards the end of the 19th century.
• The Progressive Movement and the American Entry Into World War I The motivations of the progressive movement were complex and varied, but they all sought to improve the lives of the people of the United States.
• World War I as the Catastrophe of the 20th Century There were increased cataclysms in Europe over time; for instance, the war laid a foundation for the rise of Hitler and increased the influence of the Nazism ideology.
• World War I: American Policy of Neutrality Even though the people of America were shocked and firmly against involvement in the war, the US president thought of the crisis as a turning point that could significantly change America’s place in the world.
• Economic Causes of World War I As of 1860, the American South was generating 75% of the world’s cotton due to the institution of slavery on the part of its wealthy farmers.
• The Role of Canada in World War I The beginning of the war was marked by great losses in the field and in the economy of the state. By the war’s end, Canada had shown itself as a great power, which allowed the […]
• America’s Progressive Era and World War I This paper will outline the events leading to America’s entrance into the war, the obstacles faced by the U.S.military, and the role of American women and minorities.
• The Entry of the United States Into World War I The United States is believed to have entered the war after sinking the American liner Lusitania by a German submarine in 1915. Due to the competent actions of President W.
• Role the United States of America in the World War I The main result of the battle was the victory of the Entente and the collapse of the four largest empires: the Russian, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and German.
• Impact of World War I on the American Army Some of the major strategies include the use of airplanes in the field of battle, employing armored vehicles, and electronic communication.
• The United States Priorities Following World War I Gentile, Linick, and Shurkin single out four important periods in the evolution of the US army: Constitutional moorings and the 19th century, the Spanish-American War to Total War, and the Korean War to Total Force […]
• Biggest Influence on the US Involvement in World War I Although a combination of factors including trade alliances and the interception of the Zimmerman note encouraged the decision to join the fray, Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare was the biggest reason for the US involvement.
• Nationalism in Europe Before WWI This movement was the result of effective propaganda and an aggressive policy aimed at the redistribution of territories and the seizure of power.
• Factors Leading to the Termination of World War I However, the deliberate humiliation of the German leadership at the hand of the Allied forces perpetrated through the signing of the “war guilt clause” indicates that the reason for the Allied forces was not solely […]
• World War I Causes by Ethnic Problems in Austro-Hungary The presence of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne in the said maneuvers was the perfect opportunity. After the capture of Gavrilo Princip it was time for the Austro-Hungarian Empire to react and teach the […]
• World War I: Medias of Propaganda in the U.S. Posters of World War 1 presented a different style of propaganda because of the war time effort of U S government.
• America Changes After World War I Among the various changes underwent by America during their recovery period in the 1920s were changes in culture, economy as well as in the workforce.
• America in World War I One of the events that led America into the First World War was when a liner belonging to the British was sunk by the U-boat belonging to Germans.
• The Nature of the Fighting in World War I and World War II So, the results of this war were awful, but still, speaking about the losses of the World War II, it can be said, that it was the bloodiest conflict in human history. The most obvious […]
• Treaty of Versailles History: The Pact of Peace After WWI The differences among the winners of the war, later on, led to the emergence of more conflicts simply because Germany was not fully weakened; it is believed that the conflicts between these nations were the […]
• The Wars Between 1815 and WWI in Europe Tsar Nicholas moved into Moldavia and Wallachia and secret accords with the Austrian and British governments for the disposition of the Ottoman empire were formulated in 1844 in London.
• World War I Within the Context of Military Revolution The main peculiarity of the World War I is the advent of the so-called “three-dimensional conflict”, which means that the combat is held also in the air.
• Life Before World War I and Life of Soldiers in Trenches The future of these Habsburg domains, assembled over the centuries by marriage, purchase and conquest, was the subject of endless coffee-table speculation, but the subsequent demise of the monarchy should not necessarily encourage the notion […]
• Great Depression of Canada and Conscription During World War I in Canada Due to the depression in the United States, the people across the border were not able to buy the wheat produced and cultivated in Canada and as a result, the exports declined.
• Anti-War Movement DADA Vs. Propaganda Posters of WWI In relation to the causes of the WWI, these can considered as pertinent specifically on the basis that the reasons can be related to the type of society that is present during the said era.
• Leadership in the World War I Environment Military leadership is the process of influencing others to accomplish the mission by providing purpose, direction, and motivation and the basic responsibilities of a leader are the accomplishments of the mission and the welfare of […]
• World War 1 and Technological Improvement The was sparked by the assassination of the Heir to the Austrian throne, Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian nationalist, Gavrilo Princip on June 28th, 1914.
• The Battle of Verdun: World War One The choice of Verdun as the center of interest by the Germans was not very effective because the French men lost faith in the fortresses and the need to defend them.
• Imperialist Global Order After World War I Thus, the general trend of the after-war years was the dismantling of multiethnic empires and the establishment of new nation-states. However, World War I also created new challenges to the existing hierarchies of wealth and […]
• Soccer Influence on Sociopolitical Aspects of WWI During this period, many footballers and athletes were tempted or encouraged to join the militaries of their respective countries and become part of the ongoing war.
• Idealist Philosophy After World War I Although I disagree with the philosophy of idealism, it is a fact that it managed to create a better world following the events of World War I.
• World War I and Its Outbreak Causes Some of the events that influenced the eruption of World War I include the Franco-Prussian war, the Moroccan crisis, the Balkan wars, and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand from Austria.
• World War I and Battle of Vimy Ridge for Canadians If the authors of the required readings gathered for a discussion of the First World War and Vimy Ridge, they would be likely to agree and disagree with one another on some points.
• Aftermath of the WWI The source concludes that the provisions of the treaty were unfavorable to the government and the people of Germany, something that forced the country’s leaders to respond with militarization of the state.
• Trucial States’ History From World War I to the 1960s During the decline of the pearling industry, the British were highly vigilant to sustain the existing regional trend of alienation amongst leaders and the people.
• World War I and Its Aftermath In 1930, Hitler’s ambitions and the rise of Nazism was boosted by president’s declaration that the state was to be ruled autocratically.
• American Experiences in World War I: Radio Broadcast There was a heated debate in the American society concerning the county’s involvement in the Great War, and President Wilson was heavily criticized not only for the fact of entering the war but also for […]
• World War I and the 1920s In this case, American citizens went from industry workers and soldiers during the World War I to the explorers, who discover different forms of entertainment in the 1920s because of stabilization of the politics in […]

🔎 Interesting Topics to Write about World War 1

• World War I, Its Origin and Allies Many researchers consider the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in June 1914 in Sarajevo to be the reason for the start of World War I.
• World War I for Americans: Before and After It is important to say that lower classes had to deal with the biggest number of issues, and they have suffered the most.
• France Before World War I and After World War II To overcome the negative consequences of the Franco-Prussian War, France needed to focus on new perspectives for the state’s economic and political development, and such an approach could provide the state with the necessary resources […]
• Pozieres Battle in World War I on Western Front The battle for the village of Pozieres was one of the deadliest and most remarkable for the Australian troops which took part in the First World War.
• Native Americans Role in World War I Most of the students who went to schools away from the reserves came to the realization that they were, ‘first Americans and then indians second.’3 The schools also taught patriotic songs as well as observation […]
• American History From Reconstruction to World War I However, despite the popular opinion of the individual initiative of the first settlers, the federal government played a great role in facilitating the settlement of the West.
• America & World War I The three years have been used to argue that the US was unwilling to enter the war; that the US was neutral as Woodrow Wilson had declared.
• From World War One to Globalization Even though the First World War shook Europe to the core, the combination of the first and the Second World War created a three world order, modeled along three rival political affiliations.
• How the Federal Bureaucracy Expanded During WWI? The role of the bureaucracy was expansive during the war since the state was expected to provide many services to the citizens, something that led to the formulation of stronger rules and regulations to guide […]
• The Expansion of Federal Bureaucracy During WWI With these, a number of government agencies were created during the WWI particularly when it emerged that there was a need to regulate or control industrial sector as well as the call for the US […]
• Role of Civilian Population in World War I Not only did the war encouraged people to join their forces in order to fight the enemy, but also affected their perception of the state’s key political processes raising political engagement rates among population, WWI […]
• WWI: Germany’s Secret Gambles The “interception of the German arms shipment by the Royal Navy” led to the quick suppression of the Eastern uprising and execution of key leaders of the Irish Republicans.
• The Second Battlefield: Women, Modernism, and the First World War The first theme is the connection of writings of women on the subject of the First World War and the modernism theoretical constructs.
• The Book “The First World War” by John Keegan However, the emergence of the bill of the right to people’s life across the globe is owed to the occurrence of the First and the Second World War.
• Watching the World Fall Apart: A Post-WWI Vision of the World in the Works of Otto Dix, Max Beckmann and George Grosz While it is quite understandable that at the current stage of the development of humankind, some conflicts still have to be resolved with the use of coercive methods, war as a massive homicide still remains […]
• First World War and Germany In particular, the author is more concerned with giving the effects of the war on the German people, unlike other authors who generalize the effects of the war.
• Ernist Junger’s World War I Experiences When the Storm of Steel was published, it became a favorite in Germany since it adored the greatness of war and the huge sacrifices made by the Germany warriors to end the war victoriously.
• World War I Technological Advancements World War I saw the application of several new technologies to the battlefield, the most important being that of the internal combustion engine, which permitted the development of the first successful mechanized armored fighting vehicles1.
• The First World War and the Russian Revolution Scholars argue that Russia’s involvement in the First World War and the economic consequences are the primary causes of the revolution.
• United States and World War I The paper further gives an in-depth analysis of how the Germans waged war against the European countries and the circumstances that forced the United States to abandon its neutrality to take part in the Great […]
• WWI-War: Revolution, and Reconstruction In as much as soldiers and civilians garnered experience during WWI, it is imperative to acknowledge that the unsuitable environment at the forefront led to deterioration of health standards; furthermore, civilians were forced to live […]
• The Causes of the First World War In his description of the war, it is clear that Europe played a key role towards the formation of the war alliances.
• The Role of Airplanes During World War I (1914-1918) The government further formed a consultative ‘Aircraft Production Board’ that was made up of members of the Army, Navy, as well as the sector to assess the Europeans’ fortunes in aircraft sector in a bid […]
• The World War I The war brought to the fore various issues which had been in the air in the end of the nineteenth century and in the beginning of the twentieth century.
• Importance of Accountability: World War I It is clear from the beginning of this article, that the statistics on the World War I causalities indicates that the Germans suffered fewer casualties compared to their western counterparts, who are the French and […]
• America and Democracy, at Home and Abroad, During and Just After the First World War Democracy is a kind of regime in which all eligible citizens are allowed to contribute to the decisions of the state.
• Causes and Consequences of World War 1 In social and economic cycles, the interaction of the whites and Blacks was controlled by the laws that neither of the groups was allowed to cross the other party’s path.
• Changes in the Middle East After the World War I The involvement in the war by the countries from the Middle East not only led to loss of power but also spurred the economic decline and created social problems.

⭐ World War 1 Research Topics

• Industrialization and Competition for Resources Which Led to the First World War
• Factors That Made the First World War Unique
• Identify and Evaluate Two Main Themes That Have Defined Management Thought Since the End of the First World War.
• The Events and Results of the First World War I
• Terrible Beauty: Music and Writing of the First World War
• Liberal Democracy and Capitalism After World War 1
• European Politics and the Impact of French Foreign Policy Before the First World War
• Chemical Warfare During the First World War
• The First World War and Russian Revolution
• European Diplomacy and the First World War
• With What Justification Can World War 1 Be Called a Total War
• The Catalyst for the First World War
• The Reasons for the Economic Prosperity in America After the First World War
• Events Leading for the First World War
• Imperialistic Rivalries and the Road to the First World War
• Shaping the American Dream, Defining Success From the First World War to Present
• Austro-Serbian Relations Provoked the First World War
• America and the First World War
• The Purpose and Intent of the League of Nations After the First World War
• The First World War Impact on Australian Economy
• The Long Term and Short Term Causes of World War 1

📃 Simple & Easy World War 1 Essay Titles

• European Goods Market Integration in the Very Long Run: From the Black Death to the First World War
• The Reasons for the American Support for the Involvement in the First World War
• Military Technology During the First World War
• German Foreign Policy and the Impact of Nationalism on It Before the First World War
• The American Foreign Policy After the First World War
• The Economic, Social, and Political Impact of the First World War on Eur
• Technological Advancements During the First World War
• The World Before the First World War According to Barbara Tuchman
• The Effects That the First World War Had on Many People
• The Effective Weapons Used in the First World War
• Women’s Work During the First World War
• Diplomatic Crises: The First World War and the Cuban Missile Crisis
• The First World War Changed the Way People Thought About War and Patriotism
• Gender Roles During the First World War
• The Reasons for the Outbreak of the First World War
• Australia’s Economic and Military Contribution in the First World War
• The First World War: A New Era of Military Conflict
• German Propaganda During the First World War
• Analyzing Propaganda During World War 1
• Britain During the First World War and the Social and Welfare Reforms

❓ World War 1 Essay Questions

• How Important Was the Entry of the U.S. Into the First World War?
• Was the First World War a Total War?
• What Effect Did the First World War Have on Germany?
• How Significant Was the First World War?
• In What Ways Were People’s Lives at Home Affected by the First World War?
• The Russian Revolution Us a Direct Result of the First World War
• How Did Medical Care Change During the First World War?
• How the First World War Created Modern America?
• Was the First World War the Cause of the February Revolution in Russia?
• Was the First World War Inevitable?
• How Did the First World War Change the Role of Women?
• How Industrialization Powered the First World War?
• Why Did the First World War Last So Long?
• How Far Was the First World War Responsible for the Growth of the Labour Party and the Decline of the Liberal Party?
• Why Did the United States Entry Into World War 1?
• How Did the United States Prepare to Fight for the First World War?
• How Did the First World War Set the Global Stage for the Second World War?
• Why Did World War 1 End So Quickly After the Years of Stalemate?
• Why Did the First World War End When It Did?
• How Did the First World War Affect Britain Society?
• How Did Women Affected World War 1?
• How Did Imperialism Cause World War 1?
• How the First World War Impacted the Homefronts of Participating Nations?
• Was the Alliance System the Main Cause of the First World War?
• How Did the Middle East Change as a Result of World War 1?
• Why Did the Ottomans Enter the First World War?
• Why Did Germany Lose the First World War?
• What Was the Most Important Cause of the First World War?
• How Did the Allies Win World War 1?
• Why Did Some Men Oppose Women’s Employment in the Industry During the First World War?
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2024, March 2). 165 World War 1 Topics for Essays with Examples. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/world-war-1-essay-examples/

"165 World War 1 Topics for Essays with Examples." IvyPanda , 2 Mar. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/topic/world-war-1-essay-examples/.

IvyPanda . (2024) '165 World War 1 Topics for Essays with Examples'. 2 March.

IvyPanda . 2024. "165 World War 1 Topics for Essays with Examples." March 2, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/world-war-1-essay-examples/.

1. IvyPanda . "165 World War 1 Topics for Essays with Examples." March 2, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/world-war-1-essay-examples/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "165 World War 1 Topics for Essays with Examples." March 2, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/world-war-1-essay-examples/.

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What is behind US college protests over Israel-Gaza war?

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Reporting by Julia Harte in New York, Kanishka Singh in Washington, Brendan O'Brien in Chicago, and Andrew Hay in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien

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Canada police charge three with murder of Sikh leader Nijjar, probe India link

Canadian police on Friday arrested and charged three Indian men with the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar last year and said they were probing whether the men had ties to the Indian government.

New Zealand said on Saturday that its Antarctic agency signed a memorandum of understanding with Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute to foster cooperation between the two polar science bodies, amid China's growing presence in Antarctica.

Debris from downed Russian drones struck civilian targets early on Saturday in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, injuring three people and sparking a fire in an office building, the regional governor said.

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World History Project AP®

Course: world history project ap®   >   unit 7, read: what caused the first world war.

• BEFORE YOU WATCH: How World War I Started – Crash Course World History #209
• WATCH: How World War I Started
• READ: The First World War as a Global War
• BEFORE YOU WATCH: Britain and World War I
• WATCH: Britain and World War I
• BEFORE YOU WATCH: Southeast Asia and World War I
• WATCH: Southeast Asia and World War I
• BEFORE YOU WATCH: The Middle East and World War I
• WATCH: The Middle East and World War I

First read: preview and skimming for gist

Second read: key ideas and understanding content.

• Who killed Franz Ferdinand? Why did they kill him?
• How did the European alliance system help start the war?
• How did imperialism help start the war?
• Why does the author argue that industrialization made the war inevitable once preparations were started?
• How might the First World War have happened on accident?

Third read: evaluating and corroborating

• To what extent does this article explain the causes and consequences of World War I?
• This article gives three broad explanations for the origins of the First World War. Which view, or argument, do you agree with the most, and why? Why not the others?

What Caused the First World War?

World war why, one shot: the assassination of archduke franz ferdinand, deeper trends: help me help you help me, accidental war: missed the memo, hit the target.

• Yes, these terms can get confusing. Nationalism was introduced to you as the idea that a state should govern itself, and not have some empire as its boss. But at some point, that feeling that you should get to govern yourself can turn into the idea that you are better than other nations, and becomes a kind of extreme patriotism. We call that nationalism as well. As we will see, nationalism is a pretty flexible thing, and it can be used for lots of different purposes.
• Top map by Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 3.0. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_the_German_Empire_-_1914.PNG
• Bottom map by Andrew0921, CC BY-SA 3.0. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:British_Empire_in_1914.png

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The protests over the Israel-Hamas war put a spotlight on college endowments

Police clashed with protesters at Ohio State University, as pro-Palestinian protests continue at campuses around the United States.

The New School students and pro-Palestinian supporters rally outside The New School University Center building, Monday, April 22, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

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University of Southern California protester raises an anti war sign in Alumni Park on the campus of the University of Southern California during a pro-Palestinian occupation on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

Pro-Palestinians protesters protest in front of Sather Gate during a planned protest on the campus of UC Berkeley in Berkeley, Calif., Monday, April 22, 2024. Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters staged a demonstration in front of Sproul Hall where they set up a tent encampment and are demanding a permanent cease-fire in the war between Israel and Gaza. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group via AP)

A Georgia State Patrol officer detains a protester on the campus of Emory University during a pro-Palestinian demonstration Thursday, April 25, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology student Isa Liggans, of Odenton, Md., front left, takes part in Muslim prayer with others Monday, April 22, 2024, at an encampment of tents at MIT, in Cambridge, Mass. Students at MIT set up the encampment of tents on campus to protest what they said was MIT’s failure to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and to cut ties to Israel’s military. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Demonstrators chant at a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Texas Wednesday April 24, 2024 in Austin, Texas. Protests Wednesday on the campuses of at least two universities involved clashes with police, while another university shut down its campus for the rest of the week. (Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman via AP)

A Palestinian flag is displayed at the pro-Palestinian demonstration encampment at Columbia University in New York on Wednesday April 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

Signs are displayed on tents at the pro-Palestinian demonstration encampment at Columbia University in New York on Wednesday April 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

“Divest from death” read the bubble letters written in chalk on the sidewalk on Tuesday outside of The New School in New York City.

The slogan articulates one of the demands of the antiwar protests on campuses which call on colleges or universities to divest their endowments from companies profiting from the Israel-Hamas war .

Campaigns to pressure universities to divest for political or ethical reasons go back decades, at least to the 1970s when students pressured schools to withdraw from investments that benefited South Africa under apartheid rule. More recently, in the early aughts, schools made rules barring investments in things like alcohol, tobacco and gambling, according to a report from the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) and Commonfund.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology student Isa Liggans, of Odenton, Md., front left, takes part in Muslim prayer with others Monday, April 22, 2024, at an encampment of tents at MIT, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

By the beginning of the next decade, a sizeable minority of endowments were including some environmental, social and governance criteria in their portfolios, which expands the factors considered in weighing the value of an investment beyond profits and losses.

College and university endowments hold hundreds of billions of dollars in assets, for example, with Columbia University’s reaching $13.6 billion in 2023. Now, campus protests are bringing attention to who controls university endowments and how decisions about those investments get made.

WHAT ARE ENDOWMENTS?

Endowments are the holdings and investments that institutions of higher education, foundations and some nonprofits manage as a kind of perpetual savings account. Many use the financial returns generated by those assets each year to help fund the institution’s ongoing work. Donors often give to institution’s endowments to ensure it will have resources well into the future.

WHO MANAGES THE INVESTMENTS OF AN ENDOWMENT?

Many schools from the largest to the smallest work with outside investment managers, like investment banks or hedge funds or specialized firms that have access to investing vehicles that aren’t available to retail investors, said Todd Ely, associate professor in the School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado Denver.

“Colleges and universities have fairly limited discretion in the actual specific investments that their endowment funds are going towards because they’ve hired these external experts to make those decisions. And sometimes those decisions are even proprietary,” Ely said, meaning the investors do not publicly share what’s in their portfolio.

Endowments usually are managed by a board of trustees at the university and the purpose of any endowment is agreed upon by the donors, usually to benefit the institution. They don’t “belong” to current students, faculty or alumni but rather to the organization itself.

HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO CHANGE INVESTMENTS?

Georges Dyer, executive director and cofounder of the Intentional Endowments Network, said it can take time and be difficult to identify what exposure a school’s endowment might have to a specific company.

“It’s not as simple as some people think — maybe it’s just selling some stocks at a certain company. That said, I think anything is possible in today’s financial services industry,” Dyer said.

His network helps connect organizations with endowments to learn from each other about how to align their endowments with their mission and to make their investments sustainable and responsible, for example, in the context of climate change. The network also recommends that transparency be one principle of sustainable and mission-driven investing.

The calls for divestment from fossil fuel companies, which started in 2011, make a moral argument but also a financial one, he said, which helps gain the support of the trustees and boards that direct university investments.

“The tie back to the investment, and the financial performance and the investment performance case, is not always very clear,” Dyer said of calls for divestment based on geopolitical issues.

The protesters’ demands also raise questions about what a university’s priorities and responsibilities are, Ely said.

“Are you trying to maximize returns or promote a social or political agenda?” Ely asked. “And for those actually managing the endowments on a day-to-day basis, they are focused on risk and returns until they’re directed otherwise by those with governance authority for the college or university.”

HAVE ANY SCHOOLS MADE CHANGES?

Despite the pressure that student protestors from California to Columbia University in New York City are putting on the leadership of their schools, Dyer of the Intentional Endowments Network, said he has not heard that much from their member schools and institutions about divestment in this context.

Fierce disagreement about support or opposition to the war within campus communities is another reason that schools have likely not taken action. Many on campuses hear calls for divestment from Israel or an end to the war as an attack on Jewish people more broadly or as glossing over the deaths and pain caused by Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, which killed 1,200 people.

Jennie C. Stephens, a professor at Northeastern University’s policy school and a climate justice fellow at Harvard-Radcliffe, has written a forthcoming book about the movement for climate justice at universities, including calls for divestment from fossil fuels. She said the initial reaction from universities when called on to divest from fossil fuels was also to say that their funds were comingled with other investors, managed by third parties or that they didn’t know what they were invested in. Eventually, though, those schools that committed to divesting from fossil fuels figured out how to do it.

“These elite institutions with big endowments have a lot of power and they concentrate wealth and power through their endowments,” Stephens said. “And they do have control over how that money is invested.”

DO TRUSTEES HAVE TO LISTEN TO STUDENT DEMANDS?

No. But divestment campaigns have succeeded by using a variety of tactics.

At Pomona College, students voted in February to approve a referendum that included calls for the school to disclose any investments in weapons manufacturers or companies that benefit from what it called the “apartheid” system in Israel and then to divest from those companies. Kouross Esmaeli, a visiting assistant professor of media studies at Pomona College, said school leaders and trustees have told students and professors that they can’t disclose all of their investments.

“‘Oh, we can’t disclose this. This is difficult to do. This is impossible to parse out where our investment is,’” Esmaeli said. “All these kinds of excuses about why we can’t have control over our own money as an institution, and no one’s buying it.”

Pomona College spokesperson Mark Kendall said the administration has offered to meet with protestors and provide information about their investment policies and will continue to do so.

“Endowment investing supports our educational mission, including academic excellence and generous financial aid, over the long term,” Kendall said in an emailed statement.

Esmaeli acknowledged that divestment may take time and that the endowment may be complex, but he said the first demand of student protesters and faculty is for the university to commit to divesting from companies that are profiting off of the war. He said the university can start with the ones identified by the Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement.

“Different choices can be made and rules can be changed in order to allow us to have an open endowment, where we know where our endowment is going,” he said.

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy .

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Athens Turns Orange Under a Saharan Dust Cloud

Taking pictures from the Tourkovounia hills on Tuesday. Credit... Angelos Tzortzinis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

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By Niki Kitsantonis

Reporting from Athens

• April 24, 2024

The skies above Athens turned orange on Tuesday as clouds of dust from the Sahara blew north, casting an eerie glow over the Greek capital’s landmarks.

The phenomenon isn’t new — sandstorms from North Africa have shrouded Britain, Greece and Spain in the past — but the event led to remarkable scenes around the Acropolis and in other parts of Athens.

That’s because the dust cloud was more concentrated than those that have hit Greece in previous episodes, according to Kostas Lagouvardos, research director at the National Observatory of Athens.

“It’s the worst such case in years,” he said.

While the dust had dissipated on Wednesday, the Greek Health Ministry urged people to avoid exercising outdoors and to keep their doors and windows shut.

Here are photos from Athens on Tuesday.

Gazing at the unusual conditions.

The view from Lycabettus Hill, high above the city.

Near the Acropolis.

Strolling past stalls under the orange haze.

The strange hue bathing the city from the Tourkovounia hills.

Niki Kitsantonis is a freelance correspondent for The Times based in Athens. She has been writing about Greece for 20 years, including more than a decade of coverage for The Times. More about Niki Kitsantonis

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