The Alliance System & the First World War

Historians have discussed and debated about the causes of The First World War. One major cause of The First World War was The Alliance System. In this essay I shall attempt to adequately depict the extent to which the alliance system was responsible for the commencing of World War 1. I will also list other factors that contributed to causing the First World War to provide you with a well rounded perspective of the major causes that eventually caused the First World War.

Before we can fully display the true extent to which the alliance system contributing to causing the First World War me must first understand what the alliance system really was and what the important alliances were in causing the First World War.

From 1879 to the start of the First World War in 1914 there were several alliances made between countries. The aim of these alliances was to form agreements/friendships between one or more countries to ensure safety. This safety usually meant that if one of the countries associated with the alliance was in any sort of a predicament (usually warfare) then the other country or countries also involved in the alliance had to offer their military support and aid or at least stay neutral.

There were four crucial alliances that played major and decisive roles in causing the First World War. The first was the triple alliance, between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy (signed in 1882); this alliance was full offensive/defensive. The second crucial alliance was between Russia and France (1892), unlike the triple alliance this was a purely defensive alliance between these two nations. The third crucial agreement was not an alliance but more of a mutual understanding between Britain, France & Russia. This "agreement" was just to clarify officially that they were allies (in reality, it was just a mutual dislike of Germany). Under the Treaty of London (1839) Britain guaranteed Belgian neutrality. This meant that if another country invaded Belgium, Britain was bound to declare war on that country to protect Belgium. The other key alliance that comes into is was between Russian and Serbia.

The main problem in this whole alliance system was the German war plan, "Schliefflen Plan". The main objective that this plan stated was to beat France quickly and efficiently through invading Belgium and then moving their troops eastwards to start the offensive with Russia. This was to avoid having to fight France + Russia at the same time which would be too much for the German army to handle.

The catalyst which inevitably set off the whole First World War was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo by Serb Nationalists. Once he was assassinated the finger pointing began and set off an unstoppable chain of events. The Austro-Hungarians blamed the assassination of the Serbian government and that led them to declare war on the Serbs. Once the war had been declared on Serbia

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