Causes of World War I: Imperialism, Arms Races, Industry, Nationalism, and Alliances

World War I was one of the most destructive conflicts ever to ravage humanity. And what makes it even more terrible was that unlike World War II, it was not a war that needed to be fought in order to preserve freedom, democracy, or a way of life. World War I was primarily of war fought due to imperialist aims, poor execution concerning preserving the balance of power in Europe, rampant nationalistic spirit, and ham-fisted cultural purposes. This article will give you a brief look at the major causes of World War I.

First we will examine economic causes. Although industrial capitalism had become a reigning business practice during the Industrial Revolution, traditionalist mercantilist economics still prevailed with regard to state economics. Mercantilism is the idea that there is a set amount of wealth in the world and in order to increase your wealth, you need to take someone else's. Mercantilism goes hand in hand with imperialism. In order to get access to cheap raw materials needed for expanding industry in the nineteenth century, countries began to scramble all over the earth for regions they could control. Nowhere was this more apparent then in Africa. By the end of the nineteenth century, all of Africa was under foreign control with the exception of two states. Liberia, a tiny colony on Africa's west coast was a refuge for freed slaves and was able to resist takeover by the British or French. The other free country was Ethiopia. Ethiopia was able to reflect and attack made by the recently unified Italy, a country that wanted to keep up with England and France. Italy's failure allowed Ethiopia to remain independent. As for the rest of Africa, Britain controlled regions to the north, east, west, and south, and France controlled areas of the north and west. Belgium controlled the central regions of the African Congo.