World War I broke out in the year 1914. Like all other wars in history, there were reasons for why World War I started. One of those reasons was militarism. Militarism can be defined as the belief that a strong military force is beneficial. During the years before the war, some countries in Europe built large armies and navies and powerful military officers took charge of the civil authorities. The militaries of each country had also planned mobilization during this time as well. Because of these secret battle plans, other countries began to spy on. The results of this were that there was an increase in the hatred and the fear from one country to another. With countries organizing and preparing for war, of course other countries would start to fear you. They would also want to prepare themselves as well while also trying to make sure that their ways of preparing were better than the other country's ways of preparing for war.
Another cause of World War I was nationalism. Nationalism is loyalty and pride for one's own country. Many countries in Europe had a lot of pride in themselves. They believed that they were better than other countries. Germany was one of the countries that showed their pride by making nationalistic speeches and text. When the other countries in Europe heard about this, they wanted to show Germany that they were not better than them. They wanted Germany to lose the feeling of national superiority.
One of the other causes of World War I was the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand on June 28, 1914. He was assassinated during his visit to Sarajevo by a Serbian nationalist. This had angered the people of Austria-Hungary because Ferdinand was the heir to the Austrian throne. They considered the assassination an open attack from Serbia. Now Austria wanted to make sure that Serbia was no longer a threat to Austria, but they knew that if they were to start a war with Serbia, they would need the support of Germany. Germany agreed to help Austria because they believed that Austria was an ally of Germany.
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