(GCP) Lead Up to World War I Lesson

Lead Up to World War I Lesson

By 1914, diplomatic tensions, colonial rivalries, and arms races among the Great Powers of Europe—England, France, Germany, and Russia—led to the creation of two opposing groups, each dedicated to out-maneuvering the other. In Western Europe in the 1920s, new and often troubling political, social, psychological, and economic patterns arose. Fascism gained power in Italy and Germany. Over ten million died in the Great War and millions more were wounded. The governments of Germany and Austria-Hungary collapsed. Western Europe's dominance of world markets lost ground and fell behind the United States and Japan. The Great Depression had worldwide causes and effects. Reactions to this economic earthquake were varied. The most startling change in Western Europe was the rise of Nazism.

 

Be sure read a summary over WWI and the Years Between the Wars as well as a Big Picture. Both are available below.

 

 

 

 

Review the Crash Course video over World War I found below.

 

 

The West had grown over the past century and a half due to industrialization and this coupled with imperialism led to a western dominance in the global political order at the beginning of the 20^th century. However, toward the century's end, these land-based and maritime empires gave way to new states. The older land-based empires of the world, such as the Ottoman, Qing, and Russian, will collapse during the beginning part of the century due to internal and external factors and eventually leading to a communist revolution in Russia and later China. States all over the world will challenge existing political and social order bringing about many new changes.

The causes of World War I will center around 4 MAIN causes: Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, and Nationalism:

 

 

 

As the countries of the world competed with one another with imperialist expansion and resources, that competition let to bitterness and envy as well as an intense form of nationalism fueling countries to show just how great they were no matter what the cost. This coupled with territorial and regional conflicts and a flawed alliance system escalated tensions between countries into a global conflict.

 

 

 

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