Courtney Schrader

Orlowski
Western World History
Hour 5
23 March 2015
Document Based Essay
The Great War, also known as World War I, was the first total war and it covered most of
Europe and involved most of the major European nations. This war was caused in part by
alliances, militarism, and the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary. The
Alliances were made to prevent war and there were two major alliances, the Triple Entente, and
the Triple Alliance (Document 2). Even though these alliances appeared to be working and
Europe was at peace; nations within these alliances began increasing their spending on their
militaries which led to increased militarism and readiness for war (Document 1). With such
readiness for war all that was needed was a small event to tip off a world war. That event was the
assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary by a Serbian terror group (Richey).
Alliances were made to prevent war by using fear of a countries combined armies with its
allies. However, it also aided with the start of the Great War because when one country started a
war with its enemy both the allies of that country and of its enemies would join the war to defend
their allies and then the war would become much larger and last much longer. The two major

alliances at the beginning of World War I, the Great War, were the Triple Alliance and the Triple
Entente. The countries that were part of the Triple Alliance were Germany, Austria-Hungary, and
Italy. The countries in the Triple Entente were Great Britain, France, and Russia (Doc 2). When
the Heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne was assassinated by a Serbian terrorist group, AustriaHungary declared war on Serbia. This is where the alliance's first started to show up in the war.
In an effort to help its ally, Serbia, Russia joined the war against Austria-Hungary. After the war
Germany said why and when it joined the war for its ally Austria-Hungary, .... Germany and Its
people, who were convinced that they fought a war of defense disastrous moment when the
successor of Austria-Hungary fell victim to murderous hands. (Doc 5). This shows how the
alliances led to a larger war.
Leading up to the Great War, Germany and other nations increased military spending.
This and the creation of more weapons led to an arms race between European nations (Doc 1).
This race to have the best weapons and the strongest militaries lead to strong militarism and
nationalism within nations. These feelings of nationalism and preparedness for war increased
tensions between rival nations in Europe. Even though the European nations were at peace they
were also prepared and unafraid to enter war with each other. For example, France, Germany and
Great Britain were in an arms race where the German navy was in competition with the British
navy and the French were worried about German supremacy. Another example was the tensions
between Austria-Hungary and Russia over contradictory claims (Doc 7). Militarism led to
nations being so prepared for war that they failed to do things that could have prevented the war
from happening at all. Author Sidney Bradshaw Fay stated ... in each country political and
military leaders did certain things which lead to the mobilization [of their armies for war] and

[finally] to the declarations of war, or failed to do things that might have prevented the war
(Doc 6).
The final cause of the Great War was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of
Austria-Hungary. While this was one incident that could even be argued as small or even
insignificant it was the final straw and the tipping point for World War I. The nations of Europe
were fully prepared for war due to their policies of militarism; they were broken into two
alliances between which tensions were high. Within those alliances should one nation enter war,
all of its allies would also join. All that was needed to ignite the deadly mix of alliances and
militarism was one small incident between two enemies. The Archduke's assassination was just
the final act that tipped off the Great War. The Archduke was expected to become the new ruler
of the Austro-Hungarian Empire sometime in the near future and was making a tour around the
Empire to gain the support of his people. He was assassinated when he was in the city of
Sarajevo of Bosnia. This was a place annexed by Austria-Hungary that contained a high
population of Serbians who were displeased to be under Austro -Hungarian control. Archduke
Franz Ferdinands assassin was a member of a Serbian Terrorist group called the Black Hand.
This terrorist group was made up of Serbian nationalists who were against the Austro-Hungarian
empires control of Bosnia (Richey). Austria-Hungary accused the Serbian government of
allowing for the criminal organizations to exist (Doc 3). They later declared war against each
other and Germany joined to support its ally Austria-Hungary against those who they believed
had made their ally a victim to murder (Doc 5). Russia then joined to support its ally Serbia, a
World War had begun and there was no turning back.

The Great War, World War I, was a devastating war with tremendous loss of life and the
destruction of lots of Europe. It was thought to be the war to end all wars. This war was caused
by many actions and issues of the time but the main causes were alliances, militarism, and the
assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. The alliances and militarism caused preparedness for war
and high tensions between nations, and the assassination of the Archduke, which was the tipping
point that ignited the war, put the war in motion.