MARCHING TOWARD WAR

Main Why It Matters Terms and

Idea Now Names
Power and Authority Ethnic conflict in the
in Europe, Military • Militarism
Balkan region,
build-up nationalistic • Triple Alliance
which helped start
feelings, and rival • Kaiser Whilhelm
the war, continued to
alliances set the II
errupt in that area in
stage for continental • Triple Entente
the 1990's.
war.
 Militarism had been growing since the industrial
revolution.

 In the early 1900s was Imperialism. While the 1884 Berlin

Conference saw Europeans divide up Africa peacefully,
there were still rivalries and tension between the nations of
Europe.
 Nationalism was another major
cause of WW1.

 This manifested itself in 1871

when Germany took the Alsace-
Lorraine region from France
during the Franco-Prussian War.
This war, which lasted from
1870 to 1871, was fought
between France and the German
state of Prussia.
 A Restless Region By the early 1900s, the Ottoman Empire, which
included the Balkan region, was in rapid decline. These peoples had
formed new nations, including Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro,
Romania, and Serbia.

 The other European powers of France, Britain, and Russia realized they
needed their own alliance to protect themselves against the Central
Powers.
 The following year, Germany, Italy, and Austria-
Hungary formed the Triple Alliance against
France, an alliance they would hold at the
outbreak of World War I.

 Known as the Central Powers

 Shifting Alliances Threaten Peace In 1890, Germany’s foreign policy
changed dramatically. That year, Kaiser Wilhelm II—who two years
earlier had become ruler of Germany—forced Bismarck to resign. A proud
and stubborn man, Wilhelm II did not wish to share power with anyone. “I
and the army were born for one another,” Wilhelm declared shortly after
taking power.
 As the 1900s began, tensions increased
rapidly, starting with Austria’s takeover of
Bosnia and Herzegovina in October of 1908.

 Angered over Austria-Hungary’s takeover of

his native Bosnia, a young man named
Gavrilo Princip shot and killed Archduke
Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of
Austria-Hungary in Sarajevo, Bosnia in June
of 1914.

 In July, Austria-Hungary declared war on

Serbia and their alliances soon pulled the rest
of Europe into the war.
THANK
YOU!