all right the causes of World War I baby what are they and why did they you know cause World War I well that's what I'm about to splain up real nice so if you're ready to get them brain cows mil let's get to it and there are in fact about a, 80 bitty minor causes that I could tell you about but we're going to stick to the four main causes and when I say main I mean main first up is militarism which describes the belief that states ought to build up strong militaries and employ them aggressively to protect their own interests if you can't make sense out of why that might cause a war well then I don't think I can help you you see thanks to the incredible productivity of industrial manufacturing that began in the last period states were able to produce military weapons at a far greater Pace than ever before and bonus they were way deadlier than ever before and in the decades leading up to the first world war the big concern with respect to militarism was Germany now perhaps you'll recall that they got all unified in the last period and that led to rapid industrialization and a massive buildup of the military and so in the early Decades of the 20th century those developments merged and resulted in Germany possessing arguably the most powerful military force in Europe oh and by the way if you want no guys to help you follow along with this video on all my videos check the link in the description anyway all of that made Germany's neighbor France real sweaty under the armpits because due to several internal problems they were dealing with France's military was pretty pitiful in comparison but not Great Britain's baby you don't build the biggest empire in the world with a pint-sized military but the difference here is that Britain's commitment to militarism drained their national resources at a far greater Pace than did Germany anyway militarism pew pew cause of World War I and moving right along our second cause of World War I was a system of international alliances so in the beginning of the 20th century the balance of power on the Europe an continent was expressed in terms of two major alliances you had the Triple Alliance which included Germany Italy and the austr Hungarian Empire among a few others and then you had the triple on ton which included Britain France and Russia among a few others as well now without going too far into the weeds you just need to understand that these alliances were created in the interest of National Security on both sides or to isolate rival States but how is that a cause of the war a fine question which I shall answer presently you see both sides in addition to participating in the Warfare buddy system also devised an elaborate military mobilization plan in case war did breakout and look with everybody drinking the Kool-Aid of militarism war is guns to break out so each state involved in these alliances have built thousands of miles of railroads and these would be the main vehicle to mobilize their troops in the event of War but in order to enact mobilization on such a massive scale these states had to divise incredibly precise Tim taes for railroad operation and that means that once mobilization had begun it would be very difficult to stop it without throwing those countries into chaos okay cause number three of World War I was imperialism so reach into your brain folds and find that spot for unit 6 and maybe you'll remember that in the last period it was characterized by fantastic Imperial expansion now there were a lot of reasons for that which I don't need to toss around here but for our purposes one of the most potent causes for imperialism was the desire to project power on the world stage like getting bigger and better Empires was how States achieved great power status and that led to plenty of competition and conflict and again one of the chief agitators here was Germany who under the influence of its National unity and powerful military sought to enlarge its own Empire at the expense of other European powers and once Imperial Holdings were secure and there was very little additional territory to conquer European powers begin to experience conflict over existing Colonial Holdings and it was this conflict that largely caused the creation of the alliance system and finally the fourth cause of World War I was our old friend nationalism now of course this was carried over from the 19th century and under its influence many nation states emphasize the glory and commonality of their own people while defining Other Nation States as enemy and as Europeans across the continent Embrace nationalistic messages through schools and military service and mass media this had the effect of convincing them that their National identities and loyal ities were the most important thing about them and even more to the point nationalistic fervor out a way of convincing them that their National identities were under threat from rival States all right class which of these correctly portrays the British that one very good and what will this monster do to you steal our lunch money and then kill us A+ and so because nationalism was such a powerful and unifying force that meant that any conflict that began with other powers had to be met with Force instead of compromise because this guy can't be compromised with or else your lunch money will be gone and you'll be dead so those are the main causes of World War I if you take all for them and put them in a pot then you've got a stew going that's ready to explode as soon as even a tiny spark falls into the pot as it turns out a tiny spark did fall into the pot and it happened to be an assassination in the Balkans you see a Serbian nationalist by the name of gavrillo prip went ahead and shot Arch Duke France Ferdinand of the austr Hungarian Empire over a little Regional SP and here's where all those factors we just talked about come together and cause a catastrophic War out of what should have been a much smaller Regional dispute you see nationalism caused the Serbian assassination and nationalism ensured that the Austrian would view it as an unconscionable act that demanded retaliation and then that's where the alliance system comes into play Serbia was Allied with Russia and Austria Hungary with Germany but then Russia was Allied with Britain and France while Germany was Allied with Italy and therefore when the Serbian austr Hungarian conflict erupted the entire Alliance System lit up as did the inflexible process of mobilization and the result was World War I but we'll have to wait for the next video to see how all that played out Okay click here to keep reviewing for unit 7 and click here to grab my video note guides which are going to help you follow along with these videos and get all the contents of this course firmly cramed you your brain fold and I'll catch you on the flipflop I'm LT