European Imperialism During World War I

Imperialism was one of the four contributing factors to the cause of World War One, along with secret alliances, militarism, and nationalism.  It is the most important cause of WW1, because it created a build-up of tension in Europe and outside of Europe, and through imperialism, the three other causes were able to affect the beginnings of the war. Imperialism is defined as the governing of one people by another country, which was a recurring dilemma prior to WW1 due to the industrialist movement. Although not all events that fall into the imperialistic category were about controlling another country, they contributed to the war, and imperialistic events were the foundation of the cause of WW1.

These are all reasons why Imperialism was the main cause of World War I. When Austria-Hungary was expanding its empire over the Balkans, it caused a lot of hardship from Serbia to Austria, which caused the assassination of Austria-Hungary’s leader, Archduke Franz Ferdinand. In Document F, it states that “At the same time, he promoted Pan-Slav nationalism–a vision that the Slavic peoples would one day be united under one nation.” It also states that

Moreover, Imperialism required weapons to maintain the control. All European expedentures from 1908 to 1913 had a competition of nations, and lead to rival nations forming alliances to better be equipped for defense with better military. When more weapons were created it had caused tensions to rise. In 1911 France tried to take over Morocco, Britain feared that Kaiser wanted to set up a naval base in Agadir. Later on, a conference was held and the British and French pointed their fingers at Germany. France took control of Morocco and Germany. This lead directly to Militarism. Militarism had not only done that but, it also made it increasingly hard to upkeep with all the changes going on. Not surprisingly, it was a significant cause of World War one because Kaiser was humiliated and could have felt determined to fight Britain and France earlier as an act of Revenge. Also, it would require militarism to defeat

century in which Europeans embarked on extensive overseas expeditions. European nations, such as Portugal, Spain, England, and the Netherlands, participated heavily in global trade and set up many trade colonies and routes. Many people will say that the European’s only reason for exploration was to spread Christianity, obtain gold, and gain glory through their conquests and acquisition of lands. Some people might also say that the Ottomans heavily influenced the Europeans to participate in this period of exploration. Although the goals of “God, gold, and glory” are often associated with the Age of Exploration, the Ottoman Empire had a greater influence on the desire of European states to establish overseas empires and employ mercantilist economy

During the late 1800's the initial ideas of colonizing susceptible territories in Africa and monopolizing an area under one European colony is the main influence on European Imperialism. European countries were motivated by the abundance of new market and good, the growing competition between European countries to imperialize African countries, and the idea of social darwinism. The main European countries involved in the colonization of Africa were Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, and Spain. While each of the countries had their own individual motivations that contributed to their roles in European Imperialism, they were all competing against each other which

Perhaps the other inter-related key cause of WW1 was imperialism which contributed to the increase of rivalry in Europe. Imperialism "was the desire of nations to own colonies and form an empire". By 1900 the British Empire extended over five continents while France had control of large areas of Africa. The amount of lands 'owned' by Britain and France increased the rivalry with Germany who had entered the scramble to acquire colonies late and only had small areas of Africa. Accordingly, it

MacKenzie discussed many impactful reasons concerning Imperialism. Firstly, capital exports from Europe played an important role during Europe’s relationship all throughout Europe, but significantly offered scarce help to the Partition of Africa and provided limited investment prior to the first world war. Secondly, trading industrial goods with other countries, such as, Italy, Germany, and France responded with new tariffs brought an shocking alarm to Britain and led Africa to want to open new markets and forbid any trading with

The collapse of the Ottoman, Habsburg and Romanov empires allowed for other powerful European empires to gain control of their colonial states. The breakdown of empires therefore did not weaken European imperialism as the successful empires, in particular Britain and France retained political and structural control of these previously controlled colonies. Western European empires gained significant land territories during the war and established spheres of influence over contested colonies. Towards the end of World War One the Allies, American, Britain, France and Italy had seized a large amount of colonies which allowed for more natural resources and equipment to aid in the war. Britain and France quickly retained more power and became the two largest colonies empires often using violence as means of control in colonies. Therefore, rather than a weakening the of the European imperialism during the Great War there was rather a shift whereby the Allies retained and gained international territories from collapsing empires. This in turn allowed for the European imperialism to remain structurally strong and create further aid during the war. Although there was an internal collapse of empires within Europe the Allie powers were able to maintain and gain imperial control of colonies which ultimately preserved the

WW1 was the result of several factors such as Imperialism, Nationalism and Militarism between World Alliances of that time period.The two sides who ended up facing each other in this war because of those factors were the: Allies - United Kingdom, Russia, France, USA and Italy, while the Central Power included Ottoman Empire, Austro Hungary and Germany. At time in history most European nations already had colonies and as the years went by, the land which was still independent was fought over fiercely. Italy and Germany were new world powers and both countries wanted to expand their boundaries. England was focused on maintaining it’s already diminishing empire while Russia and Austro-Hungary were busy dividing the Balkans through force and politics. Each nation wanted to look and be stronger as a nation. Imperialism - the hunt for more land, lead to Militarism and Nationalism which helped create the war. These three factors gave birth to WW1 and played a big role in the war.

Even before WW1 began, years of tension had built up a rivalry between the great powers of Europe, triggered by alliances, power plays, weapons races and security. Furthermore, the Balkans was a power-vacuum, formally under the control of a fast-deteriorating Ottoman Empire. Imperialist expansionism on the part of Austria-Hungary and the German Reich was also giving rise to tensions. The increased efforts of Germany to have a colonial empire in Africa was another factor that led to WW1. During the 19th century, Britain, France and Germany had been in competition with each other, trying to build colonies in the Americas, Africa and Asia. Russia, Japan and the United States were doing the same in the Asian

The most important factor that shaped both the New Imperialism and World War I was nationalism in Europe and parts of Asia. Nationalism was a driving force for countries during the New Imperialism because Europeans saw this as an opportunity to make their nation stronger and assert its dominance. The reason for the New Imperialism was for these industrial nations to bring their goods into new markets in Africa. There was a lot of competition for markets so these nations saw Africa as an opportunity to expand and thrive. This sense of nationalism also led to these nations feeling superior to the people indigenous to Africa. Jules Ferry said, “We must say openly that indeed the higher races have a right over the lower races… I repeat, the superior

People love feeling superior. In a world where everyone is judged and only the best succeed, nations and people alike love to be known as on top. This was how colonialism works. Yet for this to work, there needed to be another person or group being marginalized. This came to form in Europe with the discrimination of women. They were only good for maintaining a house, making life for the imperialist easier, all in duty for the empire. These sentiments continued into the empire, resulting with even harsher treatment of women of empire, be it the Europeans. While apparently casual, the harsher conditions were rampant across empire, continuing the degradation of the conquered.

In the late 1800s, European influence started to snake its way into almost every part of the world (Spielvogel and McTighe 226). The African continent was no exception to this new wave of imperialism. For years prior, Europeans only ruled over small parts of the continent, working with African merchants and rulers to meet their interests. However, between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Europeans would scramble to exert their influence over as much of Africa as possible. By 1914, there would only be 2 independent African nations left (Spielvogel and McTighe 231). As this imperialist invasion swept across Africa, centuries old institutions and nations would be crushed under the weight of European gun and cannon. Europeans then realized

The rise of the Ottoman Empire started in Turkey and spread through most of the Middle East. Their military practice and successful transition to the use of gun powder made them one of the most successful ruling bodies in the Middle East. The Ottoman Empire which ruled until modern times had great influence on the Middle Eastern world. Their political and economic abilities astonished the western world. Their religious views and fears were instilled into any non-Muslim and helped the western world to find new trade. The rise of Christianity in the western world provided new ways to preserve the dead and ended the need for frankensence, the main export of the Ottoman Empire. This

The Ottoman Turks emerged on the periphery of the Byzantine Empire and the Saljuk Turks. Under a Turkish Muslim warrior named Osman, raids were conducted in western Anatolia on Byzantine settlements and a vast number of Turks were united under his banner. Those Turks who flocked to Osman's banner and followed him into the history books came to be called the Ottomans. The word Ottoman, fits these Turks well as it roughly translates from Turkish as "those associated with Oman."