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The War Of The Great War

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The alliance system, imperialism, arms race, and military plans created a perfect situation for a war in Europe, which would eventually become the Great War. With Germany, Great Britain, France, and Russia being the top powers in Europe, these countries would be the front runners in the discussion of the topics mentioned above and how their participation in those topics eventually led to the Great War. The order of topics to discuss that would ultimately lead to the Great War would be Imperialism being the spark that would lead to an arms race, which would then lead to an alliance system, with military plans truly making the war a world war. Imperialism is the practice or maintaining an empire or establishing a network of …show more content…

The “Scramble for Africa” which took place in the 19th century when tensions began to grow in Europe when countries such as Germany, France, and Great Britain picked apart Africa in claim to its lands and add them to their Empires. Rivalries would stem from these land grabs and would contribute to the tensions between these countries that would help cause WWI. Specifically, in the late 19th century was when the rush for territory occurred in Africa. Many of Europe’s great powers tried to cease territory as quickly as possible in Africa, especially the newly united countries such as Germany and Italy. Much of this rush to grab territory was now fueled by nationalism. Industry was really beginning to take off and every country was under the perception that were would be bigger need for metals and other raw materials to fuel their industry thus making their nation stronger. Since many of these countries were grabbing up land left and right, these unclaimed colonies were becoming extremely scarce, especially in Africa. At the time, Germany’s Otto von Bismarck wasn’t very eager to obtain all these territories for Germany. But other groups in Germany strong with nationalism and imperialism such, as the “Colonial League” was very much in support of expansion. Bismarck wasn’t very much moved by this group but the Wilhelmine govt. had it’s own ideas for imperial

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