World War I Begins

1. The four main causes of World War I were Militarism, the Alliance System, Imperialism, and Nationalism. Increased militarism was a cause as the major powers of Europe had built up great armies and had increased their stockpile in Europe. The race to gain overseas colonies known as Imperialism led to the heated competition and tension among European countries. Ethnic groups had banded together and became more nationalistic, each demanding their own independent nation, and this was known as Nationalism. Lastly, the Alliance System had been a large increaser of the war because if it weren't for alliances, the war would've only been between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, but because of the alliance system coutries such as Italy, Germany, the Ottoman Empire, Great Britain, France, and Russia joined in on the fighting to give aid to their allies.

2. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife was a became a spark for World War I because Austria-Hungary thought it was absolute blasphemy to assassinate a king and, thinking that Serbia was way out of control, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.

3. In the first few months of fighting, a few significant things had happened. One of those things was the enactment of the Schleiffen Plan, which was meant to stall Russia and go through Belgium and France. Austria-Hungrary and Germany planned for a quick war, but it did not end that way.

4. The United States's policy of isolationism kept them out of the war for a significant amount of time. The United States felt that they had no reason to join the war as they had nothing to fight for, so they decided not to join, as they would only lose lives and money.

5. Socialists opposed the US involvement in the war because they had thought it was the result of capitalism. Pacifists and parents were just opposed to all forms of war because of the death of relatives.

6. Germany responded to the British naval blockade of Germany's ports by sinking every ship in certain areas of the Pacific to gain some naval control. The US had responded to the blockade by protesting, negotiating, and soon after going to war.

7. Germany had attacked America which had forced them to go to war, as Germans had killed US passengers and persuading Mexico to go to war with the US.