Causes of WW1

a. Militarism- The belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests.
Militarism linked to the start of the war because the growing navies and armies threatened Europe.

b. Alliances-  A union or association formed for mutual benefit, esp. between countries or organizations.
 Alliances linked to the start of the war because many alliances developed in Europe and to keep themselves safe, each side wanted to keep their alliances growing. 

c. Imperialism- An unequal human and territorial relationship, usually in the form of an empire, based on ideas of superiority and practices of dominance, and involving the extension of authority and control of one state or people over another.
Imperialism linked to the start of the war because it forced nations into conflict.

d. Nationalism- A belief, creed or political ideology that involves an individual identifying with, or becoming attached to, one's nation.
Nationalism linked to the start of the war because each nation was very full of themselves and believed that they were better and could defeat any other nation.

The spark of the war was when Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were assassinated by the "Black Hand", a Serbian nationalist group, while they were visiting Bosnia. The Serbians knew that it wouldn't take much for Austria-Hungary to declare war on them, and that was just what they wanted. On July 28 Austria declared war on Serbia which lead to Germany declaring war on Russia and France. This was the beginning of WW1.

a. Unrestricted Submarine Warfare 1915
 Instead of acting fairly to their opponents, Germany participated in unrestricted submarine warfare, which meant that they could torpedo any ship without warning from their unseen submarines.

b. Lusitania 1915
A British Ocean Liner ship that was the biggest ship at the time, was torpedoed by a German Submarine and sunk, causing the deaths of 1,198 passengers and crew. America saw this as a threat and was one of the reasons that they joined the war in 1917.

c. Sussex Pledge 1916
After the Sussex ship had been sunk by the Germans unrestricted submarine torpedoes and 50 lives had been lost, President Wilson was angry and told Germany that America would break diplomatic relations with Germany. This scared Germany into thinking that America might join the war, so they wrote the Sussex Pledge which included the following statements:

• Passenger ships would not be targeted;
• Merchant ships would not be sunk until the presence of weapons had been established, if necessary by a search of the ship;
• Merchant ships would not be sunk without provision for the safety of passengers and crew.

c. Zimmermann Note 1917
A telegraph from Arthur Zimmermann, German foreign secretary, to Heinrich Von Eckardt, the German Ambassador in Mexico. The telegraph said that they plan of beginning unrestricted submarine warfare on February 1st and that Germany would like to become alliances with Mexico but also keep America neutral.