The Causes of World War I
I. Introduction
World War I began shortly after the turn of the twentieth century and it is a war of which many speak about. Yet, an understanding of its causes is difficult because while there are certain definitive events that led up to the war, an interpretation of those events would be rather ambiguous. Soon after the end of the war, historians began to speculate about its causes (Kane 120). Many articles and books on the subject have focused either on immediate or underlying causes (Kane 120). Immediate causes of the war are of course the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand or the troop mobilization of 1914, or even the Austrian ultimatum (Kane 120). Those are each events that preceded the war, but they are not necessarily the cause of the war. That is, one might refer to such short term events as the straw that broke the camel's back, but it is unlikely that such events actually were responsible for creating an all out war of that magnitude. Underlying causes are more intricate and speculative. Obviously, immediate causes are easy to discern. One only need to look at a time line and see what happened just before the start of the war. Some causes are colonial rivalries, social Darwinism, prewar alliance systems and even nationalism (Kane 120). Kane remarks: "Regardless of the approach and despite the outpouring on this subject, Decisions for War proves that there are still fresh and compelling interpretations of the causes of the Great War" (120). Indeed, there is much to say about the causes of the First World War bu