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Causes of WWI
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The prime cause of World War I was the domestic tensions and conflicts that were growing in the major European political powers in the period leading up to the outbreak of war. During the calmer time of the mid-eighteenth century, foreign policy had been made and conducted by an elite class not subject to domestic political pressures. Their foreign policy actions could be viewed without reference to their domestic social and political context. However, immediately prior to the Great War, for the first time in the history of Europe, both domestic and foreign policies were being formed in a context of organized party and special interest politics. This placed foreign policy on a footing equal and sometimes subordinate to domestic politics. In that context, the fifty percent increase in military spending in Europe in the five years before the war can be seen as not only an indication of international tensions and hostility, but also as a result of conservative efforts to strengthen their political position by encouraging the growth of nationalism. The increase would also help the capitalist economies through periodic downturns.1 Despite the best conservative efforts, however, European nations were experiencing high levels of social and political disturbance. In Britain, Carson and the Ulster volunteers defied Parliament with the sympathy of influential leaders, and trade unionists were threatening a major general strike if their demands were not met. Some months after war broke out, Sir William Birdwood (British commander of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) said “What a real piece of luck this war has been as regards Ireland – just averted a Civil War and when it is over we may all be tired of fighting.” Birdwood believed that the external war had prevented a British civil war.
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Paper Information
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Title: Causes of WWI
Words: 1234
Rating: None
Pages: 4.9
submitted by: neosf1
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