World War I Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

World War I - Essay Example The rise of pan-Slavism and consequent rise of German nationalism also played a great role in enhancing the war combined with imperialism and militarism (Sammis, 2002). The American government first remained neutral until 1917 when it entered the war due to pressure from the German military that were sinking ships on Britain waters. The American President Woodrow Wilson was very instrumental in ending the war in 1918, and in designing the Treaty of Versailles as well as forming the League of Nations. The paper will discuss the events that led to the war and the events that followed. European nations before the war employed imperialist policy. According to Spielvogel (2009) by 19th century, Britain had 5 continents while France occupied large areas of Africa. The Britain and France occupied huge tracts of land hence creating rivalry with German which began to scramble for the remaining parts of Africa. The colonizers were undergoing a period of industrialization hence saw the new colo nies as a source of labor and market for finished goods. Imperialism created a lot of rivalry and tension among nations as they competed for power. Most of the colonized people were under the power of colonizers and followed the rules of the colonizing state. However, the Slavic states yearned for freedom from the controlling states. They formed a cultural and political movement in the 19th century known as pan-Slavism which united all the Slavic. The movement got support from Russia whose main aim was to extend its rule over Slavic people (Stone, 2009). The nations also felt threatened by their counterparts hence wanted to unite their people so that in case of war, the states would fight against a common enemy. The attack on German speaking central Europe by France in Napoleonic wars instilled a sense of nationalism (Sammis, 2002). Bismarck had the idea of uniting Germany but Austria which had much power was resistant. Bismarck used diplomacy to create an atmosphere for war between Austria and Prussia and reinforced Prussian army so as to defeat Austria thereby relinquishing its position to Prussia. France was unhappy with the defeat hence waged war on Prussia but had no allies as opposed to Prussia which was supported by all German states. France was defeated and lost two provinces Alsace and Lorraine to Germany hence tension between the two nations (Stone, 2009). German was unified in 1871 under Prussian rule with Wilhelm as the new emperor. Austria began concentrating on the Balkans hence forming the Austro-Hungarian Monarch. The Balkan war in 1912-1913 saw their freedom from Turkish control but a conflict of interest by Russia and Austro-Hungary. The nations in order to outdo each other and in preparation for war engaged in arms race and gave the army and military a lot of power in controlling government policy. Spielvogel (2009, p.534) notes that the European military machines had doubled in size between 1890 and 1914. The German empire led by Bismarck e ngaged in massive shipbuilding in order to produce large naval fleet than Britain. In 1914, Britain had 49 battleships while German had 29 (Duffy, 2009). New highly destructive weapons such as; submarines, tanks, and poison gas were made which worsened the war. The readiness for war culminated into alliances. Various alliances were formed by the powers to help each other in case of war and to protect themselves from potential threats. Heyman (1997) observes that the prime ministers, foreign ministers and military leaders were crucial in the formation and dissolution of alliances. For example,