On our first essay we were asigned to wrote about the causes of WW1.

Did the assessination of F.Ferdinand make European war inevitable?

In this essay I’m going to analyse what other causes made the assessination of F.Ferdinand ‘the spark that lit the bonfire’. Because it wasn’t the only thing that made the war inevitable.

Firstly, the French Revolution was one of the many causes as the French rebelled against their king, the democratic government appeared, there was a political change. This encouraged other countries or estates to become independent, to rule themselves; like Italy and Germany. Their unification was very important, but specially Germany’s as she was growing very rapidly, mostly, thanks to the economic change of the Industrial Revolution. As there were factories, there was more production and more consumption, which meant, more money. She wanted to become a powerful and important empire so she needed a stronger navy to have overseas colonies. This was a threat to other countries, like Britain as she was ‘the Queen of the Seas’ so they started competing for a better navy. This was called ‘The Naval Race’.

Secondly, alliances were formed. The Triple Alliance, made up of: Austria-Hungary, Italy and Germany; and the Triple Entete made up of: France, Russia and Britain. At first, Britain didn’t want to get involved but with the threat of the growing power of Germany, and them competing to see who was better, she joined. This alliances were formed by old rivalries like France and Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia, Austria-Hungary and Serbia which wasn’t  part of the alliances but was friends with Russia and they helped one another.

Third of all, the two Morroco crisis were also causes. As in the first one France wanted to take over Morroco but Germany interfered and that made her furious. Later a conference was held in which the Kaiser wanted Germany to be seen as a major power in Africa but he was treated as if he had no right to speak in such matters, he was humiliated. Britain and France stuck together to oppose him, this confirmed their alliance. In the second crisis, the French wanted to take over Morroco again and as compensation, Germany was given land in central Africa. As she had sent a gunboat to Agadir the British and the French made a deal to patrol the Mediterranean and defend France’s Atlantic and North Sea coasts.

Finally, ‘the spark that lit the bonfire’. As Germany made it clear that she supported Austria-Hungary, she was now confident to make trouble with Russia and Serbia. Serbia was the most powerful country in the Balkans so she thought that she had to dealt with. Austria-Hungary was looking for a good excuse to crush Serbia, and the opportunity came with the murder of F.Ferdinand which she blamed Serbia of. The Serbians could not accept being part of the Austrian Empire so they asked for some time to consider, Austria didn’t agree and declared war.

In conclusion, there were many causes that made the war inevitable and that made F.Ferdiand’s murder ‘the straw that broke the camel’s back’.