The four MAIN causes of World War I explained

To explain the causes of the war, historians have tried to simplify it down to four main causes.

They create the acronym: MAIN. 

• Militarism
• Alliances
• Imperialism
• Nationalism

While this acronym is a useful way to remember the range of causes, it is important to be aware that this is a modern construction used to simplify very complex ideas.

One of the most commonly discussed causes of WWI was the system of alliances that existed by 1914, the year the war started.

An 'alliance' is an agreement made between two countries, where each side promises to help the other if required.

Most of the time, this involves military or financial assistance. On occasion, it also involved political obligations which may not always lead directly to military action.

Regardless, when an alliance is created, the countries involved are known as 'allies'.

By the dawn of the First World War, many European countries had entered into one or more alliances with other countries.

The most important of these was the Triple Alliance, which was formed in 1882, consisting of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. This created a powerful bloc in the centre of Europe.

In response to the Triple Alliance, the Triple Entente was formed in 1907, uniting France, Russia, and Britain in a loose agreement to counterbalance the power of Germany and its allies.

However, there were some notable examples of countries that tried to remain out of the alliance system.

This included neutral nations like Switzerland and the Netherlands, which had policies of neutrality that kept them out of the entangled alliance systems.

What made the formation of alliances an important cause of WWI, was the fact that these alliances were designed for mutual defense: meaning that if one member was attacked, others were bound to defend them.

So, if just one country attacked another, most of Europe would immediately be at war, as each country jumped in to help out their friends. 

Imperialism, as a concept, has been around for a very long time in human history. Imperialism is the desire to build an empire for your country.

This usually involves invading and taking land owned by someone else and adding it to your empire. 

By the 19th century, many European countries had been involved in imperialism by conquering less advanced nations in Asia, the Americas or Africa.

In fact, the fierce colonial competition for territories in Africa, known as the 'Scramble for Africa', meant that nations like Germany, Britain, and France vied for dominance by seizing large tracts of land from smaller nations.

By 1900, the British Empire was the largest imperial power in the world. It controlled parts of five different continents and owned about a quarter of all land in the world.

France was also a large empire, with control over parts of south-east Asia and Africa.

By 1910, Germany had been trying to build its own empire to rival that of Britain and France and was interested in expanding its colonial holdings.

Germany's aggressive foreign policy was known as Weltpolitik, and it expressly aimed to expand its influence and challenge Britain’s dominance, particularly in terms of colonial acquisitions and naval strength.

This meant that when an opportunity for a war of conquest became available, Germany was very keen to take advantage of it.

Militarism is the belief that a country's army and navy (since air forces didn't exist at the start of WWI) were the primary means that nations resolved disagreement between each other.

It also glorified military power, which led to the belief that military solutions were desirable or inevitable when seeking a resolution to international conflicts.

As a result, countries like to boast about the power of their armed forces.

Some countries spent money improving their land armies, while others spent money on their navies.

Some countries tried to gain the advantage by having the greatest number of men in their armies, while others focused more on having the most advanced technology in their forces.

Regardless of how they approached it, countries used militarism as a way of gaining an edge on their opponents.

Kaiser Wilhelm II, the German Emperor from 1888 to 1918, invested a lot of time and effort into the militarization of Germany, especially in a more aggressive stance in European diplomacy.

An example of this competition for a military edge can be seen in the race between Britain and Germany to have the most powerful navy.

This led to a naval arms race between Britain and Germany, starting in around 1900.

However, Britain had developed the most advanced battleship of the age, known as a 'dreadnought’, in 1906.

The Germans were so impressed by this, that they increased their government spending so that they also had some dreadnoughts.

So, by 1914, Britain had 29 dreadnought battleships, while Germany had 17.

The final of the four causes is nationalism. Nationalism is the idea that people should have a deep love for their country, even to the extent that they are willing to die for it.

Throughout the 19th century, most countries had developed their own form of nationalism, where they encouraged a love of the nation in their citizens through the process of creating national flags and writing national anthems.

Children at schools were taught that their country was the best in the world and that should it ever be threatened, that they should be willing to take up arms to defend it.

The growing nationalist movements created strong animosity between countries that had a history of armed conflict.

A good example of this is the deep anger that existed between Germany and France.

These two countries had a recent history of war and struggle over a small region between the two, called Alsace-Lorraine.

Germany had seized control of it after the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, which the French were deeply upset by.

As a result, France believed that it should be willing to fight and die to take it back.

In the two decades before WWI started in 1914, there were a number of smaller conflicts and crises that had already threatened to turn into global conflicts.

While these didn't start the global war, it does show the four causes mentioned above and how they interacted in the real world.

In 1904, Britain recognized France's sphere of influence over Morocco in North Africa in exchange for France recognizing Britain's sphere of influence in Egypt.

However, the Moroccans had a growing sense of nationalism and wanted their independence.

In 1905, Germany announced that they would support Morocco if they wanted to fight for their freedom.

To avoid war, a conference was held which allowed France to keep Morocco. Then, in 1911, the Germans again argued for Morocco to fight against France.

To again avoid war, Germany received territorial compensation in the French Congo as part of the 1911 Agadir Crisis in exchange for recognizing French control over Morocco.

The nation of Austria-Hungary had been administrating the Turkish regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina since 1878, but they formally annexed it in 1908.

The country of Serbia was outraged, because they felt that it should have been given to them. As a result, Serbia threatened to attack Austria-Hungary.

To support them, Russia, who was allied to Serbia, prepared its armed forces. Germany, however, who was allied to Austria-Hungary, also prepared its army and threaten to attack Russia.

Luckily, war was avoided because Russia backed down. However, during the Balkan Wars of1912-1913, Serbia and its allies gained territory from the weakening Ottoman Empire.

This led to heightened tensions between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, which would contribute to the regional instability that would soon escalate into World War I.