Reasons for World War I

World War One was started by many factors including imperialism. The new age of imperialism started from 1870 and lasted until 1914. In this new age the U.S. and Japan became imperialistic and European countries now only focused their exploration in Africa and Asia.

The reasons for imperialism were economical, political, military and social. In addition imperialism brought new scientific ideas and inventions to the imperialist countries. Imperialism brought great economic opportunities. The rapidly expanding populations in Europe created a huge need for new raw materials and natural resources. Imperialism also allowed people in imperialist nations to invest money into colonies and their businesses. The political and military opportunities for the imperialist nations were enormous.

In the colonial countries, imperialist nations built military bases for security of their empires. The bases also provided security for merchants and traders who went to the colonial countries to do business. The social reasons for imperialism were to spread their Christian religion as well as their western ideas and values.

Imperialism also led to new scientific inventions and discoveries. The new materials were used to make stronger, more powerful weapons and technology and new medicines were discovered to cure diseases. Another concept that encouraged imperialism was Social Darwinism. Social Darwinism is a European belief that in order for their nations to compete and survive against other empires, they must conquer the weaker ones.

The various reasons led to a race for land. Imperialism created border disputes between European nations over their colonies. The tensions heated up the most in 1880 in the "Scramble for Africa." During this time period, European nations scrambled to gain land and set up colonies in Africa where the people did not resist the European conquerors. The European warfare technology was easily able to defeat African natives. The quest for land in Africa created a great animosity between countries because countries like Germany did not get as much land as the other European powers.

Another long term effect was militarism. Militarism grew out of the late nineteenth century during the time of the growth of Germany. Germany's government felt that it was necessary because they were surrounded on all sides by neighboring countries and had no real natural borders. Germany saw this as a big weakness in terms of protection if a conflict or war were to break out. To deal with this weakness Germany built up its military and economy. They felt that their military had to be at least three times larger than the military of other nations to make up for this weakness.

These actions of Germany threatened the balance of power in Europe. Other countries in Europe like Britain, France, Russia, and Austria-Hungary began building up their militaries because they felt threatened by Germany. New military technology was developed for warfare that could destroy places and things as well as kill people faster and easier.