What is the reason for England fighting in world war1?

Answer 1

Britain entered the war largely as a result of an event known as the rape of Belgium where a number of attrocities were carried out by German troops in their march through Belgum as a means of breaking belgian resistance as the German schlieffen plan required a rapid push through Belgium (as the Franco-Belgian border was far less defended by France then the German-French boarder and so in a sense this was a German surprise attack). However for many decades Britain had seen itself as the chief defender of Belgian independance and so had always sworn that it would protect Belgium if it was ever under threat but Germany didnt take this seriously and so when Germany invaded Belgium at the start of the war Britain immediatly declaired war on Germany and sent the BEF (British expaditionary fource of 1914) to Belgium.

However it can be said that their were for some time in the late 1800s early 1900s millitary rivalry bettween Britain and Germany paticulaly when it came to navies as Germany aspired to build a navy which could match the Royal Navy and so their was a majour arms race between the two Nations for decades before the first world war. And thirdly and arguably most importantly Britain was a part of the Triple Entente which was an alliance bettween Britain, France and Russia which war formed in 1907 made to counter any possible future threat from the Tripple Alliance formed between Germany, Austria and Italy in 1882 whereby according to the Triple Entente if either Russia, Britain or France were to be threatend then the other two Nations would send millitary or economic aid.