How was alliances an underlying cause of World War 1?

Answer 1

Alliances caused World War 1 because when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, both sides had many secret allies that they dragged with them into the war, causing WW1 instead of a small war between two countries.

Answer 2

Because of the hit by young money called bedrock

The alliance systems were a cause of the First World War.

Firstly, the alliances were made in secret and so produced much distrust and suspicion among the European powers. Their general suspicion prevented their diplomats to devise a suitable solution to many of the crises preceding the war.

Secondly, the alliances were always made on a war-footing and so heightened the war tension and led to an arms race among the European powers. For example, within four years after the formation of the Triple Entente in 1907, Germany built nine dreadnoughts (battleships) and consequently Britain built eighteen. Thus all the European powers were ready for war in 1914.

Thirdly, since the European powers had made alliances with one another, a small dispute concerning one power might lead to a war involving all powers.

Fourthly, the alliances were originally strictly defensive but by 1910, many alliances had changed their character. The Austro-German alliance of 1879 was so modified that it had become an aggressive alliance after the Bosnian crisis in 1909, the German government promised to give military aid to Austria-Hungary, if Austria invaded Serbia and Russia intervened on behalf of the latter. As alliances had become instruments of national aggression, the chances of war doubled.

Fifthly, after the formation of the Triple Entente, Germany began to feel the threat to her security. The German press loudly talked about "encirclement", i.e. being surrounded by enemies on all sides. This induced the aggressive William II to pursue a more vigorous foreign policy in an attempt to break the unity of the Entente powers. This resulted in a series of international crises from 1905 to 1914.

Answer 3

A lot of countries were intertwined in alliances at the time around WW1, so when the first 2 nations engaged each other, suddenly they found themselves amid a mass conflict instead of just 1 country versus another. When each of the first 2 countries entered their own war, they dragged many others into it through alliances.

Answer 4

Alliances were the underlying cause of World War I because when one country saw their ally in trouble they had to help unless they wanted a new enemy which was bad enough that they had Germany threatening them to not get involved in the war so they all wanted to get back at the Germans at all cost and Germany had allies of their own so when Germany got attacked their allies butted in and the reason why America got involved was because they only wanted to show off their technology and that was another reason why the countries got into the battle, to show off their technology and science.

Answer 5

An alliance system that required allies to aid one another in armed conflicts.