What caused the outbreak of World War 1?

Answer 1

European countries started taking over land for colonies. It eventually came about that all lands were claimed and the only way to get colonies was to take others colonies by force. That created conflict between the European countries. Things got worse when, in 1882, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy teamed up as the Triple Alliance. Then, in 1907, Russia, France, and Great Britain joined as the Triple Entente. Then, in 1907, Russia, France, and Great-Britain formed the Triple Entente. Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary was assassinated by a Serbian nationalist. Russia rushed to Serbia's rescue. Germany declared war on Russia and France (AH was Germany's ally). Then, Germany attacked Belgium, a neutral country which also happened to be an ally of Great Britain. Great Britain declared war on Germany, and that's how World War I started.

Answer 2

The cause of WWI could possibly go back as far as the 15th century when Teutonic knights of the Germanies (Germany did not exist until 1871) were devastated by Russian soldiers at the battle of Tannenberg. To jump forward a little bit, the defeat of France in the Franco/Prussian war of 1870-71 and the loss of Alsace-Loraine to Germany definitely played a part in setting the stage for the hostilities to come some 50 years later. The actual event started in July of 1914 when the Austro-Hungarian archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were shot and killed by a terrorist group of Serbian nationalists. At the endorsement of the German empire, Austria soon declared war on Serbia. This was followed by Russia then mobilizing its military on the eastern front along the Austro/Hungarian border and the German border in defense of its ally Serbia and Bosnia. In response to this Germany declared war on Russia, leaving France no choice but to mobilize against Germany in defense of their ally Russia. Germany declared war on France and invaded Belgium which brought England into the war because they had promised to defend Belgium. At this point you have the makings of a world war with the addition of many other countries entering the fray on respective sides. The US did not enter the war until April of 1917 When a diplomatic communication from the German ambassador, Zimmerman, in America to Mexico is intercepted, which stated that if Mexico would go to war against America in order to keep it too busy to enter the European war, that Germany would support and help Mexico in the fight and give them back Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and parts of California for this. President Wilson took this as a direct threat to the well being of the US from Germany and declared war on Germany in April of 1917. It took until November of that year for US troops to actually enter the fray and loose life.