Introduction

How Did WW1 Begin?

There were many origins of World War 1, the four main ones were imperialism, the alliance system, nationalism and militarism.  

Imperialism – European powers were greedy for more land and colonies

Alliance System – A system that split nearly all of Europe in half. Germany, Italy (Although not long after Italy moved over to join the other side) and  Austria Hungary were allied (Triple Alliance), and France, Russia and Great Britain were allied (Triple Euntante).

Militarism – nations were very competitive and when one nation would build up a larger military/navy, other nations would feel the need to build up theirs as well.

Nationalism – Nationalism lead to unquestioning loyalty and fear and suspicion of foreigners.

The assassination of Austria-Hungary’s archduke and his wife was a trigger event of world war 1. The archduke and his wife were assisanted in Serbia, Austria-Hungary thought of this as a direct threat and immediately declared war on Serbia. Russia supported Serbia to protect trade routes, and soon enough all of Europe was at war.

At that time, Great Britain had a lot of power, and had rule over Australia, because Great Britain was at war, of course Australia would have to support them. Australians immediately signed up to help fight when war was declared, and Australia was able to offer 331 000 men over the course of 4 years.