What are the 6 main causes of World War1?

Answer 1

I dont pretend to be an expert on this matter, nor to have researched it fully, but I can give you what I know in the hope that itll provide a platform for finding the in-depth details.

-Triple Entente: Russia, France and Britain were joined together in a mutual agreement to protect one another in the event of a war.

-Central Axis: Germany and Austro-Hungarian empire were also joined by a similar agreement. The Ottoman Empire may ahve been part of this also, although they may have also joined later on in the war. I'm not sure why either of these agreements came to be.

-Assasination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria: On a visit to Sarajevo,the Archduke was assasinated by Serbian terrorists. This led to transgression between Serbia and Austria, both threatening to declare war on one another. Russia backed its ally Serbia, Germany its ally Austria. Neither wanted war, but neither wanted the shame of having to back down and, as both Serbia and Austria were intent on warfare, Germany and Russia were dragged into it also. Germany were afraid of France, due to their obligation to protect Russia due to the Triple Entente, would attack them from the west, meaning they'd have to fight on 2 fronts. Hence, they invaded France through the low countrie (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg), hoping that they could knock them out of the war as soon as possible so as to concentrate their forces fully on Russia in the East. This was known as the 'Schlieffen Plan' (possibly spelt wrong.)

-Britain showed little signs of wanting to join purely on the basis of the Triple Entente. However, they also had a long standing treaty with Belgium (Treaty of London 1927, somethign like that), and so felt obliged to join the allied side after German forces invaded Belgium to get to France.

-1870-71 Franco-Prussian war: Prussian and Germanic forces absolutely crushed the French (esp.at battle of Sedan), and forced them to pay a substantial amount of money to pay for the Germad war effort. This left the French feeling exceptionally resentful towards the Germans, probably one of the reasons the public were keen to go to war in 1914. The ease of the victory in 1871 also left the Germans feeling very confident about their military capabilities; probably why they thought they'd be able to knock out France so quickly then go and defeat Russia straight afterwards, thus compelling them to engage in warfare rather than backing down diplomatically.

-1905 Russo-Japanese War: Russia went into the war convinced of victory, yet were defeated soundly by Japan in a naval battle and eventually had to concede to an armistice. This undoubtedly humiliated them: maybe they didnt back down to Germany in 1914 because they couldn't stand another humiliation?

-1905 Moroccan Crisis - something happened in 1905 in Morocco. Think it involved Germany and France, might have influenced the war. That's all I know about it, sorry!

Hope this helps in some way, even if only as a collection of reference points to direct research