Britain was not the only country expecting war, for each European country involved had made plans. Many people had been expecting this war for sometime, waiting for a spark to set it all off. Now this trigger finally came on June 1914, where the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne in Austria, was assassinated. This set off a chain reaction around all the countries in Europe. Now during the years, Austria had quarrels with Serbia, which had become more explosive. Therefore Austria seized the chance of a war between them by accusing Serbia for the assassination. However this war was supposed to remain local. Nonetheless the Austro-Serb quarrel explains the outbreak of the war, however it does not explain why it became a world war. These are a few reasons that are suggested for the escalation of the world war. However some are more plausible than others:.
o Naval race between Britain and Germany.
o Economic Rivalry.
o Russia made war more likely by backing up Serbia.
o Germany backing up Austria.
The above points which are highlighted in bold, show the more plausible reasons for they demonstrate actual happenings which allowed the war to become more world wide; rather than the points highlighted in italics, which show the contests between the rival countries. .
There were many reasons why the war broke out between the countries however there are some, which were less likely than others. In this paragraph, an explanation is going to be made to show why some causes were not the real motives. The first is the naval rivalry between Britain and Germany. The German fleet did not manage to worry Britain too much, as they had an enormous lead. Yet when Britain began to make a new weapon, the Dreadnought battleship, it was not soon when the Germans began building their own Dreadnoughts on equal terms. Now this naval building race dispute between the two extended right up to 1914. Finally Churchill ended this race because "It was certain that we [Britain] could not be overtaken as far as capital ships are concerned".
