Was WWI the result of tensions created by German Nationalism?.
There were many factors that led to the outbreak of World War I in 1914, despite common belief that Germany was entirely to blame as was stated in the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. Nationalism was one of the causes, but not just German nationalism as all the countries involved were as nationalistic and created just as many tensions with it as Germany. Other factors that caused tension between nations were Militarism, Imperialism and alliances between countries.
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian student is widely known as the "spark" of World War I it caused a chain of events, leading to world war and it brought countries such as Germany and Britain in to the conflict. This also resulted in Germany giving Austria-Hungary a "blank cheque" after Austria-Hungary asked Germany for assistance in getting revenge on Serbia. This "blank cheque" meant that Germany would give any help that Austria-Hungary required. The chain of events that followed was the Austro-Hungarian invasion of Serbia and Russian mobilisation to defend Serbia. Germany's reaction to this was to declare war on Russia, which worried France so they also began to mobilise their defences, so Germany then declared war on France and invaded Belgium as part of the Schlieffen Plan. Britain then mobilised their forces in defence of Belgium, this conflict had now become a world war. It could be seen that this "spark" was the most important cause of the war as it caused a chain of events that got so many countries involved, making it a world war rather than just a minor conflict between a few countries. However, this theory does not stand up to any analysis, as it does not explain why so many countries so readily joined the war. Other factors leading up to this isolated event, as well as relations between and also within the countries themselves, meant that any event could have been the "spark" of war.
