Germany was an aspiring and newly developing world power leading into World War 1. Because Germany was becoming a world power, a sense of imperialism came along with it. Imperialistic nations venture out of their territories and into others in order to get the necessities they need to thrive. Germany was quickly becoming industrialized; therefore, they needed the resources and materials to supply their industries. An alliance was established with Austria-Hungary, in which Germany gave Austria-Hungary a “blank check” in return for resources.
Nationalism in Germany went through the roof before World War 1. They were extremely prideful at having bigger and better things than everyone else had. Germany was in an arms race with Britain as the two were competing in building up their navies. Both Germany and Britain competed in stocking up their navies with the devastating Dreadnought battleship, while only Germany built the U-boat, which is a submarine. The two countries used their navies to blockade each other; Britain blockaded Germany, preventing all trade with Germany causing them to basically starve to death. Germany did the same to Britain except with U-boats instead of Dreadnoughts.
Germany’s great sense of national pride led them to increasing their military, otherwise known as militarism. Germany had known that a war was inevitable, so the logical action would be to improve their military. They even had a predetermined time for when they wanted to start the war so that it would be to their advantage. An example of militarism in Germany was that there was an increase in military control in the civilian government. This can be seen when Germany’s military expenditures from 1870 are compared to those in 1914, the beginning of the war. In 1870, Germany spent $94 million on its military and in 1914, $398 million was spent on the military alone.
The alliances before World War 1 were a major cause for the start of the war. Enemies were pitted against each other, which gave rise to more reasons for conflict. Two alliance groups were formed, the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente. The Triple Alliance consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy who had little to do with the war. In the Triple Entente were France, Britain, Russia, and the U.S.A. after we were dragged in by the Germans. Since Germany had failed to acquire Russia as an ally, they now had to fight a two front war against France and Russia, which is almost impossible to do. This is why the Germans had to have the war begin in the summer of 1914. It was part of the Schlieffen plan and would allow Germany to fight a one front war because Russia was not prepared for war at the time.
World War 1 had created lots of political turmoil in Europe. Several things were not settled and another World War was the outcome. U. S. President Woodrow Wilson proposed the Fourteen Points before the end of the war in hope that the European powers would follow the policies. The Fourteen Points proposal established about 8 new countries where Austria-Hungary used to be. These new countries really had no idea about how they should operate and they had no true government. This called for trouble and the fact that the governments were printing excessive amounts of money, causing inflation to skyrocket, did not help. These countries were unstable and dangerous, similar to Austria-Hungary before World War 1.
Another political situation that contributed to the rise of World War 2 was the signing of the war-guilt clause. Germany was forced to sign a war-guilt clause which stated that they were taking full responsibility for starting the war and all of the destruction that occurred because of it. Numerous restrictions were placed upon Germany such as a limit on their army, a restriction on trade with others outside their borders for the next five years, and the forfeit of their colonies. They also had to pay about $33 billion in reparations. The powerful nationalistic spirit of Germany was down and the country was in a slump. It was the ideal time for a natural leader such as Hitler to come to power and cause the next World War.
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