The First World War was one of the biggest mistakes the humanity was ever responsible of. There were millions of lives lost, and even more people were affected, one way or another. Just as the European countries were pulled in, mainly by alliances, one after the other. This is why A.J.P. Taylor called this war a “tragedy of miscalculation”. But really, to what extent was this alliance system responsible for the outbreak of the First World War? Throughout this essay, we will be able to observe that, even when the alliance system was one of the most important causes of the outbreak of the war, there are another major causes that contributed to this event, which changed the course of humanity.

Chain reactions- the Alliance System

The alliance system started in 1882, with the formation of the Triple Alliance by Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. The other three European powers, Britain, France and Russia, reacted by signing agreements between them, which would finally turn into a Triple Entente in 1907. The main purpose of these treaties was to act as a deterrent to avoid any possible violent confron

The European countries had many conflicts regarding their colonies. Most of them had just small colonies and a very small empire. Britain was the exception, having most of the balance of power on her side. The other powers, especially Germany, were frustrated by this and tried to get more colonies to expand their empire. This encouraged the view that a showdown to balance the power was necessary.

Some topics in this essay:
Austria Serbia, Christmas”- Ignorance, Mobilization Plans, Third Balkan, Wilhelm II, Navy League, Austrian Empire, AJP Taylor, Sarajevo Austrian, Conflicts European, alliance system, outbreak war, world war, european countries, kaiser wilhelm ii, kaiser wilhelm, wilhelm ii, war declared, course action, caused tension, responsible outbreak, caused tension europe, outbreak world war, soon war declared, causes outbreak war,