The Brink of War :: history

The Brink of War In 1914, there were many things that placed Europe at the brink if war. Nationalism, militarism, imperialism, social darwinism, and Jingoes where five of the main forces that were pushing Europe to the brink of war. Another main force was the development of Alliance systems. These ideas and systems threatened the balance of power which could then cause a major war to break out. In Europe at the time, there were many ideas which were causing friction. Nationalism, which was the desire for a country was causing friction because people in old empires sought to be free. The leaders of these people would not be happy and a war would definitely break out. If they became free they would also need to take land from someone else and this again may cause a war and usually did. Another idea which was contributing to the shifts of power in Europe was Militarism. This was when a country believed its power was reflected in its army. They believed that war was the right thing to do and that all countries needed to be ready for war. If a country felt they had a lot of power they would, no doubt, try to conquer a weaker neighbor or just any other country. Imperialism which was the countries want to build an empire was another reason. For a country to become an empire they would have to colonize and conquer other territories. This would easily start wars and it's not that hard to figure out why. A good example of this is Italy. They wanted to become an empire so they attacked a country which they thought was weaker then them(Abyssinia). This caused a war which in the end was won by Abyssinia. Another cause was the idea of social darwinism. This meant the survival of the fittest. The best would win and the weaker would parish. The stronger country would attack weaker countries and in the end the weaker would usually lose. This caused a lot of tension just like militarism. The last of the ideas, was the idea of jingoes. These were people who lived for war. All they wanted was to go to war. Jingoes where very aggresive talkers and they caused a lot of friction between many countries. These ideas where some of the main reasons Europe was pushed to the brink of war.