Certain countries felt a desire to expand
their territories. They also believed they were
the best. This led to military complications.
Boer War
Germany opposed Britain in South Africa and helped the Boers
This made Britain think that Germany
wanted to destroy the empire
Dreadnought Crisis
in response to Germany
increasing their navy, the
British grew their navy to rival
the Germans.
First Moroccan crisis and
Agadir
Kaiser Wilhelm promised to
support Morocco against France
The Balkan Wars
Serbia had annexed many countries
in the Balkans. Austria-Hungary was
it's next target
This led to the increasing tension in Europe
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Austria-Hungary had taken
over Bosnia and Herzegovina,
much to Serbia's annoyance
The heir to the
Austrian-Hungary thrones,
Franz Ferdinand, went to
Sarajevo to inspect the army
A group of young Serbs decided to
assassinate him. The initial attempts failed,
but Gavrillo Princip was able to shoot the
Archduke and his wife, before being
arrested
This led to the declaration of
war, and ultimately led to Britain
being dragged into the fighting
Aggresiveness
Some countries such as Russia,
and faced some embarrassing
defeats. They wanted to prove
themselves again, and were just
looking for a fight.
Germany had a bad
relationship with Britain and
France, and when the
opportunity came, they
decided to rival their enemies
Alliances
Serbia had an alliance with Russia, so
when Austria-Hungary declared war on
Serbia, Russia joined the war
However,
Austria-Hungary had an
alliance with Germany,
so Germany decided to
attack Russia
Germany decided to
launch the Schlieffen
plan, they attacked
France before attacking
Russia
Germany ended up
attacking Belgium
whilst attacking France
this led to Britain
joining the war as, they
had an alliance with
Belgium