The primary cause of World War I was the rise of Germany as a new world power and the concomitant decline of Great Britain. Periods of change in world power structures are always fraught with danger, as lesser states seek to exploit the vulnerabilities of fading world powers.
After the end of the Napoleonic War in 1815, Great Britain was the great winner, establishing itself far and wide as the world's feared superpower, with a vast empire and full control of the seas through its powerful navy. For a long time, nobody dared challenge it.
In 1870, however, the German states unified into one country, and Germany began almost immediately to flex its muscles. By the 1890s, crippled by the vastly expensive Boer War, Britain was beginning its decline (however, it would not pass the superpower baton to the US until 1945) and Germany was increasingly aching to make its...
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move. Germany, particularly after the turn of the century, agitated the British with its aggressive naval buildup. No way were the British going to give up control of the seas: that was an intolerable idea to them. They would go to war to maintain their naval ascendancy. Knowing a war might be inevitable, the British therefore entered into a long series of alliances meant to check German aggression—and Germany did likewise. The tinder had been piled up—all that was needed was a match.
That match came with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire in June of 1914. Because the assassination took place in Serbia, Austria-Hungary sent a list of arrogant demands to Serbia, called the July Ultimatum. Soon alliances kicked into gear and war had begun.
It should be noted that even at this late date, disaster could have been averted. Part of what caused the war—an underlying issue—was the backward looking, out-of-touch mentality of the European ruling classes. Life had been too good for them for too long, and they didn't realize the consequences of what they were getting into until too late—and even then, pride and ego got in the way of sensible settlements that would have saved tens of thousands of lives.
The moral of the story is that ruling classes need to think long and hard about what war is and the miserable consequences of it before jumping to arms as if this will all be a glorious parade.
There were several factors that caused World War I. One of these factors was imperialism. Germany was a relatively new country. Germany wanted to gain colonies. However, most of the land available for colonization was already gone. In order to get colonies, Germany would probably have to go to war.
Another cause was militarism. Countries were building up their militaries. Usually, there is a purpose for a military buildup. The increasing of the military by several countries led to war.
Another cause of the war was the system of alliances. Two major alliances existed. They were the Triple Alliance that included Italy, Germany, and Austria-Hungary, and the Triple Entente that included France, Great Britain, and Russia. If one member of one alliance declared war on a member from the other alliance, a two-country conflict could quickly escalate. When Serbian nationals killed Franz Ferdinand, the next king of Austria-Hungary, Austria-Hungary eventually declared war on Serbia. Serbia was connected to the Triple Entente with its strong relationship with Russia. After Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Russia declared war on Austria-Hungary. This triggered a domino-like effect with other alliance countries rapidly joining the war.
Finally, nationalism was a factor. People in each country thought their country and way of life was superior to any other country in all respects. As a result, they weren’t afraid of confrontation because they believed they would win any conflict because they were better in all respects than any other country. World War I had several causes.