For the class’s second assigned blog post we had to present our opinions on why World War I happened.

You may think that the straightforward question of “Why did World War I happen” has a straightforward answer to go along. But oh it does not.  Historians can’t seem to agree on one reason of why WWI started. So naturally we were challenged to take on the task of identifying why WWI really did start.

After spending many classes learning about World War I’s beginning we moved onto studying several historians individual opinions on why WW1 happened. From the book World War I: A battle of perspectives by Europeana I took opinions from some historians and opinions from others I found on the internet to create my own thesis statement about why World War I happened that I believe is correct. This is my final thesis statement: The Great War was spawned by a complicated military and political alliance system between the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance and both sides readiness for war and imperialism desire, the Serbian and Austrian conflict with Archduke Franz Ferdinand was just a coincidence, the war was going to happen no matter what.

Here is a video I created with Christopher to go along with my blog.

https://youtu.be/yCcKdQMcbuE

To reflect, I have learned a lot about World War I since starting this unit with my class. I mean a lot, I didn’t know anything about WWI until now. Now I feel really educated and well versed with the ins and outs of the Great War. Focusing more on what this blog post was about, I have learned a great deal about why WW1 started and how the events of those times lead to what we see now as the First World War. Doing this video with Chris deepened my knowledge on the complicated relationships of the Major powers and how they lead to alliances and enemies. I was surprised to learn many things like the importance of small sovereign country like Morroco and how it  strengthened and weekend different alliances.

A connection to my life. Lately, in my free time, I have been playing this new game that came out a couple weeks ago… Actually, I’ve been playing it all the time. This game is called Battlefield 1 and is coincidentally set in World War I. And I’m writing about this because the knowledge that I absorb in class and at home is being directly presented in this immersive and brutal game about war and it is so cool. It makes my experience playing the game so much better having knowledge on why the Germans are attacking me as I play as the British defending our trenches in the battle ridden North of France. Here is a brutal clip of my gameplay, watch as a murder 3 german soldiers as they shoot at my fellow American troops.

 

To conclude, I have learned a lot about World War I and why it started in the past classes. I have found that I really enjoy learning about World War I, I’m guessing because it’s a subject that intrigues me.