Over this past week, our class has learned about the many different opinions regarding the cause of World War 1. These theories all have plausible answers to “What started World War 1” but historians cannot form one answer towards this question. In my opinion, the overall most likely cause for this massive, destructive war causing around 40 million deaths was the “Arms Race”.
This is a visual I made in class while watching videos about WW1.
For anyone who doesn’t know, the “Arms Race” is what A.J.P. Taylor thought is what caused the war. This viewpoint of Taylor showed that when the countries started expanding their weaponry, it increased their power relative to the other countries in Europe leading to the countries using their military, navies and weaponry. As well, the railway made all of this possible with mobility and transportation.
This race for power started before the war when the German empire quickly expanded their economy and became a competitor with Great Britain (who was the long standing industrial power of Europe). Britain became worried with these new economic expansions as well as their naval rapidly increasing. Many countries were expanding their technology, naval, weaponry and production capacity with this being a very important part leading to the race of the arms.
Not only did these factors greatly contribute to the major part leading to the race of the arms but the alliances between countries were also a huge part of this theory. The six major powers of Europe split into two alliances. These alliances included the Triple Alliance with Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy and the Triple Entente with Britain, France and Russia.
Here is a picture showing the alliances in Europe during WW1:
Another important part of the race of the arms in World War 1 was the mobilization, which at this time was the railway. The expansion of the railway during the First World War was necessary for countries to move their troops to different places faster and more effectively. This meant that countries with more railways and technology would have more efficient military and troops leading to more power.
The economic battle, railway expansion as well as the alliance all contributed to the start of this battle in history. Even in today’s world, similar battles present themselves between different countries with the battle to be the most economically successful and become the economic power through trade. As well, leaders are always trying to increase their power relative to others through different ways such as nuclear weaponry or military power. Just like how Kim Jong Un is testing missiles on Japan showing their power relative to others which at any time could imbalance the concept of nuclear deterrence. Throughout history certain people, groups or countries have had the race of the arms for more power compared to others and as time goes on this has increased with new technologies arising.
To show my understanding of a couple of the different people’s theories and beliefs about what started World War One, myself and my group created a video. This video we created was a mini game show about A.J.P. Taylor, J.J. Remake and G. Hirschfeld debating why their reason was the right one about what started World War 1. After coming up with our idea we wrote a script and started filming.
Here is our script:
After editing the video clips and sound effects to make the video more engaging this is what we came up with:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vbyDlVJNbjk
When we finished creating this video and showed the class we got some feedback from our teacher and classmates about what we could improve on. Some of this critique I coudes making the sound quality better by using a microphone or quite room. As well as executing the video differently by cutting down the introduction and make some better cuts and edit the volume of the music. Following this feedback we edited and refilmed our video, here it is:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8L08NKzf_HI
Overall this project taught me a lot about the different opinions about World War 1 and how the alliances, railways, weaponry and fight for power had major impacts on the cause of the war. I also really enjoyed creating a fun and interesting video to show my groups’ and my understanding of this project. I’m looking forward to the upcoming month in humanities.