The Causes of World War I

The event that triggered the outbreak of World War I was the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in 1914 (Baldwin, 1962). He was heir to the Hapsburg or Austro-Hungarian Empire until his untimely death at the hands of a Serbian nationalist by the name of Gavrilo Princip. However, prior to his assassination, a number of political events took place between 1870 and 1914 that have been considered by historians to be major factors in the outbreak of World War 1(Baldwin, 1962). These include, the growth of nationalism, the growth of imperialism, the massive build up armies and weapons and lastl…