On Sunday 28th June, 1914, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Throne, Archduke Fra nz Ferdinand, and his wife,

were assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, part of a Serb ian Terrorist Group, called the Black Hand at Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia an d Herzegovnia. This event and the tension between Europe was a trigger that set off declaration s of war and resulted in the Great War . Tensions had been building up in Europe fo r decades through Nationalism, Imperialism, Militarism, and Alliances, and these tensions had reach such a point that an event was needed to break these tension s. This was the assassination of the Archduke. Therefore The assassination, Nati onalism, Militarism, Imperialism and Alliances were causes of World War One. Aus tralia was involved in the war because of the fact that it was part of the Briti sh Empire therefore having duties towards Britain, and also growing patriotic support for the mother country. This patriotism was a main fac tor in deciding Australia s fate in World War One. NATIONALISM Around the 1900, there was a love and devotion that started to occur towards a p ersons country. Instead of belonging to different dukes or kings, people started to have nationalism or patriotism towards there country, a sort of pride toward s their country. This pride in one s country resulted in countries thinking that t hey were superior than other countries, and that sacrificing other land, countri es or people for the benefit of your own country was a good thing, because your country is better and therefore has more rights. This started alliances and unity between countries whom had same goals and therefore could fight together. For ex ample in the case of the unity between Britain and France, they united because t hey both believed they were fighting external aggression that threatened their s ecurity (From a growing industrialized now unified Germany.) In purpose of defea ting Germany If needed, and alliance was formed, because in Reality , the Nation alism in Russia and Britain was that we are better than Germany, and therefore t ogether we can be superior to it. In Germany though, there were two trains of th ought. The prevailing thought line was Germany needed to enter the war as soon a s possible, because they were being surrounded by aggressors such as France, Bri tain and Russia. The German people also bought into this notion, as this nationa lism that started to exist into Germany soon turned into jealousy. When countrie s start assuming that they are better than others, jealousy forms between these countries and this in return turns into tension. Nationalism in Germany had turn ed into jealousy when Britain and France, turned Allies, and therefore Germany m ade allies with countries. This in return increased tensions between opposing co untries until the assignation of the Archduke. MILITARISM In the decade that lead up to the war, most of the main powers needed a strong m ilitary to be able to exert their imperial dominance, and therefore strong milit aries were popular during the period. As a result of that, European powers wante d to increase their military power and outdo other countries in terms of Militar y power and dominance. As a country increased their military power with larger a rmies and more weapons, others countries would do the same, in order to avoid th e balance of power tipping to far one way, and this in turn increased the prospe cts of World War One. This became known as the Arms Race, and this Militarism, h elped build a foundation of war which was triggered by the assassination. IMPERIALISM By 1921, Britain had control over many countries in the world : India, Australia , Papua New Guinea, in fact at the peak of its power, it was often said that "th e sun never sets on the British Empire" because its span across the globe ensure d that the sun was always shining on at least one of its numerous colonies. This is known as imperialism and as means when a country takes over new lands or cou

ntries and makes them subject to their rule. Many countries such as the British Empire were at the peak of their industrial revolution and their developments of industries were huge. When industrialism occurs, countries need foreign markets to sell their increase in goods. When the war began all the major European powe rs had built up significant overseas colonial empires with Britain and France le ading the way. The Germans were latecomers to this game and all the good countri es were already taken. The Germans were left with some small and commercially ma rginal colonies. German nationalists found this hard to bear. There was a great deal of jealousy in Germany in regard to the British and French empires. Further more, Britain in particular, used its navy and merchant navy to dominate oversea s trade, which also provided a source of irritation to the Germans. The Germans embarked on a program of massive naval spending in order to create a navy capabl e of challenging Britain's domination of the sea. This caused considerable conce rn in Britain and tensions between the Germans and the Britain. Once the trigger was fired, the assassination of the Archduke, Imperialism directly led to a nav al arms race between the two countries. ALLIANCES An alliance is an agreement made between two or more countries to give each othe r help if it is needed. This was the main reason that World War One turned from a Balkan War to the Great War involving more than just the countries in Europe. Wh en a country declared war, allies had no option but to declare war , and allies of those countries had to declare war to. Therefore, a chain reaction occurred w hen war was declared. On 1st August 1914, when war was declared by Germany, the two main Alliances came into play: The Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente. B ecause Germany declared war on Russia, Russia s allies because of the Triple Enten te entered the War. They included France and Britain. Now during this the Triple Alliance came into play and the allies of Germany, which included Italy and the Austria-Hungary Empire, were at war against each other. Also in cases such as B ritain, countries that were part of the British Empire, such as Australia and In dia, being part of the British Empire had a duty to assist Britain in the war. A s you can see these alliances caused this war, instead of being contained in Eur ope, to spread and become a International affair. If there were no alliances dur ing World War One, each country would have been fighting for themselves, and the refore the War would have been contained in the countries who wanted to go to wa r, but in this case, these alliances resulted in compulsory attendance in war as an alliance and this caused such a devastating war. AUSTRALIA S INVOLVEMENT In 1914, when Britain declared war, it also declared war on behalf of the Britis h Empire. Being a part of the British Empire, it was Australia s duty to assist Br itain in the war, and therefore to assist Britain s Allies. Due to the large patri otism existing in Australia towards the mother country, the decision, by the cur rent time Prime Minister Joseph Cook, to send Australia against war with Germany and Austria, was met with spontaneous outpouring of patriotism. Thousands of me an came to enlist in the army, men and boys were eager to fight in the war, and tackle the great adventure of war. Few communities were against Australia joinin g the war. It was an opportunity for Australia to could demonstrate its loyalty, believing Australia would turn into a nation, and prove its strength as a natio n. It was also a chance to develop Australia s rank in the world and to be a part of the high-power nations. The assassination was the trigger, for what were causes of tensions brooding in Europe. Once the trigger occurred; Imperialism, Nationalism, Militarism and Alli ances all played there part in shaping one of the world most devastating Wars. T he assassination triggered countries to go to war, and then allies to go to war, and then colonies to go to war, such as the British Empire sending Australia to war and then result in jealousies between countries through imperialism and nat ionalism, Germany feeling that Russia and Britain had colonized to many countrie s and that it had a upper right hand, with people from various countries feeling that their country is the best and therefore should there power through such th ings as their military power, therefore bringing in militarism.

As you can see all these notions are intertwined and they together form the caus e of why such a war like World War One occurred and why it was so devastating, a nd also why Australia joined the War.