Causes Of War Essay, Research Paper

War is caused by one or several countries aggression and rivalry to expand their powers, army or land. Lenin also mentioned that war is also over annexation over who has more colonies and power. War is also the response by which one society tries to reduce the capacity of another society to obtain its objectives. Thus, Lenin s analysis of the causes of World War 1 is right.

The 3 main reasons for the cause of World War 1 are: capitalism and acquiring colonies in order to gain access to cheap resources and the complicated alliance system.

The most bloody and warlike society is capitalism. England, which is the first capitalist state, turned to slaughtering the first inhabitants of its first colonies in Ireland and Jamaica. Similar brutalities also occurred in British colonies such as India and Africa. The key reason for a capitalism society to continue war is competition. Competitions drive the least efficient to the brink of survival where only the fittest survive. When a capitalism country such as England comes to deal with its rival, any means of method is used such as industrial espionage, cartels and monopolies. Nevertheless, violence and war is also included. This happened in the 17th century when the English privateers raided their Dutch and Spanish competitors. Arms competition also played and major role in the outbreak of World War 1. Britain had a large navy and army, which, is used to show off its superiority over her rival countries. Germany thus felt threatened and also started to build a massive army and form alliances with other countries in order to increase the power. This resulted in the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria Hungary and Italy. The German economic and military success made the country awe inspiring and dangerous In order to defend their interests such as colonies and strategic routes. Other European countries also sought allies and armed themselves. The smaller countries that felt threatened such as Serbia and Belgium sought protection from powerful countries such as England and Russia. All these tensions are caused by the capitalism and competitions. All it takes is a small ignition to cause a world wide and destructive warfare.

The second reason for the cause of World War 2 the constant expansion of colonies as well as taking control of new colonies. Before the war, Britain already many huge colonies, which extend throughout Africa, Asia and the West Indies to ensure that Britain could gain access to cheap raw materials, new markets and cheap labour. The colonies were also used as dependencies for the purpose of wealth (ie. Britain got spices and silks from India), land for emigrants, glory, and the Christian missionary. All the while, especially from the end of the 19th century, British troops fought not only the people of the colonies but their rivals too from other powers such as the Turks. However, the rapidly growing and developing Germany also needed to expand their country and acquire colonies too in order to support its massive needs for raw materials as well as manpower to support the massive industry. But countries like Britain had taken all the available colonies. This resulted in the fight over resources and land. The army is mobilized to conquer the land for their own use. Of course, for their own sake and interest, Britain will retaliate and try to protect it s own colonies from the invaders. All these start war due to the dispute of better and more productive lands for their own benefits.

The final and most obvious reason, which leads to the destructive World War 1, is the complicated alliances system, which essentially transformed Europe a gunpowder barrel on hot fire . There were two main group of Alliances, one was called the Triple Entente (also known as the allies) and the other was called the Triple Alliance (also known as the Central Powers) . The Allies were France, Russia, and Britain and the Central Powers were Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. When the war started Italy joined the Allies. This eventually split the continent into two hostile sides. Because so many different powers were involved in mutual defence agreements, when the war did happen, it involved nearly every country of Europe. Due to the alliances, some powers were forced to support policies followed by their partners, which they didn’t really condone.

The above 3 points clearly summarized the 3 important reason for the ignition of one of mankind s worst war and destruction. It also clearly supported Lenin s analysis of the reason of the World War I, which is mainly due to the secret alliance system as well as the competition and fights over land and resources.