1. What factors caused the outbreak of World War I? There were many reasons for the outbreak of World War I, the main causes include nationalism, militarism, alliance imperialism and the Balkan and Moroccan crisis, there were many other causes for World War I, such as the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire Franz Ferdinand and the assassination of Jean Jaures, a French socialist considered Europe's last chance for peace in the run-up to the First World War. Nationalism was a major factor in the cause of World War I. This is because most people in this period were very proud of their country as soon after the great industrial revolution in Europe this factor created tension between rival countries like Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia, this indirectly led to the double alliance between Germany and Austria-Hungary to protect themselves from Russia then 3 years later, in 1881, the Austro-Serbian alliance was formed between Austria-Hungary and Serbia to prevent Russia from taking control of Serbia, the nationalism was a key factor in the causes of the Great War because it helped cause tension between nations leading to alliances which were also a major cause of the First World War; alliances in Europe played an important role in the outbreak of World War I because if one nation declares war on another, the nations allies must help win the war, for example on August 3, 1914 Germany declares war on France A Because of the Triple Entente of 1907 Britain had no choice but to help its allies and declare war on Germany and help France with their XVII offensive plan to advance through eastern France towards the German borders. This happened all over Europe, countries were dragged into war because the allies were... middle of paper... more likely than war was in Europe. This last attempt at peace prompted the extremist nationalist villain Raoul to attempt to assassinate Jaures to create war and so on July 31, 1914 Jaures was murdered in a café in Paris. This contributed to the war because all over Europe people hoped that Jaures would create peace and that it was the last chance, so if he was murdered war would soon follow, so once he was murdered all it would take was something from only it would be to prevent the war from starting the war; in 1914 it was the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. In conclusion there were numerous factors which prepared the war, all of which led to or caused something else which over a long period of time made war more and more likely until on 28 July 1914 Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia in response to the the assassination of their heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand.