Teachers sometimes talk about the four MAIN causes of World War I because MAIN is an acronym for four factors that are often identified as the most important causes of WWI. The letters in MAIN stand for militarism, alliances, imperialism, and nationalism.
Militarism can be defined as the glorification of military power. People who believe in this feel that it is very important to have a strong military. Before WWI, this manifested itself in an arms race, particularly in naval power. They also became more interested in fighting as they believed that military power was a good thing and should be used.
Before WWI, two main alliances arose in Europe. The countries involved promised to help one another in the event of war. This may have helped bring the war about because countries felt they could go to war because they would have support. More importantly, the alliances caused the war to spread once it started, involving many countries rather than just two.
Imperialism was another cause of WWI. Many European countries already had empires before 1900. France and Britain, in particular, had large empires. Germany wanted to be seen as a major power so it wanted an empire as well. As it tried to take an empire, it worried France and Britain, making them want to fight to prevent Germany from encroaching on their empires.
Finally, nationalism was a major cause of WWI. This caused countries to be arrogant and aggressive because they felt that they were superior to other countries. It also helped to create the alliances and to cause the assassination that led to the war. Slavs allied with other Slavs. Germans allied with other Germans. These alliances helped lead to WWI.
Thus, we can say that there were four MAIN factors that caused WWI.
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