Causes of the First World War “Fighting for your country is the greatest honor a man can have”, never before the First World War had this statement been also widely distributed. World War I changed the way wars were fought. This changed the way wars were fought in general. Nationalism, the desire to fight for one's country was really a big cause of the First World War, everyone wanted to do what was right, honest and honorable. With this came imperialism, simply taking over other regions and having more power and land was a reason in itself to start a war. The last cause was the alliances; the countries that fought alongside you when you needed them need you now. Even though your country was not directly involved in the war, you were drawn into it along with your allies. Everyone had a problem with at least one country; therefore, everyone was fighting thus creating, a world war. Everyone who fought in World War I had enormous nationalism. Each of them was ready and trained throughout their years of study to fight in a war for their country. In Germany, they were so committed that they did not learn mathematics or sentence formation; they learned the use of weapons and the proper way to fight. Not to mention everyone was talking about it, it felt like it was glorious and exciting, like it wasn't about a bunch of men and friends and family dying every day. There were more than 37 million casualties, including 16 million deaths, although only 9.7 million of these were attributable to military forces, which is still a huge number. The men knew the consequences, they knew that death was a likely possibility, but they still got goosebumps when in the presence of a real soldier, which they hopefully would be one day. This is linked to militarism, an underlying cause of the broader cause of nationalism. Militari... middle of paper ......h immediately took them to war, bringing Britain and France right behind them. France was more than willing though, after all the fighting with Germany and Germany burning down their city at the start of WWI. Nationalism, imperialism and alliances were the three main causes of the First World War. All three linked and all three played a huge role in turning the murder of a prince into a huge war that dragged all of Europe and ultimately everywhere and everyone into war. These three causes did not only exist in the military forces, they began as soon as you arrived in kindergarten and lasted until you died, perhaps on the battlefield which was your destiny and the only honorable place for a young man in an honest family. Never before has a war had such an impact and without any of these key elements it could not have happened..