Describe how imperialism led to the long term and short term causes of World War I

World War I began in June of 1914, and is considered to have five major causes that led to the outbreak of the war.  These five causes include the four long-term causes (militarism, alliances, imperialism and nationalism) discussed in this reading and one short-term cause (the assassination of Franz Ferdinand).  The four long-term causes each occurred in the years and decades before the actual outbreak of World War I, and all combined to set the stage for war in 1914.  Most people think of these as the MAIN causes of World War I as an easy to remember acronym.

​

MILITARISM

The first long-term cause of World War I is militarism.  Militarism can best be understood as the buildup or expansion of the ability of a country’s military to wage war.  In the decades before World War I many European countries began to practice militarism and worked to expand and strengthen their military forces.  For example, there was an intense arms race and naval race between several European nations in the buildup to World War I.  Specifically, France and Germany were heavily involved in an arms race in which each country doubled their armies between 1870 and 1914.  Both nations had a history of war against each other and their rivalry caused them to expand their military forces.  At the outbreak of fighting in 1914, France had approximately 4 million soldiers while Germany had over 4.5 million.  This arms race showed the distrust between the nations of Europe and when war did break out in 1914 it allowed the countries to go to war more easily.  

Explanation:

the doctrine of nullification recommended that states living inside the union have the one-sided, inalienable ideal to void any law made by the national government that could be esteemed illegal.

the united states was shaped based on a general agreement among its individual states. hence, it is inferred that under the hypothesis of invalidation, since the states are the establishment of the union, they have the ability to referee and disprove unlawful laws.