Perihan Gamil
November Essay Question: Assess the social and economic causes of the First World War.
There were various social and economic causes that led to war in 1914, not only in Germany but
also in other European countries. This essay will assess these social and economic causes, and how they
led to war.
Social wise, and in Germany for the most part, there was a research which analyzed that social
pressures were factors that determined the nature of foreign policy and thus the decision for war. First,
there is Weltpolitik, what the Germans defined as Germany’s place in the sun by the creation of a colonial
empire to rival those of other powers. Many people, after Bismarck left in 1890, looked for a new national
cause to support and new national goals to work for. There was a sort of anxiety about the direction of
Germany’s place in the world and its foreign policy. Politicians then began to talk about the significance
of ‘rallying together’ using policies that would allow one solid body to support the Kaiser and the state,
while another solid body to oppose the growing socialist movement. Weltpolitik was seen as a
development that sprang from nationalism which aimed at unifying Germany and increasing its
international power. Second, there were mobilizing groups known as the Pan-German League who
implied that the whole public has a role in promoting national security and that the government should
pay more attention to the dangers that Germany faced by taking necessary steps such as building up
armaments on land and sea, encourage colonial expansion, support ethnic Germans outside Germany to
fight for their cultural freedom, and combat rebellion inside Germany. According to Niall Ferguson’s
theory, he argues that the decisive factor in pushing Germany over the brink and into war in 1914 was the
conviction of both military and civilian leaders that Germany could not win the arms race against its
continental neighbors. Other effective pressure groups such as the Flottenverein emerged as a result of
Tirpitz’s propaganda in favor of his naval program and became bodies that provided an opportunity for
middle-class members to gain influential positions whom only aristocrats held, and their views had to be
taken seriously by the government. These pressure groups also deliberately attacked Bethmann Holweg
for his failure to assert Germany’s position over Morocco in front of France, which was a social
humiliation felt by most Germans, and the disappointment of not dispatching a German warship to
Agadir. Another social cause was the German navy which led to the creation of a nationalist opinion body
which contributed to make war seem acceptable. They no more wanted to keep Bülow’s foreign policy of
Germany’s isolation and fear of being ‘encircled’ by hostile powers but rather contributed to increase the
size of the army and navy, although it increased Germany’s financial difficulties. The social causes in the
Balkans originated from the Slavic people in Bosnia and Herzegovina not wanting to be part of AustriaHungary and instead be part of Serbia, which is considered a type of nationalism. For Russia, the
important scenario was the inevitability of a conflict between Slav and Tueton (German). Austria had
been in agreement with Germany, and the Austrian ultimatum to Serbia greatly provoked Russia who well
knew that Berlin accepted so Russia was forced to back down since it was not at all prepared to fight
Germany because of its defeat against Japan. This created hostile feelings between them and humiliated
Russia who afterwards swore not to back down again. In France, social causes were in the form of French
resent against Germany over Alsace-Lorraine and the Germanophobia that emerged in the 1900’s with the
Moroccan crisis.
The economic causes in Germany were for example the steel magnates which largely contributed
to the financing of the Navy League. The Wilhelmine naval construction and the Bismarckian colonial
plans led to a considerable increase in shipbuilding in the city of Hamburg, and therefore increase the
number of ships in the German navy which came to threaten Britain as a major sea power. There was
also the competition for market expansion in which Germany wanted to own foreign territory in order to
obtain resources and maintain a stable economy, which Britain and France already had. However, very
few and worthless colonies were left untaken in Africa since the strategic ones were already taken so this
pushed Germany to demand its right for colonies and eventually created tensions. Another economic
cause of the First World War was the flourish of great arms firms known as the ‘Merchants of Death’ for
provoking wars to increase their profits such as Krupp, Schneider Creusot, Skoda, and Armstrong and
Vickers. They often pressed countries that did not fight in European wars such as countries in Latin
America to buy arms from them and thus increase their profits and compete with one another over
producing more armaments than their rivals. There was another conflict that emerged over economics in
1905 during the Moroccan crisis when France and Germany wanted to take advantage of Russia’s need of
money to try and gain their diplomatic support over Morocco. Germany offered Russia loans in return for
Russian influence over France to make them give up on German demands in Morocco while France also
offered loans to Russia in return of wholehearted French support at Algeciras Conference. Russia,
however, chose a loan from France. This is considered an economic cause because the loan was an aspect
that brought France and Russia together as allies against Germany.
The major social causes of the First World War were Weltpolitik, the Pan-German League, the
desire to build a strong German navy, and the nationalism of the people in Europe. While economic
causes included financing the Navy League which alarmed Germany and Britain from one another,
conflict over colonies between those who have and those who do not, the armament firms, and Moroccan
crisis.