Causes of WWI and Why Canada Joined

Archduke Ferdinand

     There were many events and conditions that lead to the start of World War 1. One main cause was the way that people in 1914 viewed war; they saw it as glorious and exiting. Some other causes include militarism and imperialism witch caused tension between many European countries and gave them the weapons they needed to fight. Nationalism and alliances also played a big part in causing the war (Falk, Figueira, Miller, Plante, 2006).

    One of the main events that began the war was the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in 1914. This caused problems between Austria-Hungary and Serbia as he was the heir to the Austrian throne (Causes ofWWI, 2013). Soon, Austria- Hungary declared war on Serbia. Germany joined in an alliance with Austria-Hungary and France, Britain and Russia joined in an alliance against them. As soon as Britain declared war, Canada too had joined the war as a colony of Britain (Falk, Figueira, Miller, Plante, 2006).

    Canada became involved in the war because it was a colony of Britain and Britain was at war. Many Canadians felt national pride and were proud to fight and volunteered to join the army. Although the war took 60,000 Canadian lives, I think that Canada made the right choice in joining the war (The Canadian Encycopedia, 2013). It helped Canada to gain respect from other countries and some independence from Britain.

Falk,  J., Figueira, M., Miller, J., Plante, Y. (2006). Social Studies Eleven Student Workbook. 2nd Ed.Surrey, British Columbia: Hazelmere Publishing

(2013). The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retreived from http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/first-world-war-wwi

(2013). Causes of WWI. Retreived from http://www.spiritsd.ca/teachers/dave.herron/H20/Causes%20of%20War.htm

(picture) (2013). Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand_of_Austria