To what extent did the alliance system cause the outbreak of war?

The alliance system played a very important role in the outbreak of

war in 1914. In order to answer the question there are many factors
that need to be considered. Some of these factors are the general
nature of the alliance system, the July crisis in 1914, Germany and
encirclement as well as Austrian/Russia Balkan rivalry. Other factors
that need to be looked at in more depth are the Arms race, Balkan
Crisis, Austria weakening and social nationalism to answer the
question.
Almost since 1914, the causes of the war have been very controversial
as they have been very well documented. In 1919 the general view of
the cause of the war was set out in the War Guilt Clause holding the
Kaiser responsible. Liberal minded people in the USA and Britain
thought it was time to make a new start with Germany in the 1920’s.
This meant that people especially Historians in the 1920’s moved away
the blame instead moving it to international relations, what they called
‘old diplomacy’, the alliance system that divided Europe in 1914.

One of the main factors that led to conflict of the First World War was
the alliance system of the late nineteenth century. Although there
were always alliances at this time between different nations, the
diplomatic trend during the nineteenth century was to have secret
alliances, which led to nations protecting themselves in order for
defensive military action. This was encouraged by Bismarck who is the
attempt to unify Germany led to them creating alliances in order to
protect themselves if others become hostile. Although at this time
Germany had allied itself with Austria and Russia by the end of the
twentieth century the alliances had shifted. The breakdown between
the German and Russian empire happened when Russia and France
formed an alliance marking the end of German direction of the affairs
of Europe. This breakdown in relations led to the end of Bismarck and
the failure to renew the Reinsurance Treaty between the two countries.
A formal alliance between France and Russia was settled in 1893 with
its terms being both military and anti-German and promised each other
if it was attacked by Germany. Germany instead allied itself with
Austria-Hungary and Italy in an alliance called ‘The Triple Alliance’.
Great Britain’s relations with the French developed and gradually
improved by the foreign minister after long standing disputes. This led
to the Entente Cordial with France, which was to develop into the
"Triple Entente" between Britain, France and Russia. This was a major
cause of war as there were two specific sides and lots of terms in the
alliances.
German Foreign Policy with the introduction of Weltpolitik or World
policy was a major factor in the causation of war. The loss of relations
with Russian alliance was dangerous for Germany as it allowed the
possibly of encirclement. This became a reality with the formation of
the Franco-Russian Alliance in 1893. The response to encirclement by
the Germans was the Schlieffan plan. This was the proposal that
German would have a short war with France and Russia by mobilising
quickly within six weeks, repeating how Prussia defeated them in 1870.
In the east, Germany would launch a holding operation until the full
force of Germany could be used against the Russian army as they were
a greater danger. However, an agreement between Belgium and Great
Britain led to conflict when German troops moved through Belgium as
part of the Schlieffan plan. This meant that more nations got involved
due to terms in alliances creating a large scale war. By 1914, the
threat of encirclement was widely discussed in Germany. Concern
developed after the formation of the alliances including the Ententes of
1904 and 1907 even though neither of those was anti-German, as both
were primarily colonial agreements. They only developed an anti-
German element in response to German aggression between 1905 and
1911. Weltpolitik was a drive for power and international prestige, for
German hegemony. However, such an aggressive foreign policy as
Weltpolitik was a policy of risk. By 1914 the failure of Weltpolitik was a
major cause for an outbreak of war and with the alliances it leads from
a small scale to a full world scale.

Another major cause for the outbreak in war other than German
Foreign Policy was The July Crisis. This began with the assassination of
Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Bosnia. This proved to be a
major cause for war however could have been prevented. Austria
immediately blamed Serbia for the assassination, believing that the
Serbian government was directly involved, and used the event to deal
with Serbia and finally settle the ‘South Slav’ problem. However, Russia
was unlikely to allow Serbia to be humiliated again like 1908. From the
beginning of the assassination, it would just be between Austria and
Serbia. This is where the alliance system played a very important role.
Austria was too weak to risk going to war on Serbia with the Serbs
having support of Russia. Austria depended on Germany to help them.
Germany gave their unconditional support to Austria, a decision known
as the ‘Carte Blanche’. This was a key decision in the July Crisis with
Germany wanting a quick and decisive war for many reasons, one of
these being to strengthen its only ally, to break out of encirclement, to
launch a successful preventative war and to deal with political
problems caused by increasing industrialisation in Germany. Austria
declared war on Serbia on 28 July and shelled Belgrade the next day. It
was now virtually impossible to stop war. True to the word, Russia
mobilised in order to support Serbia as well as Germany helping
Austria. German mobilised immediately and declared war on 1 August
and on France on 3 August. Due to the Alliances, France mobilised
against Germany on 1 August in accordance to the France-Prussian
alliance. In response, Britain as part of alliances with France and
Belgium declared war on Germany. Alliances played a major role in the
cause of war as it meant more nations got involved where if this was
not the case then war between Serbia and Austria would have been
smaller.
Other factors played an important role in the outbreak of war. One of
these is the naval race. The rivalry between Britain and Germany was
particularly keenly-felt. Britain hoped to get the Germans to slow down
in the pace of their naval reconstruction programme and the Germans
hoped to get Britain to remain neutral. Britain had traditionally enjoyed
large supremacy over the seas however German wanted to combat
this by increasing there navy. This aggression by the Germans in the
building of the Dreadnoughts in 1906, lead to Britain increasing their
navy also. On several occasions Britain attempted to negotiate a limit
however without success. But in 1914 the German Chancellor hoped to
make Britain be neutral in any war however the naval race made this
extremely unlikely.

In conclusion, the alliance systems may not have triggered the war but
certainly made the war a larger scale. The July Crisis was the trigger to
the war but could easily have been prevented as Franz-Ferdinand was
not a popular figure. However, Germany had plans in order to help
themselves and when they got involved and Russia got involved, it
meant that due to alliances Britain, Italy and France all got involved
creating a European war.