Causes of World War I

The causes of World War I vary from the immediate (the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand) to the underlying (the competing alliance systems) to the remote (the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871). While war may have been inevitable by 1914, the fact that Europe was already balanced on a knife's edge causes responsibility to fall all the more heavily on those who provided the immediate spark, who should have known what the consequences would be.

The Decline of Old and Rise of New Empires in the Latter 19th Century

The late 19th century in Central Europe was largely the story of the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of the German Empire, which was proclaimed in 1871 by Kaiser Wilhelm I and Chancellor Otto von Bismarck of Prussia.