The Causes Of World War I Essays - Causes Of World War I

The Causes Of World War I Essays - Causes Of World War I The Causes of World War I The First World War had many causes; the historians probably have not yet discovered and discussed all of them so there might be more causes than what we know now. The spark of the Great War was the assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and his wife by a Serbian nationalist on the morning of June 28, 1914, while traveling in a motorcade through Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Archduke was chosen as a target because Serbians feared that after his ascension to the throne, he would continue the persecution of Serbs living within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Serbian terrorist organization, the Black Hand, had trained a small group of teenage operatives to infiltrate Bosnia and carry out the assassination of the Archduke. It is unclear how officially active the Serbian government was in the plot. However, it was uncovered years later that the leader of the Black Hand was also the head of Serbian military intelligence. In order to underezd the complexity of the causes of the war, it is very helpful to know what was the opinion of the contemporaries about the causes of the Great War. In the reprint of the article "What Started the War", from August 17, 1915 issue of The Clock magazine published on the Internet the author writes: "It is thought that this war that is been ongoing for over a year, began with the assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand. However, many other reasons led to this war, some occurring as far back the late 1800's. Nationalism, militarism, imperialism, and the system of alliances were four main factors that pressed the great powers towards this explosive war." According to the article above, the author stresses that the nationalism was one of the primary causes of the war. In the ninetieth and twentieth centuries, especially after the French Revolution nationalism was becoming a powerful force in Europe so people that had the same culture, language wanted their own country. And that was the problem for the government of Austria-Hungary that did not want to lose their power and control. The Slavs in the southern part of the empire were their main concern since they wanted to join up to Serbia. Militarism is the second cause according to the article above, which comes after the nationalism. To underezd what the author means by militarism one should be familiar with the situation of the world in the beginning of the century, which was the result of both industrial and democratic revolutions. Britain at that time was the largest empire in the world, and it also had the largest navy. The navy was so big and strong because the Britons needed to protect their empire and maintain the sea routes between the different colonies. The Kaiser William II of Germany hated and envied Britain for having a stronger navy than his. He increased the German navy and built many warships. Britain responded with building more ships and increasing its navy too. This started a race for building more and better warships and it created tension and competition between those two countries. Imperialism and the system of alliances are the last two major causes of the War. There was a quarrel between France and Germany about controlling the colonies, and especially Morocco, which leads to a greater conflict, the Great War. Europe at that time was divided into two rival alliance systems: Triple Entente that included Great Britain, France, and Russia and the Triple Alliance, which included the Central Powers of Austria-Hungary, Germany, and eventually the Ottoman Turkish Empire. Austria-Hungary must take a large proportion of any blame for the outbreak of war in 1914. The reason for Germany's part in the causes involves Germany's "blank Check" policy. Before sending its ultimatum to Serbia, Austria needed to be sure of the support of its ally, Germany. Such support was forthcoming in the form of a telegram to the Emperor Franz Joseph on 6 July 1914. The telegram has become known to history as the "Blank Check". In order to balance the power, France and Russia signed an alliance. Russia saw itself as the 'protector

News and Houses

News and Houses News and Houses News and Houses By Maeve Maddox Lately I’ve noticed that several announcers on NPR (National Public Radio)both national and local announcershave taken to pronouncing the word news as [noos]. U.S. and British speakers usually differ in the way they pronounce the vowel in news. Most U.S. speakers say [nooz]. British pronunciation is [nyooz]. The pronunciation [noos] is a new one on me. Long before I heard [noos], I began to notice a shift in the way some U.S. speakers pronounce the words house and houses, pronouncing the [z] of the plural as [s]. I first noticed it in the speech of Chicago speakers, but now I hear it in the national media. House is pronounced differently according to whether it is a noun or a verb. â€Å"Let’s paint the house pink.† (noun) Used as a noun, house is pronounced [hous]. The plural of house is houses [hou-ziz]. â€Å"Relief services must house all the homeless storm survivors.† (verb) As a verb, house is pronounced [houz]. House has an -ing form that can be used as either a noun or a verb: â€Å"Local hotels are providing temporary housing for the survivors.† (verbal noun) â€Å"FEMA is housing the survivors in mobile homes.† (present participle) The pronunciation of housing is [hou-zing] Several rules govern the pronunciation of the letter s in English. I’ll mention only the ones that apply to news and houses. houses If the last consonant sound of the word is a sibilant sound like [s] or [z]), the final sound is pronounced like an extra syllable: [houz-iz] news If the last letter of the word ends in a vowel sound (e.g. bees, flies), the s is pronounced [z]. Don’t let the consonant letter w in news fool you. English has many more vowel sounds than it has vowel letters. The w in news belongs to the vowel digraph ew, the vowel sound heard in news. Such handy rules for the pronunciation of s at the end of words do not exist for s in a medial position. Those you must learn on a word-by-word basis. When in doubt, consult a dictionary. Interesting side note: One of the announcers on my local NPR station pronounces noon as [njun] instead of [noon]. She says that a program is on â€Å"from 11 a.m. to [njun].† I’m waiting for another announcer to do it. I think this kind of thing may be catching. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Useful Stock Phrases for Your Business Emails20 Pairs of One-Word and Two-Word FormsDouble Possessive