There are four factors that could be held responsible for the First World War; militarism, alliances, imperialism and nationalism. Militarism is the expansion of armies and navies, alliances refer to the networks of pacts and agreements that countries have made with each other, imperialism is the taking control of other countries, and nationalism is the promotion of one's own country and propaganda against other countries or countries. countries that were the opposition of your allies. All these four factors were partially responsible for causing the war. Militarism could be blamed for causing the war, because the growing competition between European powers meant that countries were desperate to demonstrate their dominance, and this was best done through military investment. Additionally, increased military spending has made countries want to use their own militaries, and this idea is supported by the “use it or lose it” mentality. Alliances were formed to protect each other from possible future attacks, but ended up further increasing tensions between the European powers as alliances were formed against other alliances. Imperialism meant that countries were already fighting over territory, and although it was far from where these countries actually were, it severely increased the risk of war as tensions between countries increased. Nationalism increased hostility with the initiation and continuation of the propaganda war. Each country frantically tried to prove itself superior to all other countries, and in the process often ended up making negative propaganda by defaming other countries and their leaders. However, it was the Triple Alliance of 1882 that began the series of events that would inevitably lead to war. Although none of the protagonists of the ongoing arms race and military fears bore much of the responsibility for the war. Imperialism is closely related to militarism, because as one increases the other also increases, but if we ignore this relationship we can clearly see that militarism was the half that bore most of the responsibility. Without the expansion of militarism, countries would not have had so many imperialist goals. But the decisive factor was the changing alliances in Europe. While this ties into the growing tension due to military fears and naval arms races that took place due to military expansion, they created an environment of mistrust and a kind of betrayal for the growing tensions between nations to grow until breaking point. Although alliances alone did not cause the war, without the crumbling alliance system in Europe the war could have been avoided.