America and the Great War: Imperialism, Militarism, and Pan-Slavism

AMERICA AND THE GREAT WAR
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World War I was a world-wide war centered in Europe from around 1914 to 1918. The war had two fronts, the Allies (Russian Empire, France and the United Kingdom) and the Central Powers made of Germany and Austria-Hungary. The main cause for this war was the assassination of Archduke of Austria, Franz Ferdinand. He was assassinated by a Yugoslav nationalist, Gavrilo Princip, in Sarajevo.
Apart from the assassination of the Archduke, several other reasons lead to The Great War. Nationalism is an extreme form of patriotism or loyalty to one's country. Nationalism was prevalent in Europe before the war. It gave the nationalists extreme confidence in their country, assured them that their country was righteous, fair and without any blame. Countries were convinced that other nationalist countries were scheming and plotting against them. As seen above, Gavrilo was a nationalist, and this is what inspired him to assassinate the Archduke. A form of nationalism grew in China led by the Boxers. Its main drive was to get rid of imperialists in China and the Christian missionaries too. To defeat the boxers countries formed alliances and after the defeat, there was the need to control regions in China and this led to diplomatic issues leading to a rivalry between powers.
Imperialism is a system where powerful countries rule over less powerful ones. Most of the countries in Europe had their colonies before the war. In particular, the scramble for Africa brought antagonism between European powers. Another point is the weakening of the Ottoman Empire that saw the European imperialists move to secure influence and territory in the region. Since most of the imperialists were drawn to this region, there was a creation of rivalry between them.
Pritchard (2010) defines militarism as the dominance of the military over a society. Some European countries were dominated or strongly influenced by military leaders before the Great War. This gave rise to the arms race, where military spending was increased, and new military technologies fueled. Military inflamed national confidence and thus war were the most likely candidate for conflict resolution. Because of conflicts in the colonies, or even to protect their colonies from other imperialists, countries sort to improve their military power.
Pan-Slavism before the war was the idea that the Slavic people of Eastern Europe should have their country. It was a kind of nationalism that was opposed to the growing influence in the region of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Groups were formed to drive Austria-Hungary from the region for a Slavic Serbia. This might have been the major drive of the assassination of the Archduke, which led to the war outbreak.
By then, Germany was a young nation and had been formed after the unification of 26 German-speaking states. German nationalism has what unified these states. Leaders used nationalist sentiments to gain support and consolidate power and unity. This was later backed by German militarism.
The alliance system was a connection of agreements and treaties signed before the war. According to Peaple(2002), it was developed as part of European diplomacy. Most countries in Europe formed allian...