Albert Einstein once said: "You cannot prevent and prepare for war at the same time." In the case of the First World War, an attempt to do precisely that was among the reasons that caused the war to break out.
             Since the beginning of the 20th century, European economies were thriving more and more, making it easy for an Arms Race to begin. Leading up to the Great War, some things went awry in Europe. An inflexible system of alliances, the Triple Entente (Britain, France, Russia) pitted against the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy), made hostilities and national rivalries grow. Germany emerged as an economic and industrial giant which suddenly demanded, in Kaiser Wilhelm's words, "a place in the sun" as well as world power status, which threatened and worried all its surrounding rivals. This essay will examine three of the main causes for World War I: the nationalistic tensions within Austria-Hungary, the Arms Race in the pre-war years, and the failure of German diplomacy in combination with the Schlieffen Plan. Furthermore, this essay will show these three causes may be central to the problem, but they were not the only causes of war breaking out.
             One of the expressions of rivalries between nations was the Serbian nationalism, which was growing in strength within Austria-Hungary. This disgruntled the Austrian Emperor to such an extent that when the assassination in Sarajevo gave him the opportunity, he immediately retaliated against the Serbs, effectively causing the chain reaction which would start WWI. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was composed of a huge number of separate nationalities and kingdoms, all of which the Emperor of Austria ruled. Serbia was one of these countries, and at the turn of the century, it was trying to gain independence from the Empire. Historian Norman Lowe says Serbian nationalism was one of the many "causes of friction which threatened to upset the peace of Europe." He tells of Serbia's ...