The Major Causes of World War I

The World at the beginning of the twentieth century was a very different place from what is was to be two generations later. "Primarily this was so because Europe was still the center of the universe, both politically and economically, and Europe was still in the main the Europe of the ancien régime." (Petrie 7). By the year 1901, Europe's nineteenth-century promises had become substantial realities: the nation state, constitutional government, and a predominantly secularized society. Europe had also gained a position of world predominance, which was then lost in the cou…