Essay To What Extent Did The Increase In Military Spending

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To what extent did the increase in military spending foretell that a war was coming?

The increase in military spending did foretell that a war was coming. This was because the big empires were starting to prepare for war so their empire didn't collapse during this war through the lost of major causalities or invasion from other nations. The increase for Great Britain was from $286.7 million(US)1 spent on defence and military in 1908 to $374.2 million(US)1 in 1913, in five years Great Britain’s spending on defence and military went up 130%. These increase were even bigger for countries like Germany, France and Russia. Germany went up 161%1 whilst France went up 168%1 and Russia had an increase of 149%1 in defence and military spending. This mass increase of over hundred percent by every major empire at the time showed that they were expecting a war to come, therefore, foretelling that a war was coming.

To what extent did France want revenge for their defeat in the Franco-Prussia war?

The french were willing to and desired to go to war against Germany in 1914 as
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Therefore, it did to a limited degree determine if WWI was going to happen. This is because Austria-Hungry at this time had become power hungry and were also empire building. This lead to them trying to expand their borders by over taking the Balkan States who had just cleared the Turkish from their lands. This first was shown with the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, this scared the other Balkan States. This lead to the bigger Balkan States such as Serbia having to protect the others states through the help of their allies. These bluff mobilisation and the formation of the Black Hand lead to the July Crisis which meant war was about to be upon the world. So, yes, Austria-Hungry partially taking over the Balkan States did kind of determine if WW1 was going to