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Nationalism is like patriotism, but less individual and broader and more complicated. Nationalism gave European countries a sense of superiority over their neighbors. They think they're better, so they build up their armies and compete in every other aspect to be even better. Nationalism, in a different light, also makes more people want to create independent countries. This brought high tensions in Europe in the build-up to the war.

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Pan-Slavism was the belief that Slavic people were powerful in the region and they should have their own nation. This nationalism is not for a certain country, but more for the Slavic's culture and identity. This was strong in Serbia, where discontent youngsters join nationalist organizations like the "Black Hand". They wanted to break out of Austria-Hungary's control and influence over the region and form a "Greater Serbia". It was this aggressive form of nationalism that pulled the trigger of the WWI by the killing of archduke Franz Ferdinand.

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Imperialism was notable among European powers. They started taking over weaker countries around the world ever since the 18th century. The industrial revolution was starting to deprive Europe of its natural resources and the European powers had to turn to their colonies to exploit instead. As usual, more colonies - more resources.

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Germany as a young colonial empire didn't have many colonies around the world and envied older empires like Britain or France. It has been claimed that Germany's desire to invade Belgium and France was driven by imperial ambitions. In addition, Britain's and France's control over more important parts of Africa also caused Germany's resentment. They wanted more.

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Alliances are basically countries becoming friends for mutual general benefits. Alliances are formed for a variety of reasons such as the need for financial or military assistance, trade agreements, investments, or loans.
Some people hoped that the power balance in Europe brought about by these alliances would truly help to prevent war. However, many nations felt forced by the alliances to take sides in a growing conflict. No country wanted others to be more powerful than themselves, but in case of war, they needed to make friends with other powerful countries. They were fully aware they had no chance of winning had they stood alone.

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Money obviously plays an important role in the war. More budget - more powerful military. The countries themselves know a war will happen sooner or later, so decades before they already started spending more on their armies. Increased military expenditure simply allowed all directly involved powers to raise more troops and improve their battleships. The total expenditure of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Britain, France, and Russia reached almost 400 million by the time WWI broke out.

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Army conscription was adopted by continental European powers at the end of 19h century. Countries increased their stock of arms by using different strategies. Men who were able to fight, had to fight. Imagine high school students right now having to join the army right once they graduate.

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There was a strong relation between nationalism and militarism. The Europeans felt immense pride in how strong their militaries are, even going as far as pressuring the government to enlist more men and build more weapons. Strong patriotic feelings of people was why so many volunteered to fight on the front lines. Armies of patriotic men were convinced they were fighting for the right cause and they knew they couldn't lose.

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The assassination of archduke Franz Ferdinand

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The assassination of archduke Franz Ferdinand

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In June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary and his wife were assassinated by a Serbian, who was from a Serbian nationalist organization. In simple words, Austria-Hungary went on to blame everything on Serbia and caused the July crisis by threatening them with unnegotiable orders. Russia joined as they saw themselves as the protector of Serbia, and Germany who was an ally to Austria-Hungary was willing to come to their defense. Later saw the involvement of many other countries. As I said, the war became big because of the alliances. If there were no alliances, it would have only caused a war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia. However, the story is much more complicated than that. The archduke's death more or less was like a trigger cause, an excuse for powerful countries to declare wars against each other.

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By the start of World War I, almost the entire African continent was under the control of European empires. Most of the colonization happened at the end of the 19th century. This period of time is known as the Scramble for Africa, in which the countries competed with each other for control of this continent. In their view, colonizing gave them the ability to exploit labor, extract resources, and more importantly, become more powerful. Though not a direct cause, colonialism in Africa imbedded a mindset that they were competitors who could only thrive at the expense of others.

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The number of dreadnoughts built by Britain vs Germany from 1906 to 1914

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Britain and Germany's naval race + dreadnoughts

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Britain and Germany's naval race + dreadnoughts

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Germany was intimidated by Britain's navy (the largest in the world at the time) and launched a naval race. One notable example is the dreadnought, which was the first battleship of the 20th century with outstanding power, created by Britain. Germany developed their own dreadnought to compete only two years after. From the picture, we can see that up until the start of the World War, Britain had 29 and Germany had 17. The Britain navy was obviously the strongest, so there wasn't ever a real race, but Germany had their efforts.

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There are multiple underlying reasons for each country to choose sides such as France wanting revenge against Germany, Russia, and Serbia already being besties, France and Russia gradually establishing good relations with Great Britain, etc.
Therefore, WWI had two main alliance systems:
- Triple Entente: Great Britain, France, Russia, (Serbia, US)
- Triple Alliances: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy (they switch sides later), (Ottoman)
To nobody's surprise, the reason why the war became so big and became the World War was alliances. For example, one country attacks another, immediately their "friends" come to support, which results in many countries fighting each other everywhere all at once.