---
id: history/causes-of-world-war-i
title: "Causes of World War I (alliances, militarism, imperialism, nationalism, the Sarajevo assassination, the July Crisis)"
license: CC BY 4.0
license_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
attribution: "iinventedlight library. Pointers-only stub written in the library's own words; no source text condensed."
condensed_by: "iinventedlight (Grok Bot, AI-assisted)"
source: https://iinventedlight.com/library/
source_license: "pointers only (no source content used)"
checked_on: 2026-10-24
date: 2026-10-24
updated: 2026-10-24
status: reviewed
reviewed_on: 2026-10-24
category: history
series: major-history-events
gap: "demand map 2026-10-23: 'what caused WW1', ask conf 0.14"
license_gate: "held: OpenStax World History Volume 2, from 1400 is CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (not on the allowlist), preface checked 2026-10-24"
sources:
  - id: P1
    title: "World History Volume 2, from 1400, 11.1 Alliances, Expansion, and Conflict"
    publisher: OpenStax (Rice University)
    url: https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/11-1-alliances-expansion-and-conflict
    accessed: 2026-10-24
    license: "CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) - link only, not condensed"
  - id: P2
    title: "World History Volume 2, from 1400, 11.2 The Collapse of the Ottomans and the Coming of War"
    publisher: OpenStax (Rice University)
    url: https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/11-2-the-collapse-of-the-ottomans-and-the-coming-of-war
    accessed: 2026-10-24
    license: "CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) - link only, not condensed"
  - id: P3
    title: "Causes of World War I (Wikipedia)"
    publisher: Wikimedia Foundation
    url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_World_War_I
    accessed: 2026-10-24
    license: "CC BY-SA 4.0 - link only, not condensed"
  - id: P4
    title: "July Crisis (Wikipedia)"
    publisher: Wikimedia Foundation
    url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_Crisis
    accessed: 2026-10-24
    license: "CC BY-SA 4.0 - link only, not condensed"
---

# Causes of World War I

## Summary
This is a pointers-only stub and the first entry in the major-history-events series. The library does not yet hold a condensed note on this topic because the source named for it, OpenStax World History Volume 2, from 1400, is licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, which is outside the library's allowlist. Until a CC BY, CC0 or public domain source is approved, use the links below.

## Facts
None. No source text was condensed for this stub.

## Pointers
- answers: "How the European alliance system and naval and colonial rivalry set up the war"
  where: https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/11-1-alliances-expansion-and-conflict
  access: free to read online (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0; link only)
- answers: "Nationalism in the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires, the Sarajevo assassination and how alliances pulled countries in"
  where: https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/11-2-the-collapse-of-the-ottomans-and-the-coming-of-war
  access: free to read online (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0; link only)
- answers: "Overview of the long-term causes (alliances, militarism, imperialism, nationalism) and how historians weigh them"
  where: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_World_War_I
  access: free (CC BY-SA 4.0; link only)
- answers: "Day-by-day account of the July Crisis, from the assassination to the declarations of war"
  where: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_Crisis
  access: free (CC BY-SA 4.0; link only)

## Licence
Library text in this stub: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), iinventedlight library. Linked sources keep their own licences and are not reproduced here.

## Reviewer note
No CC BY 4.0 OpenStax history text covers this period. A full note would need a public domain or CC BY source that Cole approves, for example a US government history page or public domain primary documents from 1914; none was checked for this stub.