Acquiring land through the process of colonization was a large impact for the start of World War I. In early times, Great Britain and France created large empires all throughout the world by claiming as much land as they possibly could. As time evolved, the world did not have as many resources in the available land. With Germany becoming another power country, they also wanted to have colonies to acquire resources from. The only way the Germans could do this would be to take land from other countries and that is where tensions started to be raised. With tensions already high throughout the European nations, the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand quickly ignited the war. The Great War, later known as the World War I has begun.

With the ideal of Nationalism, countries cannot think about just their own national interest, but the interest of other countries that their actions could effect. One source of trouble was the Alsace-Lorraine border, a border between France and Germany. The land occupied by Germany was one of the lands that France yearned to reacquire. In 1871 the land was conquered and the Germans had too much National pride to let the land be taken, while the French people had historic ties to the small strip of land.

A system of allies had developed during the 1900’s when the tensions in Europe started to reach maximum levels. Allies are other countries swearing to help each other in the case of national attack. The Central Powers:  Germany and Austria-Hungary and the Allies: Great Britain and Frances, and in case of major attack the United States was ready to come to the aid of Great Britain.