Classifying a Cause: Alliance, Imperialism, Nationalism, Plans, Opinion

The idea

The exam hands you a cause and asks its kind, and the anchor's five sort cleanly. Alliance: Germany's blank check, Russia's patronage of Serbia, France bound to Russia, Britain bound to Belgium; the mechanism that turned a Balkan murder into a general war. Imperialism: colonies abutting in Africa and Asia, the naval race, the habit of settling quarrels with force against people who could not fire back. Nationalism: Serbia's Piedmont ambition, revanche for Alsace-Lorraine, German contempt for Slavs, Italy's resentment; the resentment that made war feel deserved. Plans: Schlieffen's six weeks, million-man armies, general staffs whose timetables forced their governments to mobilize first or lose; the reason the crisis could not pause. Opinion: electorates, newspapers and jingoism, so that no government could back down and survive. The anchor ranks great-power rivalry first and treats the rest as its instruments. Practice on six cases: the Dreadnought, the ultimatum to Serbia, Russia's July thirtieth mobilization, the Berlin crowds, Bosnia's annexation, the Franco-Russian convention.