What were the contributing causes of World War 1

World War 1 is often considered as being the fault of one nation, namely Germany. However World War 1 cannot be attributed solely as the fault of Germany as there are many other mitigating circumstances that disprove this. In 1914 Europe was a divided continent with five superpowers dominating it. (These 5 empires being Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia) It was the richest continent in the world, and by far the most powerful, yet it was gearing …

…and as one historian said "Germany had always wanted to control Europe" The Kaiser is often seen as wanting to rule the world (as one Italian cartoon demonstrated) and its foreign policy of being anti-British was always bound to provoke its great Empire into war. The assassination of the Archduke was more of a spark than a reason, it is almost certain that war would have materialized very soon due to the tensions round Europe.