What is the immediate provocation for world war 1 and 2
Answers
The ‘immediate’ causes? In the First World War, the ‘immediate’ cause was the Austria-Hungarian declaration of war on Serbia, which led to a cascade of mobilizations, which ultimately led to war between Austria-Hungary and Germany on one side and France and Russia on the other.
Then the German ultimatum to Belgium for military access, followed by the crossing of the Belgian border by Imperial German forces as part of the modified Schlieffen plan, led to British declaration of war on Germany and Austria-Hungary.
Italy entered the war in 1915 at the behest of the Entente, mostly because it had territorial claims against Austria-Hungary.
The United States declared war on Germany, then Austria-Hungary, in 1917 primarily as a response to the renewal of the German unrestricted submarine campaign, but also because of the Zimmerman telegram—the offer of Germany to aid Mexico in re-conquering lost territory in the United States should war break out between the United States and Germany.
This covers the ‘immediate’ causes of the ‘major’ combatants entering the First World War.
The ‘immediate’ causes of the Second World War were the German invasion of Poland in 1939, followed by the rejection of the British and French demand for German withdrawl from Poland. Germany rejected this demand, which led to the declaration of war by Britain and France on Germany.
Italy declared war on France and Britain in 1940 during the collapse of the French armies during the Battle of France. There was no act by the Allied powers that caused this, rather Mussolini (the fascist leader of Italy) felt like the war was about to end in favor of Germany, and he wanted Italy to have ‘a seat’ at the peace table. The only way he felt he could arrange this is by joining Germany in her war against the Allied powers.
The Soviet Union entered the war against Germany in 1941 when the German army crossed the Soviet frontier and attacked the Soviet Union. Italy declared war on the Soviet Union shortly afterwards as, at this point, she was attached to Germany ‘sink or swim’.
The ‘immediate’ cause of the Japanese entry into the Second World War was the embargo of oil and steel placed on Japan by the United States in late 1941. This caused the Japanese to attack the United States, as well as attack British, French, and Dutch territorial possessions in Asia and the Pacific in December of 1941.
The attack by the Japan on Pearl Harbor caused the American declaration of war against Japan. Germany, declared war on the United States following this, which led to the American declaration of war against Germany.
World War I :-
The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, combined with the unreasonable and inflexible attitude of Austria-Hungary, which in turn was egged on by the German government.
World War II :-
The German invasion of Poland. This wrecked the last remaining feature of the post WW1 settlement. The invasion was part of Hitler's plan to establish a vast empire in Europe - especially, Eastern Europe.