One of the major causes was imperialism, the want of an empire.

During the very early 1900s Britain owned various colonies not to mention countries which allotted to them owning 25% of the world at that time. Germany was very jealous of this, the Kaiser himself wanting a bigger empire especially land overseas, because of this Germany began to fight for colonies already owned by Britain, France and various other countries.

This resulted in the Moroccan crises of 1905 and 1911 in which Germany demanded land but came off badly with only a small part of French Congo which had no agricultural or any kind of value at all for that matter, it mostly being made up of swamp and jungle. During the Moroccan crises alliances were already beginning to...