What were the long-term and immediate causes of World War I, and how did the conflict become a global war?

The First World War clearly marked a major break in the course of world history. The maps of Europe and southwest Asia were redrawn, nationalist movements took root and spread across Asia (see Chapter 29), America consolidated its position as a global power, and the world experienced, for the first time, industrialized, total war. Europe’s Great Powers started the war and suffered the most — in casualties, in costs, in destruction, and in societal and political upheaval. Imperialism also brought the conflict to the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, making this a global war of unprecedented scope. The young soldiers who went to war believed in the pre-1914 world of order, progress, and patriotism. Then, in soldier and writer Erich Remarque’s words, the “first bombardment showed us our mistake, and under it the world as they had taught it to us broke in pieces.”1