On the Brink of War In 1914, there were many things that brought Europe to the brink of war. Nationalism, militarism, imperialism, social Darwinism, and Jingo were five of the major forces pushing Europe to the brink of war. Another major force was the development of Alliance systems. These ideas and systems threatened the balance of power which could cause the outbreak of a major war. In Europe at that time there were many ideas that caused friction. Nationalism, which was the desire to create a country, caused friction because people in old empires sought to be free. The leaders of these people would not be happy and a war would definitely break out. If they became free they would also need to take land from someone else and this could also cause a war and usually did. Another idea that was contributing to power shifts in Europe was militarism. This happened when a country believed that its power was reflected in its army. They believed that war was the right thing to do and that all countries should be ready for war. If a country felt it had a lot of power, it would, without a doubt, try to conquer a weaker neighbor or simply any other country. Imperialism, which was the desire of countries to build an empire, was another reason. For a country to become an empire it would have to colonize and conquer other territories. This would easily start wars and it's not hard to see why. A good example of this is Italy. They wanted to become an empire, so they attacked a country they thought was weaker than them (Abyssinia). This caused a war which was ultimately won by Abyssinia. Another cause was the idea of ​​social Darwinism. This meant survival of the fittest. The best would win and the weakest would win. The stronger country would attack the weaker countries and in the end the weaker would usually lose. This caused a lot of tension just like militarism. The last of the ideas was the idea of ​​jingoes. These were people who lived for war. All they wanted was to go to war. Jingos were very aggressive speakers and caused a lot of friction between many countries. These ideas were some of the main reasons why Europe was pushed to the brink of war.