Causes of World Wars

The underlying causes of the World Wars are remarkably similar to the causes of the American Civil War. In Europe, social structures from the feudal system remained at the beginning of the twentieth century. The basic characteristics of these systems were that the burghers, or landed gentry, possessed all of the materials of production and that the proletariat, or working class, lacked the means of sustenance. New political philosophies such as Fascism, Nazism, Marxism and Militarism emerged in response to this problem. These political systems purportedly facilitated the reallocation of resources into industrialized societies. Again, the cause of war was industrialization, and the cause of industrialization was war.