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Throughout the forty years before 1914 the world had changed dramatically. It was now on the brink of the First World War. There was much hostility amongst the leading world powers of the world. Many factors contributed to this hostility. These factors include anarchism, militarism, nationalism, imperialism and the alliance system. By 1914 the world was so ready for war that they needed something to ignite it and that came in the form of the assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand. Imperialism was one of these contributing factors to the state of play in 1914. Imperialism refers to the term ‘world power’ as being defined as land ownership. Basically, countries went around and claimed pieces of land as their own and ‘pinned’ them onto their empire. There were many examples of this throughout the forty years before the First World War. These include such things as the carving up of Africa, the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary, civilising policies made by the powers, Prussian sta