Describe how the Industrial Revolution helped lay the foundations for WWI?

Industrial powers need resources to be productive. Manufactured goods require a number of materials like rubber, metals, or cotton. Militaristic industrial powers require those materials even more. In a quest for these materials, the European powers looked to other areas of the world to colonize. This endeavor often caused the military powers of Europe to compete for the same lands, particularly in Africa. This quest for colonies was one of the underlying causes of World...

Industrial powers need resources to be productive. Manufactured goods require a number of materials like rubber, metals, or cotton. Militaristic industrial powers require those materials even more. In a quest for these materials, the European powers looked to other areas of the world to colonize. This endeavor often caused the military powers of Europe to compete for the same lands, particularly in Africa. This quest for colonies was one of the underlying causes of World War I.

Because of the fact that nations were in competition for colonies with one another, they decided that having a strong military would help in this end. The nations of Europe became very militaristic in the years leading up to the first World War.  Militarism is also viewed as an important cause of World War I. The mass production of weapons leading up to World War I would not have been possible without industrialism.

In addition to the fact that industrialism was a cause of the Great War, it also changed the nature of warfare. Mass production of materials made warfare more destructive. Due to the fact that nations were able to efficiently produce weapons of war, the death counts skyrocketed. The delivery of the materials to the war front was also more efficient producing the same negative effect for soldiers. The Industrial Revolution, in many ways, actually defined the Great War.