Imperialism:
The imperalistic policies of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Great Britain, France, Russia and many other countries played a big role in driving WWI. France and Great Britain had established many colonies throughout Africa and Asia, and Germany was late in the game and only had a few colonies in Africa. Germany needed a way to one up, and Germany's plan to keep up with it's European rivals was to gain more territory.
Militarism:
To gain more territory, Germany needed to build up its army as a way of asserting power. Germany needed to build up a massive army, as well as a massive navy to keep up with Britain. This sparked an arms race, countries throughout the world started preparing for war. German began to prepare for war with the Schieffen plan, although this plan relyed alot upon "what ifs",proabaly why it didnt work out so well.
Nationalism: In order to raise funds and recruit to suport the militarist movement, a nationalist sentiment was spread throughout many countries, including Germany, where the idea of a war on German terms was encourages. Nationalism lead to extreme pride in ones country, an may have been a way to validate unethical imperalist pratices.
Alliances: Alliances were made between countries either to keep the peace, or to ensure some sort of military back up during conflict. In the end these alliances ended up contractually dragging many nations into a war that didn't benefit them.
