Which long term cause of the first world war focused on competing to have the most powerful armed forces

MILITARISM

.Explanation:

The first long-term cause of World War I is militarism. Militarism can best be understood as the buildup or expansion of the ability of a country's military to wage war.

they kept back from the wars and didn't want any action meaning wars.

answer: secession

secession, as it applies to the outbreak of the american civil war, comprises the series of events that began on december 20, 1860, and extended through june 8 of the next year when eleven states in the lower and upper south severed their ties with the union. the first seven seceding states of the lower south set up a provisional government at montgomery, alabama. after hostilities began at fort sumter in charleston harbor on april 12, 1861, the border states of virginia, arkansas, tennessee, and north carolina joined the new government, which then moved its capital to richmond, virginia. the union was thus divided approximately on geographic lines. twenty-one northern and border states retained the style and title of the united states, while the eleven slave states adopted the nomenclature of the confederate states of america.

explanation: