A Marxist understanding of First World War is that it was a competition between capitalist states that seek to expand their own Empires as such imperialism which is caused by capitalism is a major reason for war between European powers. Additionally war is extremely profitable for many capitalists especially armaments manufacturers and thus defense companies would advocate for war to increase their profits.
My question is there any evidence that capitalists in Europe advocated for European wide war to increase their own profits?
Greetings! This is a rather interesting side-investigation on one of many historiographical interpretations of the origins of the First World War, and it is certainly one of those schools which has yet to enter the "mainstream" discussions of the First World War (unless of course, we refer to sociopolitical circles of Marxist academia on WW1). I have written in earlier threads on similar matters related to Marxist theories of the outbreak of the war in 1914, specifically this one regarding the role of imperialism in the war's beginning, and this (more relevant) one on the fear of socialist revolution as a motivating factor for war. Both of them should serve as good reading to discuss the idea that Marxist theories for World War 1 do not quite hold up under the evidence.
For even further reading on the matter however, to illustrate just how complex the nature of the origins of the First World War is as a historiographical topic, consider this six-part Saturday Showcase Series in which I dissect (and somewhat deconstruct) the MAIN theory of events in 1914. The general gist that all three of these links should give is that whilst the elements of war (capitalist or otherwise in origin) were present in 1914, there were hardly any capitalists per se actively calling for war*.* As a fact of historical materialism, the origins of World War have nonetheless proven an interesting (if nowadays side-lined) point of entry for historians.
As an added bonus bit of deep-dive reading OP, feel free to pm me for an interesting and most enlightening bit of writing fleshing out Marxist theories of war and the evidence which might support such theories. Hope this bit of plugging and linking helped though, and feel free to ask me any follow-up questions as you see fit!