Why is it that when you cut a small part of plastic it makes tearing much easier?
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This behaviour is the same for any material, plastic, paper, metal, concrete… Whatever.
Mechanical resistance in materials is opposed to stress (the physical term not the abstact term).
By stress we mean a the quantity of force applied to unit surface.
This means that to overcome the resistance of *any* material, you need to increase the stress applied, and you may do so either increasing the strength or reducing the surface.
A tear is (in its most basic), a reduction in surface. It causes an increase of stress at the same force applied, the increase may be such to break your material.
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