World War 1 (1914-1918)

What Were the Reasons for the First World War?

In the early years of the twentieth century, the world was dominated by the imperial (imperial means concerning an empire) European powers. The older empires of Britain and France had colonies in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and the Pacific. Germany and Italy had not become united political states until the mid-nineteenth century, after which they began to seek territories in Africa to compete with British and French imperialism (imperialism means gaining power and influence for a country through colonization, military force, or another way). Germany did not try to expand into Europe.

Rival Alliances in Europe

By the beginning of the twentieth century, there were many complex alliances between the countries of Europe. The leaders of the most powerful nations had formed alliances to create a balance of power, which means that no single country could become strong enough to hold power over the other countries.

On the map, you can see an area of Europe named the ‘Balkans’-a large peninsula with coasts on four seas: the Mediterranean, the Adriatic, the Aegean, and the Black Sea. The nations and provinces of this region included Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Bosnia. The Ottoman Empire had once ruled most of this area but the Balkan states had formed an alliance against the Ottoman Empire.

Germany made an alliance with Austria-Hungary, promising support if they were attacked, mainly to keep Russia out of the Balkans, as the Ottoman Empire became weaker. Most of the time, Germany held Austria back from aggression in the Balkans, to avoid a war with Russia.

The Assassination of the Heir of Austria-Hungary

In June 1914, a Serb assassinated the heir to the Austrian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, in Sarajevo in Bosnia. This led to a war between Austria and Serbia. Russia backed the Serbs, while Hungary backed Austria. Germany wanted to keep the conflict localized between Austria and Serbia, and told the Russians that they should not take part. Germany also demanded that France should stay neutral if Russia and Germany were on opposite sides. Russia and France ignored these demands.

So, on 1st August Germany declared war against Russia, and demanded safe passage for its troops to France through Belgium and Luxembourg the next day, and declared war on France the day German troops to cross its territory, so Germany declared war on Belgium too!

As Britain was committed to defend Belgium, hence on 4th August Britain declared war on Germany. By 28th August, alliances between different nations had also drawn Montenegro and Japan into war. The two sides were the Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary) and the Allied Powers (Russia, France, Serbia, Belgium, and Great Britain). 

Although the Allied armed forces were greater in number, the German army was highly disciplined, very well-trained and had high-quality armaments. Among the Allies, Russia had not industrialized to the same extent to the troops; they did not even have enough rifles. So, on land the sides were quite evenly matched.

However, at sea, the Allies were very strong, with Great Britain alone having a total of 532 ships and submarines. On the other side, Germany had a total of 282, Moreover as on land, the Germans had superior equipment and artillery at sea.

The Battles of the First World War

The main way to stop the advancing armies of the enemy was to dig trenches to protect the soldiers, while they attacked the enemy. This is an ancient form of warfare used since the seventeenth century, and after the development of guns and artillery, it was the most common form of defence against the artillery forces of the enemy. The soldiers spent days and nights in the trenches in dirty, and wet conditions. It was not always the firepower of the enemy that injured and killed soldiers; many died from diseases and infections they caught in the trenches. Some were killed when trenches collapsed and buried them. During the four years of the war, hundreds of thousands of men died in the trenches.

The Battle of the Somme, 1916

There were many land and sea battles across Europe. One of the main land battles was the Battle of Somme, in 1916, in northern France. The British commander, General Haig, ordered an attack on the German trenches, using heavy guns to wipe out the German troops. But the Germans fought off the attack, killing thousands of British soldiers. More than 60,000 British soldiers were badly wounded or killed on the first day of the battle and hundreds of thousands of British, French, and German soldiers has been killed by the end of the battle.

The Impact of the First World War on Europe

The World War 1 (WW1) ended in November 1918. At the start of the war, most people, even the leading generals and experts, thought the war would last only a few months, but it went on for four years. It was the one of the most deadly conflicts in the history of mankind and involved 65 million troops from around the world, including 1,440,437 from the subcontinent. There were millions of military and civilian casualties, and millions more were wounded.

The Russian Revolution

The war on the Eastern Front between Russia and Germany caused serious domestic problems for the Russian Empire. In February 1917 (by the Russian calendar) there was an uprising (the Bolshevik Revolution) led by Vladimir Lenin against the Tsar who abdicated (abdicate means to give up the position of ruler). The Tsar’s regime was replaced by a socialist government.  

Austria-Hungary and Germany Become Republics

As the war came to an end in November 1918, political turmoil hit both of the losing powers, Germany and Austria-Hungary. The victorious allies supported the different nationalist ethnic groups in these countries and promised them independence. Thus, the old empires in Austria-Hungary and Germany were replaced by republics. 

The Treaty of Versailles and its Impact on Germany

The American President, Woodrow Wilson, had brought the United States into the war in 1917, and American forces tipped the balance of power against the Germans. Wilson had very clear ideas about the kind of world that should follow the war, and he included these in his Fourteen Points for peace. Britain, France, and Italy accepted those points as the basis of the peace settlement. Germany and Russia were kept out of any talks about the peace.

The result was a document called the Treaty of Versailles, which the Germans were forced to sign in 1919. They had to accept the part that said Germany had been responsible for starting the war, and so must pay massive reparations to the winning countries that had been damaged. Germany also lost territory to France and Belgium, and all its overseas colonies were given to France or Britain to look after. The German army was to be restricted to 100,000 men, and Germany was not allowed an air force. It was a peace treaty that punished Germany.

Many Germans became bitter about their nation’s defeat. A new political party called the National Socialist party came into being. It later became known as the Nazi Party, and Adolf Hitler became its leader in 1921. 

In Germany, the Nazi Party convinced enough of the German votes that they could 

bring hope back to Germany. Adolf Hitler became the party’s leader in January 1933, and he built up a dictatorship which was going to take Europe to war again by 1939 (World War 2).