World War I’s roots can be dated back as far as the 1870’s in which Germany attacked France and took two regions from France stating that they belonged to Germany rightfully. These two regions included the regions of Lorraine as well as the region of Alsace. However, the residents of these regions were in fact French and they feared potential future attacks by Germany. Since France wanted these regions back, this started the Franco-German War.
By this time the French had grown to mistrust the Germans and as a result the French built up their defensive numbers to stop any future attempts of invading French sovereignty. However, the Germans for some reason got suspicious of the intentions of France even though they had just recently invaded and attacked France.
Nearby in the Balkans which is the region between Austria and Turkey; the area which was ruled by the Austrians, tensions broke loose between Austria and Turkey. Both countries wanted to increase their influences and as a result war broke out between Turkey and Austria over the Balkans in 1878. Since both Turkey and Austria also had strong ties with Russia, soon Russia, Turkey and Austria were arguing over control over the Balkans.
The Emperor of Germany; Wilhelm II, who had always dreamed of having a powerful Empire in comparison to that of the British Empire and as a result he set out to do so. By 1900 Emperor Wilhelm II ordered the construction of several powerful boats to increase his Navy’s strength to create a powerful empire like the British. The British soon heard about the construction of these larger ships and gave the order to build their first Dreadnought as a means of preventing any future threats from Germany.
Germany in turn felt threatened by this construction and also set out to build a large dreadnought warship and as a result Germany and Britain started a race to see who could have the largest and most powerful Navy in Europe. This race led to tensions between the two countries.
However, the biggest turning point which is considered by many as the final act that initiated the First World War was the assassination of Prince Franz Ferdinand of Austria. It was in 1914 when the Crown Prince of Austria visited Serbia. At the time, Austria held a strong influence over Serbia and some Serbian Nationalists wanted to be independent from Austria. As a result, these nationalists decided to assassinate the Crown Prince. It was June 28th of 1914 when the assassination attempt succeeded and as a result of his death, the Austrian Government closed down on Serbia for their actions. The Russians wanting to get control of Serbia decided to use this to their advantage and supported the Serbians against any actions the Austrians decided on.
Only a matter of days after the assassination of the Crown prince of Austria, Germany declared war on Russia and marked the beginning of the First World War. Seeing this as a move against them the British who had been growing tensions between Germany prepared for the offensive and likewise so did many other European nations.
As the First World War continued on, the nations included in the war was that of not just Austria, Russia and Germany, but also included Britain, Italy, Turkey as well as the United States. America’s military involvement was considered to be the lowest with only 4.3 million soldiers engaged in the dispute. The reason for this is that the United States had wanted to stay neutral throughout the war until Germany attempted to get Mexico to fight against the Americans.
Throughout the war, Austria would engage a total of 7.8 million soldiers of which 1.2 million were killed, 3.6 million were wounded and another 2.2 million were imprisoned. Britain engaged 8.9 million troops of which 908,000 were killed in various battles, 2 million were wounded and another 191,000 were captured and imprisoned. France had 8.4 million soldiers, 1.3 million were killed, 4.2 million were wounded and a half a million were captured. Germany with an impressive 11 million strong military had over 17.7 million deaths including military and civilians as well as another 11.5 million Germans both military and civilians were captured. Russia’s military too was quite impressive but much like Germany, although Russia engaged 12 million soldiers, there would be 17 million deaths, 4.9 million wounded as well as 2.5 million prisoners. Turkey did not have as large of a military during the First World War as they only engaged 2.8 million soldiers of whom 325,000 were killed and a quarter million were captured.
World War I was also the time of the Airships or Zeppelins. During the First World War all nations had their own aircraft as well as zeppelins. Austria used 35 planes and 1 airship, Britain used 110 aircrafts and 6 airships, France had 160 and 4 respectively while Russia had 300 aircraft and 11 zeppelins. While the airship was most recognised as being used by Germany, during World War I they only used 246 aircraft and 11 zeppelins.
With the increased numbers of people who lived during the 20th century, it is no wonder why so many soldiers were involved in the First World War. A total of 62,659,000 soldiers were engaged in various battles during the First World War of which most of these were done in the infamous trench warfare.
The First World War was a whole new type of war as there was no longer to be the use of the cavalry and men fighting in close combat but rather the use of new and modernised tools of war were utilised. Things like the machine gun, the gas canister and even the tanks made World War I a whole new type of warfare.
In an attempt to stop the advancing Allied forces, the German general ordered his soldiers to start digging trenches to stop the impending offensives. As a result, with no way to penetrate these defensives the Allied forces had no other choice than to dig their own trenches. These trenches were rather shallow and often too shallow for one to stand up without being shot in the head.
Trenches were below the grade and as a result the rain would fill them up making the troops vulnerable to illnesses and the like. There was no place for the soldiers to go to the bathroom while in these trenches and as a result the conditions of the trenches only got worse. From here the only way to advance was to rush over the top of the trench to the next trench that was maybe 40 meters away and try to take out as many German soldiers as one could before being cut down by machine gun fire.
In the end, the Allied forces would be victorious and although there was a great number of deaths associated with World War I, Stability in Europe would maintain strong for another 20 years until Hitler took the reigns of Germany and started the Second World War only to commit suicide rather than admit defeat.
Original Authors: Nick (Globel Team)
Edit Update Authors: M.A.Harris
Updated On: 28/07/2008
