The First World War (Part 1)

   The First World War (1914-1918)

Introduction :

The photos of the summer of 1914 now stun the observer. Young people across Europe are heading toward war as if they were marching to a big party. Everyone thought the war would be a fast and short conflict, in which, of course, his nation would win, demonstrating its power.

The reality was quite different. The Great War was a war completely different than what previous generations had known. Soldiers from around the world, in Europe and its colonies, the U.S., Japan ... fought on fronts that were located in the heart of Europe and in remote and exotic lands. In addition, the industrial powers were able to utilize their technologies to work for the war. The result was devastating. The suffering of the civilian population and soldiers reached limits that no one could conceive of in 1914. 

1. Causes of the War 

The factors that explain the outbreak of the First World War are varied. These are the main ones:

 ● The new international expansionist policy undertaken by the German Emperor Wilhelm II in 1890. 

● The change in the power balance between economic powers, with Britain frightened before the German industrial might and the naval rearmament, which was initiated by the government of  Berlin.

 ● Conflicts between colonial powers in Africa and Asia. 

● Territorial rivalry between France and Germany for the regions of Alsace and Lorraine. 

● Rivalry between Russia and Austria-Hungary for the hegemony in the Balkans. A new factor also needed to be added up to the above mentioned: non-European countries like the U.S. and Japan rising to the rank of world powers. Let’s examine in a more detailed way these factors that caused the war.

●In 1890 the new emperor of Germany, Wilhelm II, began an international policy that sought to turn his country into a world power.  Germany was seen as a threat by the other powers and destabilized the international situation. In addition to the new German policy, there were other changes that radically altered the world as it journeyed from the nineteenth to twentieth century.

● The second industrial revolution, which began in 1870, shifted the balance of economic might between the powers. The increasingly powerful Germany challenged British hegemony. This challenge was particularly seen in two areas: increasing competition of the German economy and the acceleration of the German naval rearmament .

● As we saw earlier, the extension of the colonial empires exacerbated the struggle for territory, markets, prestige and power between the European industrial powers.

● The Franco-German rivalry, unavoidable since the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine by Germany in 1870. 

● The rivalry between Russia and Austria-Hungary for hegemony in the Balkans increased by the increasing weakness of Turkey and Slavic (Serb mainly) nationalism encouraged by Russia and directed against the Hamburgs in Vienna .

●Finally, two non-European powers, the US and Japan, joined the group in the world hegemonic powers. The new war would have a global dimension. 

Formation of alliances and conflicts preceding the final crisis

 In the years before the war, the powers were forming military alliances to defend their objectives: 

● The Triple Alliance linking Germany with Austria-Hungary and Italy. It was signed in 1882, in the days of Chancellor Bismarck. The German Reich and the Austro-Hungarian Empire constituted the core of this alliance.  

● The Triple Entente, which was made up of Britain, France, and Russia, concluded by 1907. The increasing German aggression led to Britain and France ending their colonial differences. The rivalry between Austria-Hungary and Russia in the Balkans pushed Russia into the alliance.

During the decade before the war, four successive international crises marked the evolution toward a widespread conflict. Two took place in Morocco where Germany and France clashed. Two occurred in the Balkans, Russia and Austria-Hungary fought to replace Turkey as the hegemonic power.

 The final crisis took place on June 28, 1914 when the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was assassinated in Sarajevo (Bosnia). An activist Bosnian Serb, Gavrilo Princip, a member of the Serbian nationalist organization "Black Hand" killed the Archduke. The alliances started working and it led from a local conflict to a general war in Europe and the world.