First World War: Causes, Phases, and Consequences

Posted on Dec 9, 2024 in History

The First World War: Causes, Phases, and Consequences

The last third of the nineteenth century (from 1870) was a period of great changes and developments that culminated in the First World War (1914-1918). The human and material needs of new industries and markets led to the expansion of Europeans and their culture all over the world, which brought clashes between the great powers.

Characteristics of the First World War

  • The nations involved were not confined to combat armies but involved all their people and resources in the annihilation of the enemy.
  • The colonial conquests of the previous years involved many nations and distant and exotic settings.
  • It was the first large-scale industrial war, which provided new and more deadly weapons and the industrial application of logic to the exercise of arms.

Prewar Alliances

In the prewar years, each country had sought to defend its interests and find the best allies, creating blocks that mutually supported and reinforced each other:

  • Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy formed the Triple Alliance.
  • To oppose it, Britain settled its colonial disputes with France, and both formed the Triple Entente with Russia.

Causes of the War

Territorial Causes

  • France and Germany clashed over the dispute over Alsace-Lorraine, a territory that the Germans had won in the 1870 war and the French claimed.
  • Poland was still divided between Austria, Russia, and Prussia.
  • Fighting in the Balkans between countries and powers.
  • Italy wanted to take advantage to annex Trento, Trieste, and much of Dalmatia.

Economic Causes

  • Germany and Britain were the two major industrial powers, but by 1870, German industry began to be more competitive than the British.
  • Countries wished to invest their money in other areas for new economic benefits. But everyone wanted to invest in the same places, and French, Belgian, British, and German capital coincided in Russia or Turkey.

Psychological Causes

Countries invested more in new armies and weapons, which meant more taxes. To justify these costs, there was very insistent propaganda in the press, radio, and posters about the risk of war; conflicts were exaggerated, or the wickedness of the enemy was emphasized.

The Trigger of the Conflict

The trigger of the conflict was the assassination on June 28, 1914, of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo. Although no one expected it, the law of the policy of alliances was fulfilled, causing a chain reaction of individual allies.

  • Austria declared war on Serbia, and Russia supported Serbia.
  • Great Britain and France supported Russia, while Germany sided with Austria.
  • On August 1, 1914, William II declared war on Russia.
  • On August 2, 1914, he ordered Belgium to allow his armies to pass.
  • On August 3, 1914, he declared war on France, and on August 4, the operation began in France with the occupation of Belgium, which led to the declaration of war from Britain.

Phases of the Conflict

War of Movement (1914)

Germany renewed its strategy consisting of reaching Paris quickly in 1870 and paying off France. Then it could direct all its forces to Russia, assuming its army was slower. The French and the British managed to stop the Germans at the Marne, and the Russians mobilized ahead of schedule, leading the contenders to positional warfare.

War of Positions (1914-1917)

This was the most inhuman phase of the war. The armies were still fighting in an “old” way, that is, throwing masses of soldiers against enemy positions. A more or less new weapon, the machine gun, upset this strategy, as it liquidated a large number of soldiers at the front. These soldiers then had to fix their positions in trenches, called fronts.

They settled on two fronts: the Western Front (Franco-German border) and the Eastern Front (Russia). On these fronts, the soldiers spent months under fire from artillery and periodic raids in which thousands of men died, not allowing the front to move. New weapons appeared: gas, gas masks, etc.

The Germans took the initiative in Verdun, and the Franco-British in the Somme. Both battles were the longest and bloodiest of the First World War but did not lead to a permanent change in the conflict.

In early 1917, the war entered a new dynamic. While the Germans negotiated peace with Russia, President Wilson succeeded in getting the U.S. Congress to declare war on Germany and Austria-Hungary. A million soldiers were mobilized from the U.S. In 1918 was the slow but inexorable decline of the Alliance positions on all fronts:

  • Bulgaria surrendered in September, Turkey in October, and in November, the armistice with Germany and Austria-Hungary. In Germany, Wilhelm II abdicated and fled to Holland, as the Weimar Republic was proclaimed. Later in 1919, the Peace of Paris and the Treaty of Versailles were signed.

Consequences of the War

The consequences were human and material (immediate), political and social (medium term), and territorial transformations.

Human and Material Consequences

8 million dead, millions injured, maimed, and missing, the destruction of factories, fields, and infrastructure in Europe.

Socio-Political Consequences

  • Military needs led to the incorporation of women into the workforce, leading to a thorough transformation.
  • Fight for civil rights: In 1918, in Britain, the right to vote was granted to women over 30, while men could vote from the age of 20. This right was achieved in the U.S. in 1925 and Spain in 1932.
  • Equality Before the Law (Legal Equality): Until the First World War, women could not control their property, they could not do anything without the permission of their husbands, nor could they have custody of their children if they separated. This was achieved in 1925 in Britain, in Germany in the 1950s, and in Spain in 1975.
  • Economic equality
  • League of Nations: An international organization that fought for world peace. It was settled in Switzerland and invited all independent countries. At the AGM, all the powers operated on an equal footing.

Territorial Changes

The map of Europe suffered many changes in a short time; empires disappeared, and new countries emerged, some expanded, and others were limited or divided.

  • The German Empire lost its colonies.
  • The Austro-Hungarian Empire was divided into Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia.
  • The Russian Empire: Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania became independent.
  • The Ottoman Empire had lost its lands before the war, and now it also ceded Mesopotamia, Palestine, Syria, and Armenia to the victors.
  • Italy annexed the territories of Istria and Trent.