Understanding the Causes and Consequences of World War I
Item 14: The First World War
From 1914 to 1918, the First World War was fought. Humanity had not hitherto witnessed a clash of such magnitude: Colonial countries and territories concerned are counted by tens, and the costs and consequences were incalculably devastating. After the war, Europe lost its hegemony in the world, and new powers like the United States and Japan became powerful states.
The Causes of the First World War
The spark that ignited the conflict was the assassination of a young Bosnian revolutionary who killed the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne in June 1914. In August, the First World War began.
European Rivalries
The territorial conflict between Germany and France, the political and economic differences between Britain and Germany, and the conflicting interests of Austria-Hungary and Russia in the Balkans were the major problems complicating international relations. The enmity between France and Germany started with the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, which resulted in France losing territories of Alsace and Lorraine. From this date, relations were influenced by the French desire to regain their territories and the German policy of keeping France isolated from other major nations.
The economic and political differences between Britain and Germany emerged in the early twentieth century. Germany began a policy of naval construction that would allow it to compete in foreign markets and threaten British control of the seas. The United Kingdom abandoned its traditional policy of isolation and sought support on the continent, reaching a deal with France and Russia, known as the Triple Entente. The interests of the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires in the Balkan area originated new sources of tension that would lead to armed clashes.
The Balkan Conflict
The clash of interests between Austria-Hungary, which wanted to expand its borders, and Russia, which wanted to control the passage of the Straits for its fleet to sail freely from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, triggered the conflict in the Balkans. In 1908, Austria-Hungary unilaterally proclaimed the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which, although in theory were part of the Ottoman Empire, had been under Austrian administration since 1878. In 1912, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Montenegro formed the Balkan League. The First Balkan War, between the League and the Ottoman Empire, broke out in October 1912, lasted barely three months, and ended with the defeat of Turkey. The Second Balkan War arose from differences among members of the Balkan League. In fact, the big winners of the two Balkan wars were Serbia, which doubled its size, and, indirectly, Russia, which strengthened its position in the area. On the eve of 1914, Serbia did not hide its desire to create a Yugoslavia that grouped all the Serbs and other Slavic peoples who were under the dominion of Austria. These Balkan conflicts exacerbated tensions in Europe and accelerated the weapons plans of the great powers.
Radical Nationalism
Small nationalities, who asserted their independence, were numerous and were subject to the Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and Ottoman empires. Meanwhile, in the large states, exalted nationalism crystallized in defense against foreign and alleged enemies. Both types of nationalism on the European continent created a general atmosphere of tension, which paved the way to war.
Progress Toward the War
On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife were assassinated in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. The murderer was a nationalist Bosnian and was part of a Serbian terrorist organization. This led the Austrian government to decide that it was an opportunity to crush Serbia. Austria-Hungary and Germany were convinced that the war would be limited to the Balkans. They thought that France and the United Kingdom, having no interest in the area, would not support Russia if it decided to intervene on behalf of Serbia, its main ally in the region.
On July 23, the Austrians sent an ultimatum to Serbia, whose harsh words were difficult to accept, and five days later, Austria declared war on Serbia. Russia mobilized its troops against Austria, and on August 1, Germany declared war on Russia. Three days later, on August 4, German troops invaded Belgium, and on that day, Britain declared war on Germany. Germany and its allies were called the Central Powers. In 1917, two events of opposite sign would lead to a disruption of the balance of forces: the Russian Revolution and the United States entering the fray in support of the Allies.
The Opposing Forces
The opposing forces in the First World War involved all major powers and most European states except Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the Scandinavian states. Among the armies of the Entente, the French could only be placed online immediately. Moreover, Russia and France had the disadvantages of physical separation and lack of coordination in command. However, in the long term, the Entente had easy access to raw materials and almost unlimited funding, thanks to their colonial empires. The Triple Alliance was a stronger block from the point of view of military organization, possessing an army of 156 divisions and having the advantage of a unified command to form a united geographic block. The excitement overpowered the soldiers and people; the opposition to the war was minimal. The war took place in three phases: a quick war or movements (1914), the war of positions (1915), and wear (1916).
Quick War: 1914
Germany took the initiative in the war. Its quick plan of attack, the Schlieffen Plan, was to throw the army into France through two neutral countries, Belgium and Luxembourg, despite this fact provoking international outrage. The Austro-Hungarian army and a part of the German army would slow the Russians, taking advantage of the expected slow mobilization. The campaign against France had two phases. The first was the so-called Battle of the Borders. The second phase was the Allied counter-offensive, led by French General Joffre at the Battle of the Marne. The balance of the campaign of 1914 was contradictory. On the one hand, the German war plan had failed quickly, but on the other hand, they had conquered Belgium, the northeast of France, and Russian Poland. It opened the possibility of a long war, in which economic potential would be fundamental. In this respect, France and Britain had the advantage of their colonies.
The War of Positions: 1915
Unable to break enemy lines, the Germans faced new forms of struggle on the Western Front. This is called positional warfare, in which armies defend fixed positions by lines of trenches dug in the ground. The quintessential element of the war of position was the trench. A front organization allowed for an almost impenetrable defense system. In these trenches, combatants had to endure bad living conditions for years; in times of rain or snow, the trenches became foul water sewers or frozen mud, and hygienic deficiencies rapidly propagated infectious diseases. The new form of warfare required new weapons. Aviation became more important: it transitioned from an element of observation of the enemy to a weapon of attack and bombing. The tank was an armored vehicle with caterpillar wheels, which could destroy barbed wire, trenches, and crush machine gun shelters. In 1915, nine countries entered the race; Italy and Bulgaria allied with the Central Powers, which opened new fields of battle. The Allies attacked the Ottoman Empire, an ally of Germany and Austria, with the aim of taking the Dardanelles and restoring communications with Russia, but the operation was a failure. The balance of the campaign of 1915 was clearly in favor of the Central Powers, but they did not achieve a definitive victory.
Wear the War: 1916
The main theater of war was the Western Front, where the new strategy employed was the war of attrition. The first of these performances was the most famous battle of the Great War: the Battle of Verdun. Initiated by the Germans, with the aim of bleeding the French army, it lasted four months and resulted in half a million deaths, divided almost equally between attackers and defenders. Immediately afterwards, the Allies launched another attack, the Battle of the Somme, which used a similar strategy. The naval blockade forced Germany to suffer its attempt to attack the British fleet. Both fleets fought the Battle of Jutland. On the Eastern Front, the war spread to Mesopotamia and Palestine, where the Ottoman army fought the British. For its part, the Russians won two victories in the Caucasus (Erzurum and Trabzon) and launched several offensives in the summer in the Austro-Hungarian sector. The balance of the campaign of 1916 was more balanced than the previous two.
Decisive Year
The Russian withdrawal and U.S. intervention in the war broke the balance between the two blocs. The Russian Revolution broke out on March 17, and its success affected the continuity of their participation in the war. Since 1915, Germany had begun submarine warfare, intending to cut supply lines to the UK. In early 1917, they announced a major offensive that included the submarine sinking of neutral ships trading with the United Kingdom. On April 6, the U.S. Congress declared war on Germany, a fact that broke the existing balance on the battle fronts. The shortages, higher prices for products, and hardening of living conditions weakened popular support for the war.
The End of the Conflict: 1918
One of the first decisions of the Russian Bolshevik government, headed by Lenin, was the signing of an armistice in December 1917, which led to the Peace of Brest-Litovsk in February 1918. The exit of Russia from the war enabled the German High Command, led by Hindenburg and Ludendorff, to concentrate the bulk of its troops on the French front in hopes of starting what could be the final offensive. However, their troops, exhausted, failed. On September 29, Bulgaria signed an armistice; on October 30, the Turks gave up the fight; and on November 3, Austria-Hungary, weakened by the pressures of nationalities aspiring to independence, did the same. Germany had been left alone.
Consequences of War: The Peace Treaty
The human losses were overwhelming. The wounded were counted by millions, as were the disabled. The falling birth rate during the war years, combined with increased mortality among civilians due to penalties and undernourishment, had devastating effects. The economic results were equally disastrous. The cost of the war led to the indebtedness of all the belligerents except the United States, which became the major creditor of the European countries. The immense material losses were accompanied by moral and social damage.
Peace Proposals
Ideas with the greatest impact were those presented by U.S. President Thomas Woodrow Wilson. His Fourteen Points became the basis for the signing of the armistice and the only public document that reflected the intentions of the victors. Its main proposals were the right of peoples to self-determination and the defense of general disarmament. As a final point, he proposed the creation of an international political organization to prevent war: a League of Nations. Faced with the goodwill held by Wilson, the fierce desire of Georges Clemenceau, the French Prime Minister, to strengthen the security of France and weaken future Germany prevailed.