The Causes and Course of World War One

Immediate cause

The immediate cause of World War One was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Gavrilo Princip.

The four elements at work behind this "cause":

1. Nationalism

Germany:

Following the Franco-Prussian War and German unification 1871, Germany became the third greatest industrial power in the world,after Britain and the U.S.A. The Germans believed in the inherit superiority of their race and culture and dreamed of a pan-Germanic state.

Ottoman Empire:

The Ottoman Empire was known as "the sick man of Europe". It had been in decline from 1807, and were pushed back by the Serbians who gained independence in 1878. The Bosnian Serbs were backed by Serbia to assassinate Franz Ferdinand.

Austria-Hungary:

Austria-Hungary had various nationalities within their empire, who all wanted their own states (an example of which was the Bosnian serbs)

Russia:

Russia saw itself as the protector of the Slavs and thus allied itself with Poland and Serbia, countries populated by Slavik people.

Others:

British, French and Italian nationalism contributed to World War One. The British were rivals with Germany when it came to world wide colonialism and the French wanted back territory they had lost in prior wars. The Socialists, who had been preaching the unity of workers worldwide for 25 years previously, had no problems with rallying behind their nation at this time, emphasising nationalism.

2. Imperialism

The powers divided up Africa in the Berlin conference of 1884-1885, during the "Scramble for Africa". Competing nationalism hence became global, turning an essentially European War into a World War. The Moroccan Crisis lead to an Entente Cordiale between England and France.

3. Alliance system

There were two main alliances in Europe:

• The Dual Alliance ("the Central Powers"), which consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary (The Habsburg Empire), later joined by the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) and Bulgaria.
• The Triple Entente ("the Allies"), which consisted of Britain, France and Russia (The Romanov Empire), joined later by Italy, Greece, Japan and finally the United States.

4. Militarism

The growth of armies was an important factor in the lead up to World War One. Germany and France both doubled their armies, and an arms race ensued, destablilizing the situation. Both sides drew up plans for what they would do in the event of a war, a famous example of which is the Schlieffen Plan, named after General Alfred Von Schlieffen. This assumed that Russia would take a month to prepare for a war, so Germany would take a month to defeat France on the western front so they could then turn all their attentions to the eastern front, instead of having to fight two fronts at once.

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The Course of World War I

On July 28^th, 1914, Austia-Hungary invaded Serbia in retaliation over their backing of the assassinator of the Arch-duke Franz Ferdinand, and by August 4^th, there was a generalized European conflict. There were 65 million soldiers from 35 countries involved.

Western Front

The Schlieffen Plan failed: it was modified so that the right wing was weakened and so the French were able to send their last reserves to the Battle of the Marne and stop the German advance. 500km of trenches divided the two sides in what became a stalemate. Also, the Russians surprised everyone by organizing a sizeable army within 15 days.

Eastern Front

The Germans were victorious at the Battles of Tannenberg and Masurian Lakes, despite being outnumbered, but this front became a moving stalemate, where the war was fought through trench warfare, which was essentially a strategy of attrition.

Attempts to break stalemate

In 1916, the Battles of Verdune and Somme occurred where more than 2 million people on each side were killed for very little territory gain or loss. New Allies joined the war: Italy on the side of the France and Britain in 1916, Bulgaria on Germany’s side in 1915. ANZAC troops were landed at Gallipoli to try to break the stalemate and new weapons were used for the first time, but with limited impact:

1. Tanks

2. Poison gas

3. Airplanes

4. Flamethrowers

End of the stalemate

U-boats were sent to sink supply ships to Britain, but on May the 7^th, the American Passenger ship, the Lusitania, was sunk. The Germans sent a telegram to Mexico, suggesting they attack the USA, and so on the 6^th of April 1917, the US declared war on Germany. They had a small standing army, and so had to create an army from scratch. It was hoped that they wouldn’t get it together in time, especially when on the 3^rd of March 1918, the treaty of Brest removed Russia from the war, leaving only the western front open. However an Allied counterattack almost pushed the Germans out of France and on the 11^th of November, 1918 at 11am, an armistice came into effect.