THE FIRST WORLD WAR

Causes

1. Militarism:
a. Militarism means that the army and military forces are given a high profile by the
government.
b. It is based on the idea that war is good for countries.
c. The mistrust between the Great powers caused an arms race. The countries spent
vast amounts of money on manufacturing new weapons, building warships, and
strengthening their armies.
d. The armies of both France and Germany had more than doubled between 1870
and 1914 and there was fierce competition between Britain and Germany for
mastery of the seas. The German, Von Schlieffen drew up a plan of action that
involved attacking France through Belgium if Russia made an attack on Germany.
2. Alliances: An alliance is an agreement made between two or more countries to give
each other help if it is needed. When an alliance is signed, those countries become
known as Allies. The most important were the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-
Hungary and Italy) and the Triple Entente (Great Britain, France and Russia).
3. Imperialism and its colonial conflicts:
The Berlin Conference (1885) had tried to establish rules for the colonisation
of the African continent by European empires. However, the rise of powers such as the
German Empire, one of the last to join the colonial race, reopened conflicts between
European countries.
At the beggining of the 20th century, Morocco was the main scene of
international tensión, as European powers competed to control it.
There were two Moroccan crises in 1905 and 1911 that led to the war.

This French postcard, titled “At the hospital Algésiras”

(1906), caricatures some of the major nations involved in
the First Moroccan Crisis. To the right of bedridden
Morocco, the German Empire holds a syringe labelled
“customs”, while the Austro-Hungarian Empire stands by. In
the far left corner of the image, Uncle Sam looks on
skeptically. On the right side of the image, France tries to
inject Morocco with a syringe labelled “police”, while Spain
carries a bowl labelled “good officers”. Great Britain raises
its finger and Russia mixes liquids. The subtitle reads: “By
Aallah! Administered by one or the other, I am no less: 'sick
by persuasion!'"
4. Nationalism means being a strong supporter of the rights and
interests of one’s country. Strong nationalist elements led to the re-
unification of Italy in 1861 and Germany in 1871.
• The settlement at the end of the Franco-Prussian war left
France angry at the loss of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany and
keen to regain their lost territory. Large areas of both Austria-
Hungary and Serbia were home to differing nationalist
groups, all of whom wanted freedom from the states in which
they lived.
• Balkan Crisis: In 1908, Austria-Hungary took over the former
Turkish province of Bosnia. This angered Serbians who felt the
province should be theirs. War was avoided but there was,
however, war in the Balkans between 1911 and 1912 (Balkan
Wars) when the Balkan states drove Turkey out of the area.
The states then fought each other over which area should
belong to which state. Austria-Hungary then intervened and
forced Serbia to give up some of its acquisitions. Tension
between Serbia and Austria-Hungary was high.
6. The Sarajevo incident: On 28 June 1914, Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian
Empire, was assassinated in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. The assassin was a Bosnian
student who had links with serbian nationalist organisations.

The assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June

28th 1914 is accepted by historian as the immediate cause of World War I.
THE EUROPEAN POWERS
Great Britain was near the height of its strength. It was the center of world
finance, a top industrial nation, and it ruled over nearly a quarter of the world’s
inhabitants. Britain’s island geography allowed it to avoid long term alliances
(although it did guarantee Belgium’s neutrality). It had a small army, but a
dominant navy.
France had historically been Europe’s strongest nation, but had suffered a
humiliating defeat to Germany in 1870-71. Germany worked to keep it isolated
and prevent it from regaining its old prominence. France still remained a major
power, and had colonies around the world, especially in North Africa and Asia.
Germany had been formed in 1871 by the unification of smaller German-
speaking states. It had rapidly transformed into one of the world’s leading
industrial countries, with its own colonial empire and a growing navy. Many
Germans believed that their young nation was destined to re-energize western
civilization, which created friction with the more established powers.
Italy had also come together as a nation relatively recently. However, it had not
made the same progress, and had struggled to build a colonial empire. It was
also frustrated that many ethnic Italians were under Austro-Hungarian rule to
the north.
Italy had also come together as a nation relatively recently. However, it had
not made the same progress, and had struggled to build a colonial empire.
It was also frustrated that many ethnic Italians were under Austro-
Hungarian rule to the north.
Austria-Hungary was a large but declining power, held together by a
peculiar “dual monarchy”: one ruler with two co-governments. To complicate
things further, it was home to large ethnic populations, especially in Bosnia,
Croatia and its other Balkan provinces.
Russia was considered backwards, but still formidable. The world had
been shocked when it had lost to a non-European power in the Russo-
Japanese War in 1905. However, it remained a force to be reckoned with,
due to its vast resources and population, and its claim to be defender of all
Slavic peoples in Europe.
The Ottoman Empire (Turkey) once ruled the Middle East and North
Africa, as well as much of Eastern Europe. By 1914, it had been pushed out
of Europe, and had lost North Africa to various European nations. Yet it was
still a sizable power, and it held an important strategic position, straddling
Europe and Asia.
The phases of the war

The war of movements:

Western Front
• The war began in the Western Front when the German army attacked France Through
Belgium and Luxembourg (the Schlieffen Plan).
• Battle of Marne:an offensive during World War I by the French army and the British
Expeditionary Force (BEF) against the advancing Germans who had invaded Belgium
and northeastern France and were within 30 miles (48 km) of Paris. By failing to
achieve their key aim—of swiftly defeating the French—the Germans were forced
onto the defensive, spurring the trench warfare that was to typify the Western Front
for the next three years, and ultimately to fight a disastrous two-front war.
Eastern Front
• Germany beat Russia at the Battle of Tannenberg, but the Russian recovered and
reached the border of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Trenches Warfare
• After the Battle of the Marne, the Western Front become immobile. Trenches were
built.
• Central Powers (based on the Triple Alliance). Ottoman Empire entered the war in
late 1914 and Bulgaria in 1915.
• Allied (based on the Triple Entente) included Belgium, Portugal, Romania, Japan,
etc.
The last phases of the war
• Russia signed the Brest-Litovsk Treaty with Germany after the Bolshevik Revolution and
withdrew from the war.
• The United States joined the war in 1917 for varius reasons, but mainly as a
consequence of the sinking of the US ocean liner the Lusitania, in 1915 by Germany.
In 1918, the allies defeated Austria-Hungary on the Eastern Front, and the Austro-
Hungarian and Ottoman Empires surrendered and called for an armistice. The Germans
were defeated on the Western Front at the Second Battle of the Marne.
There were revolts in German army and navy as well as workers´demostrations against
the government. As a result, the Kaiser abdicated and Germany surrendered.
An armistice was signed on 11 November 1918, bringing the war to an end.
A total war
❖ The involvement of the civilian population.
• National armies emerged during the WWI. Compulsory enlistmen involved most of the
male civilian population.
• The advances in the transport caused an exodus of millions of civilians. This was to be
one of the first great refugee movements triggered by war in the modern period.
• The war required a mass production of munitions and provisions. For this reason,
women were recruited to work in factories.
THE PEACE TREATIES
The heads of the “Big Four”

Treaty of Versailles_Germany
Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-
Laye Austria
Treaty of Neuilly-sur-
Seine_Bulgaria
Treaty of Trianon_Hungary
Treaty of Sèvres_Ottoman
Empire
Germany had to pay the costs of the war. It had to reduced its army.
The treaty was considered a diktat.