History of World War 1
World War I, an international conflict that in 1914–18 embroiled most of the nations of Europe along with Russia, the United States, the Middle East, and other regions. The war pitted the Central Powers—mainly Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey—against the Allies—mainly France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, and, from 1917, the United States. It ended with the defeat of the Central Powers. The war was virtually unprecedented in the slaughter, carnage, and destruction it caused.
A
collection of significant facts about World War I.
Explore
the roles of Marie Curie, Mabel St. Clair Stobart, and Aileen Cole Stewart in
World War I
Three
notable women of World War I: Marie Curie, Mabel St. Clair Stobart, and Aileen
Cole Stewart.(more)
See all videos for this
article
World War I was one
of the great watersheds of 20th-century geopolitical history. It led to the
fall of four great imperial dynasties (in Germany, Russia,
Austria-Hungary, and Turkey), resulted in
the Bolshevik
Revolution in Russia, and, in its destabilization of European society,
laid the groundwork for World War II.
The last surviving
veterans of World War I were American serviceman Frank Buckles (died
in February 2011), British-born Australian serviceman Claude Choules (died in
May 2011), and British servicewoman Florence Green (died
in February 2012), the last surviving veteran of the war.
The
outbreak of war
With Serbia already
much aggrandized by
the two Balkan Wars (1912–13,
1913), Serbian nationalists turned their attention back to the idea of
“liberating” the South Slavs of Austria-Hungary.
Colonel Dragutin
Dimitrijević, head of Serbia’s military
intelligence, was also, under the alias “Apis,” head of the secret society Union
or Death, pledged to the pursuit of this pan-Serbian ambition. Believing
that the Serbs’ cause would be served by the death of the Austrian
archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph, and
learning that the Archduke was
about to visit Bosnia on a tour of military inspection, Apis plotted his assassination. Nikola Pašić, the
Serbian prime
minister and an enemy of Apis, heard of the plot and warned the
Austrian government of it, but his message was too cautiously worded to be
understood.
At 11:15 AM on June 28, 1914, in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, Franz Ferdinand and
his morganatic wife, Sophie, duchess of Hohenberg, were shot dead by a Bosnian
Serb, Gavrilo Princip. The
chief of the Austro-Hungarian general staff, Franz, Graf (count) Conrad
von Hötzendorf, and the foreign minister, Leopold, Graf von Berchtold,
saw the crime as the occasion for measures to humiliate Serbia and so to enhance Austria-Hungary’s prestige in the Balkans. Conrad had
already (October 1913) been assured by William II of Germany’s support if
Austria-Hungary should start a preventive war against Serbia. This assurance was confirmed in the week
following the assassination,
before William, on July 6, set off upon his annual cruise to the North
Cape, off Norway.
The Austrians decided to present an unacceptable ultimatum to
Serbia and then to declare war, relying on Germany to deter Russia from
intervention. Though the terms of the ultimatum were finally approved on July
19, its delivery was postponed to the evening of July 23, since by that time
the French president, Raymond
Poincaré, and his premier, René
Viviani, who had set off on a state visit to Russia on July 15, would be on
their way home and therefore unable to concert an immediate reaction with their
Russian allies. When the delivery was announced, on July 24, Russia declared
that Austria-Hungary must not be allowed to crush Serbia.
Serbia replied to the ultimatum on July 25, accepting most of its demands but
protesting against two of them—namely, that Serbian officials (unnamed) should
be dismissed at Austria-Hungary’s behest and that Austro-Hungarian officials
should take part, on Serbian soil, in proceedings against organizations hostile
to Austria-Hungary. Though Serbia offered to submit the issue to international
arbitration, Austria-Hungary promptly severed diplomatic relations and ordered
partial mobilization.
Home from his cruise
on July 27, William learned on July 28 how Serbia had replied to the ultimatum.
At once he instructed the German Foreign Office to tell Austria-Hungary that
there was no longer any justification for war and that it should content itself
with a temporary occupation of Belgrade. But,
meanwhile, the German Foreign Office had been giving such encouragement to
Berchtold that already on July 27 he had persuaded Franz Joseph to authorize
war against Serbia. War was in fact declared on July 28, and Austro-Hungarian artillery began
to bombard Belgrade the next day. Russia then ordered partial mobilization
against Austria-Hungary, and on July 30, when Austria-Hungary was riposting
conventionally with an order of mobilization on its Russian frontier, Russia
ordered general mobilization. Germany, which since July 28 had still been
hoping, in disregard of earlier warning hints from
Great Britain, that Austria-Hungary’s war against Serbia could be “localized”
to the Balkans, was now disillusioned insofar as eastern Europe was concerned.
On July 31 Germany sent a 24-hour ultimatum requiring Russia to halt its
mobilization and an 18-hour ultimatum requiring France to promise
neutrality in the event of war between Russia and Germany.
Both Russia and
France predictably ignored these demands. On August 1 Germany ordered general
mobilization and declared war against Russia, and France likewise ordered
general mobilization. The next day Germany sent troops into Luxembourg and
demanded from Belgium free
passage for German troops across its neutral territory. On August 3 Germany
declared war against France.
In the night of
August 3–4 German forces invaded Belgium. Thereupon, Great Britain, which had no concern with Serbia and no
express obligation to fight either for Russia or
for France but was expressly committed to defend Belgium, on August 4 declared
war against Germany.
Austria-Hungary
declared war against Russia on August 5; Serbia against Germany on August 6; Montenegro against Austria-Hungary on August 7 and
against Germany on August 12; France and Great Britain against Austria-Hungary
on August 10 and on August 12, respectively; Japan against
Germany on August 23; Austria-Hungary against Japan on August 25 and against
Belgium on August 28.
Romania had renewed
its secret anti-Russian alliance of 1883 with the Central Powers on February 26, 1914, but now chose
to remain neutral. Italy had
confirmed the Triple
Alliance on December 7, 1912, but could now propound formal arguments
for disregarding it: first, Italy was not obliged
to support its allies in a war of aggression; second, the original treaty of
1882 had stated expressly that the alliance was not against England.
On September 5,
1914, Russia, France, and Great Britain concluded the Treaty of London, each
promising not to make a separate peace with the Central Powers. Thenceforth,
they could be called the Allied,
or Entente, powers, or simply the Allies.
Overview of the start of World War I, including details of the June 28, 1914, assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
The outbreak of war in August 1914 was generally greeted with
confidence and jubilation by the peoples of Europe, among whom it inspired a
wave of patriotic feeling and celebration. Few people imagined how long or how
disastrous a war between the great nations of Europe could be, and most
believed that their country’s side would be victorious within a matter of
months. The war was welcomed either patriotically, as a defensive one imposed
by national necessity, or idealistically, as one for upholding right against
might, the sanctity of treaties, and international morality.
Forces
and resources of the combatant nations in 1914
When war broke
out, the Allied
powers possessed greater overall demographic, industrial, and military resources
than the Central
Powers and enjoyed easier access to the oceans for trade with neutral
countries, particularly with the United States.
Table 1 shows the population, steel production,
and armed strengths of the two rival coalitions in 1914.
|
Strength of the
belligerents, Aug. 4, 1914 |
||
|
resources |
Central Powers |
Allied Powers |
|
population
(in millions) |
115.2 |
265.5 |
|
steel
production (in millions of metric tons) |
17.0 |
15.3 |
|
army
divisions available for mobilization |
146 |
212 |
|
modern
battleships |
20 |
39 |
All the initial belligerents in World War I were
self-sufficient in food except Great Britain and Germany. Great Britain’s industrial
establishment was slightly superior to Germany’s (17 percent of world trade in
1913 as compared with 12 percent for Germany), but Germany’s diversified chemical
industry facilitated the production of ersatz, or substitute, materials, which compensated for the
worst shortages ensuing from the British wartime blockade.
The German chemist Fritz Haber was already developing a process for
the fixation of nitrogen from
air; this process made Germany self-sufficient in explosives and
thus no longer dependent on imports of nitrates from Chile.
Of all the initial belligerent nations, only Great Britain had
a volunteer army, and this was quite small at the start of the war. The other
nations had much larger conscript armies that required three to four years of
service from able-bodied males of military age, to be followed by several years
in reserve formations. Military strength on land was counted in terms of
divisions composed of 12,000–20,000 officers and men. Two or more divisions
made up an army corps, and two or more corps made up an army. An army could
thus comprise anywhere from 50,000 to 250,000
Comments
Post a Comment