World War I or The Great War is one of the most important events in the world history. It changed the world forever in every aspect. Even though the war was fought in the European continent, the repercussions were felt throughout the globe. The Great war was fought between 1914 to 1918 between the Central Powers and the Allied Forces. The Central Powers were led by Germany and comprised of Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria, while Allied Forces comprised of British Empire, France, Russia, United States and plethora of other small European nations. Even though the battle already looks skewed in the favor of Allies, Austria-Hungary only looked strong on paper and was weak in reality; While Ottoman Empire was already the Sick Man of Europe. So, the war was actually between the Allies and Germany with little inputs from other Central Powers.
The war was already inevitable in the beginning of century due to the resurgence of capitalism. Industrial Revolution came early in the western Europe and countries like England, France and Holland benefited heavily with that. These countries grew their industrial production rapidly and made colonies all over the globe as markets to sell these manufactured goods. Leading all these nations was the British Empire having Canada, Australia, Egypt and lot of other countries with India as its crown jewel.
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| Territories of British Empire atone time or another. |
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| British Empire around the time of World War I |
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The newly industrialized nations felt cheated that there were no colonies left for them to exploit. The only colonies left were not as valuable as ruled by British or French Empires. In contrast to them, Germany only had three colonies in Africa. Even despite this disadvantages, Germany grew rapidly and became an industrialized nation. German army became one of the strongest armies in the world. On some social indicators, it even beat England. In England, the resentment against Germany started growing. So, in the first decade of twentieth century, almost all the countries of Europe started war preparations internally; nations were stockpiling ammunition as the war was inevitable in near future.
The spark to this bubble of gas was provided on 28 June 1914, when the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary was assassinated while his tour of Bosnia. The assassination was done by a Serbian student, and thus Austria blamed Serbia; Serbian apologies were unaccepted and an ultimatum was given to Serbia to accept 10 unacceptable demands drafted in a way to provoke war. Still Serbia accepted 9 out of 10 demands. But this was not enough, and one month later on 28 July, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. The Russian Czars didn't wanted to lose the influence in Balkan States and ordered a partial mobilization of troops one day later. Germany saw this mobilization of troops as a threat to herself and launched attacks on France and Russia on 30th July. Between the two hostile nations of France and Germany was a neutral land of Belgium. Germany asked Belgium to allow German troops to pass through so that they can attack France. Belgium refused; Germany attacked Belgium on 3rd August. Britain took advantage of this and used this violation of neutrality pact by Germany as a reason to launch war against it. So, the World War stared with The Triple Entente of UK, France and Russia against the Germany and Austria-Hungary. Italy kept watching and joined the Allied Forces next year. Both the groups tried to take other nations into their sides by offering them promised territories once the war is over.
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| Allies(Green) Vs Central Powers (Orange) |
Germany gained quickly on the French troops and took control of important industrial regions. But after initial success, French were able to stop them 70 km from Paris. This turned out to be a major turn in the war as after this the trenches were formed and trench warfare kept on going on for 2 years. It led to stalemate with no side gaining any territory. The Germans used chemical weapons like Chlorine gas and mustard gas, but still the stalemate remain so. The war also led to introduction to technological improvements in warfare with tanks and aircraft's introduced in war front.
Meanwhile, another battle was being fought in the seas. The British Navy was the biggest and strongest navy in the world and it started a blockade of Germany in order to starve her and force her to surrender. While a counter offensive was launched by Germany to blockade Britain who was dependent heavily on imports for food supplies. German submarines hunted in the international waters to block ships entering into British waters. In 1917, Germany was tired and the British blockades were making a serious dent on Germany. So, they changed their strategy to attack even neutral ships coming to Britain with supplies. On 6 April, 1917 US declared war on Germany after Germany sank 7 US merchant ships and tried to cajole Mexico in joining the war against US. But these were not the only reason why US came into war. The another reason was money.
Every war needs money, lots and lots of money. In the beginning, France financed the Allied war, but by 1915, France was done. So, Britain stepped in and started financing the whole war. Britain financed for one year. But by the year of 1916, Britain also got broke. Then, both Britain and France went to USA for help and asked them to finance the war. USA agreed and started lending heavy amounts to Allies for their war. US had invested so much money in the war that if Allies had lost the war, US economy had gone into a recession. So, to save its own skin, US jumped into the war. The entry of US changed the dynamics of war totally.
But there was one more major event left to happen. This was to happen on Eastern Front. The Russian armies fought with the Austrian - Hungary armies and were pushing them back easily. Then, Germany sent her troops and they were able to turn the tides. The superior German army - better led, better trained and better supplied were terrifyingly effective against the ill-equipped Russian forces. Moreover, the burden of war was too much for the common man of Russia and this increased the anger of people against the Tsars. Various strikes and demonstrations started against the Russian king. The biggest of this revolt started November 7 1917 as the October Revolution by Lenin. This led to the coming of Bolsheviks to the power. Bolsheviks led by Lenin had a socialist agenda and they wanted peace at any cost. Thus, the treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed between two, with Russia paying a heavy cost.
But this brought an advantage to Germany, that now they can shift their entire focus on the Western Front. At this time, Germany was strong enough to fight with the France and Britain and win. Thinking on the same terms, Germany launched the Spring Offensive in 1918 and thought to win the war before US forces make any major contribution. But the Russian Revolution was impacting German people also. Now, people of Germany were also tired after fighting such a long battle, they wanted peace.Anti-war protests started in Germany and the soldiers shifted from Eastern front told other soldiers of the Russian Revolution. Thus, Germany started to weaken. Moreover, the Spring Offensive did not provided her with any major gains as due to improper supply lines and lack of tanks and artillery, Germany was not able to consolidate any considerable gains.
In response to the German Spring Offensive, Allies launched a counter - offensive named as Hundred Days Offensive. It began on August 8 1918 with the Battle of Amiens. This became a successful strategy and the Allies were able to gain considerable areas in the war. The weak Germany with a blockade leading to starvation at home, talked for armistice, but the Allies refused and demanded abdication of Kaiser. Thus, the Imperial Germany was no more and a new Republic Germany was formed. But, the British did not removed the blockade till 8 months of peace treaty signed. The blockade led to starvation in Germany. The Blockade was not removed till 12 July 1919 when the the Treaty of Versailles was signed between Allies and the Central Powers. These times became one of the most devastating periods for the German people and it was claimed that 100,000 Germans died due to the continuation of blockade. German Chancellor Hollweg sayed that "and our children, and children's children, will bear traces of the blockade that England enforced against us, a refinement of cruelty nothing less than diabolic."
Thus, the Great war ended in 1918, and the world was changed entirely. New nations were formed. Many old were no more. The industry, economy and politics of the world was never the same. The treaties done by Allies were very harsh and sowed the seeds for the World war II. Whatever happens, the World War I will be always remembered for the impact it had on earth.
