World War I

History in a Nutshell.

Between 1914 and 1918, World War One, also known as the Great War or the War to End All Wars changed the world forever.

It not only resulted in revolutions in several other countries like Imperial Russia becoming the Soviet Union, but it changed the way wars are fought.

The war showed great innovation with the introduction of new war technology, some of which are still used today, aircrafts, tanks, machine guns and submarines.

It also introduced poison gas and flame throwers but those weapons are currently outlawed worldwide.

World War One would be one of the deadliest conflicts ever recorded, claiming the lives of around 16 million people, including both soldiers and civilians.

So how did it all begin?

It's important to note that the causes of World War One are rather complicated.

And there is no one definitive answer.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, rising political tensions between nations in Europe divided them into two factions.

England, France, and Russia, which would become the Triple Entente.

And on the other side we have Germany, Austria, Hungary and Italy, the Triple Alliance.

It's important to note that once World War One broke out, the Triple Alliance became the central powers.

Italy switch sides to join the allies.

And the Ottoman Empire joined the war allying themselves to Germany.

The political economic and territorial disputes between these two factions have origins going back decades before World War One.

All of Europe was experiencing the throes of industrialization and lead to a rise in imperialism.

Four countries wanted to expand their land and influence by diplomacy or military force.

Nations in Europe felt the need to expand their military strength for growing fears of an imminent conflict and did not wish to be caught off guard.

For example, Germany engaged in an arms race against Great Britain to see who could build the larger naval fleet.

Think of it like proverbial fist shaking between nations in the Entente and the Alliance, which started long before the war broke out.

Tensions reached a boiling point in June 1914 when Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria along with his wife were assassinated in Sarajevo Bosnia by a nationalist Bosnian Serb named Gavrilo Princip.

The Archduke's father Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph, saw the death of his son and heir as an act of aggression, which directly challenged Austrian authority.

The death of the Archduke led to a conflict between the two nations known as the July Crisis, where Austria-Hungary challenged the kingdom of Serbia.

Basically, Emperor Joseph gave Serbia an ultimatum, 'Toe the line or we'll declare war.

The failed negotiations during the July Crisis escalated into World War when other countries became involved, due to previously established alliances, thus World War One began.

Meanwhile the United States had isolationist policies in place and originally wanted to stay out of World War One The United States would eventually become involved with two incidents caused by Germany.

The first was the sinking of the Cunard oceanliner Lusitania.

The Germans had declared the waters around Great Britain to be a war zone.

And the Lusitania was thought to be carrying arms and ammunition for the Triple Entente.

While this turned out to be true, there were also American civilians on board.

And when the ship got torpedoed by a German U-boat or a submarine the United States saw it as an act of aggression.

President Woodrow Wilson demanded that the Germans stop its unrestricted submarine warfare, but Germany refused to negotiate.

The other incident was the Zimmermann telegram, where Germany attempted to get Mexico to join their cause against the United States, and in return would get back territories lost during the Mexican American War.

The telegram was intercepted by the United Kingdom and shared with the United States, which ended American neutrality and caused the United States to enter the conflict in 1917.

The war was fought mainly in trenches.

Life in the trenches with fuel for nightmares surrounded by mud, barbed wire, diseases and rodents.

Bullets and artillery shells whizzed by daily and the land between the two opposing sides was known as No Man's Land.

Gaining more ground or reaching an objective meant running through a storm of bullets, shells and sometimes toxic gases such as mustard gas.

This is the first war to have seen use of gas masks since both sides use toxic gases on each other.

Introduction of tanks and aircraft made horseback cavalry obsolete.

While mechanized warfare was first introduced in World War One, the designs were primitive compared to today's counterparts.

The fighting went on for four brutal bloody years.

The treaty of Versailles signed in 1919 officially signaled the end of World War One, but many attest the actual end of the war to be the armistice of November 11th, 1918.

An armistice is when two opposing sides in a war decide to temporarily stop fighting.

After Germany demobilized and left enemy occupied territories as per the armistice.

The allies gave Germany an ultimatum: Sign the treaty or continue fighting.

Since nobody was really interested in continuing the conflict any longer, Germany signed the Versailles treaty.

The treaty placed harsh restrictions on Germany.

The most notorious of which was the war guilt clause, which assigned all the blame and financial burden for the war on Germany.

The treaty crippled the economy of Germany's Weimar Republic which never fully recovered after World War One.

The treaty was very unpopular with the German people.

Due to the unfair restrictions in place, the treaty is believed to be one of the main reasons for the rise of Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler in the following years leading up to World War Two ♪