Understanding World War 1

A Detailed Historical Background

Saurabh KV
Dept. of English and Foreign Languages
Roll no. 180436
 What and why World War 1 ?
 A deadly war began on 28 July, 1914 between two powerful European
allies and ended on 11 November, 1918
 There were four initial causes which triggered the war before final major
cause
 Major reason was the assassination of the archduke of Austria
 Four initial causes are
• Militarism
• Alliance system
• Imperialism
• Nationalism
 Militarism

 Grounded with heavy and new arms

 For the very first time use of machine guns
 Large and new naval ships
 Large armies
 Because of industrial revolution Britain and Germany used their industrial
complexes for military equipment
 Focused to strengthen the military power
 Competition of military power between both the countries
 False perception to overrun the enemy country
 Alliances
 Multiple secret alliances to maintain balance of power in Europe since 19th
century

Triple Well, Italy betrayed

alliance Germany and
 1882
changed her group
Austria –
Germany
Hungary
Italy to Britain later when
war started
Triple
Entente
 1907
Britain France Russia
 Imperialism

 Scramble for Africa

 Every country wanted to occupy the land in Africa because this land had a
great manpower and vast resources
 Britain again led in Africa same as she did earlier in India

 This imperialistic approach of all confronting nations started a new

disturbance which later turned out as WW1
 13 lakhs India soldiers participated in WW1 because of Britain
 Nationalism

 Strong swift toward nationalism in Europe is another big reason of the war
 An idea or belief of ‘glory of war’
 Illusion of short termed war and war glorification
 Multiple ethnicities created a new scenario of nationalism at its peak
 Immediate major cause

 Assassination of the prince of Austria

 On 28 of June in 1914 ,Archduke Franz Ferdinand was shot dead with his
wife during a visit to a place named Sarajevo by a Bosnian nationalist
called Gavrilo Princep
 Gavrilo Princep was accompanied by some other members during the
assassination of the archduke and these members were the part of a
organization named “Black Hand”
How it started ?

 Austria and Hungary sent some humiliating terms to Serbia and Serbia
denied to accept that
 Serbia asked for help to Russia and Russia responded positively to Serbia
 Russia was ready to help Serbia because Balto-Slavic communities were
living in Serbia and also because of Triple alliance
 Similarly Austria & Hungary took help of Germany
 Germany, Austria and Hungary declared war on Serbia
 France also joined Russia against Germany because of Triple Entente
 Germany was well aware that she cannot handle Russia directly so she
thought of an attack on France
 In order to attack France, Germany took her way into Belgium
 Here comes the entry of Britain to help Belgium against Germany because Britain
has already promised Belgium for help in all the unfavourable condition, 70 years
back in Treaty of London
 France was almost gone but Britain saved her and other side Russia was almost
defeated by Germany
 Ottoman empire attacked on Russia but again Britain intervened and saved Russia
Trench strategy in WW1

 For the first time comes the concept of “no man’s land” during trench war
 France and Germany were at front and for three years they made long
trenches for war and to save themselves from heavy artilleries
 The worse conditions of health started because of corps and sanity
problems in trenches
 The problem of shell shock started in the soldiers and fine examples of this
terror have been visible in the works of 20th century writers
 In 1917, U.S. joined the allies of France, Russia and Britain
 Results

 Defeat of Germany, Austria and Hungary, Ottoman empire (Central

Powers) by U.S., France, Britain and Japan (Allied Powers)
 Defeat of mankind
 Defeat of progress and world view
 Defeat of man’s world
 Causalities

 17 Million Death
I. 11 million Combatants
II. 6 Million Civilians

 20 Million Wounded