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World War I
File:WW1 TitlePicture For Wikipedia Article.jpg
Clockwise from top: Trenches on the Western Front; a British Mark IV tank crossing a trench; Royal Navy battleship HMS Irresistible sinking after striking a mine at the Battle of the Dardanelles; a Vickers machine gun crew with gas masks, and German Albatros D.III biplanes
Date28 June 1914 – 11 November 1918
Location
Europe, Africa and the Middle East (briefly in China and the Pacific Islands)
Result Allied victory; end of the German, Russian, Ottoman, and Austro-Hungarian Empires; foundation of new countries in Europe and the Middle East; establishment of the League of Nations.
Belligerents
Allied (Entente) Powers Central Powers
Commanders and leaders
Leaders and commanders Leaders and commanders
Casualties and losses
Military dead:
5,525,000
Military wounded: 12,831,500
Military missing: 4,121,000[1]
...further details.		 Military dead:
4,386,000
Military wounded: 8,388,000
Military missing: 3,629,000[1]
...further details.

World War I, or the First World War, (often referred to as The Great War and The War to End All Wars) was a global conflict which involved the majority of the world's Great powers,[2] organized into two opposing alliances: the Entente Powers and the Central Powers.[3] Over 70 million military personnel were mobilized in the largest war in history.[4] The conflict was the first total war, in which the combatants mobilised their entire scientific and industrial capabilities to the service of the war effort. Over 15 million people were killed, making it one of the deadliest conflicts in human history.[5]

The catalyst for the war was the 28 June 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, by a Bosnian-Serb nationalist. Austria-Hungary's resulting demands against the Kingdom of Serbia led to the activation of a series of alliances which saw all of the major European powers at war within weeks. Because of the global empires of many European nations, the war soon spread worldwide.

By the war's end, four major imperial powers—Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Russia—had been militarily and politically defeated.[6] The Soviet Union emerged from the Russian Empire, while the map of central Europe was completely redrawn into numerous smaller states.[7] The League of Nations was formed in the hope of preventing another such conflict. The European nationalism spawned by the war, along with the repercussions of Germany's defeat and the Treaty of Versailles, would eventually lead to the beginning of World War II.[8]

Background

In the 19th century, the major European powers had gone to great lengths to maintain a "balance of power" throughout Europe, resulting in a complex network of political and military alliances throughout the continent.[9] The first of these major alliances formed in 1879, when the German Empire and Austria-Hungary signed treaties creating the Dual Alliance, seen as a method of combating Russian influence in the Balkans as the Ottoman Empire continued to weaken.[9] In 1882, this alliance was expanded to include Italy in what became the Triple Alliance.[10] European conflict was averted largely due to a carefully planned network of treaties between the German Empire and the remainder of Europe—orchestrated by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Bismarck's system of alliances was gradually deconstructed following the coronation of Kaiser Wilhelm II, with treaties[which?] between Germany and Russia ending in 1890. Two years later the Franco-Russian Alliance was signed to counteract the force of the Triple Alliance. In 1907, the British Empire joined France and Russia, signalling the beginning of the Triple Entente.[9]

As German industrial power grew, Kaiser Wilhelm II devoted significant economic resources to the establishment of the Kaiserliche Marine, in order to be capable of rivaling the Royal Navy.[11] As a result, both nations strove to outbuild each other in terms of capital ships. With the launch of HMS Dreadnought in 1906, the British Empire gained a significant advantage over their German rivals.[11] The arms race between Britain and Germany eventually extended to the rest of Europe, with all the major powers devoting their industrial base to the production of the equipment and weapons necessary for a pan-European conflict.[12]

In 1909, Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina from the Ottoman Empire, greatly angering the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Serbia, as Bosnia-Herzegovina contained a significant Slavic Serbian population.[13] Russian political maneuvering in the region destabilized peace accords that were already fracturing in what was known as "the Powder keg of Europe".[13] In 1913, the First Balkan War was fought between the Balkan League and the fracturing Ottoman Empire. The resulting Treaty of London further shrank the Ottoman Empire, creating an independent Albanian State while enlarging the territorial holdings of Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece. When Bulgaria attacked both Serbia and Romania on 13 June 1913 it lost all of Macedonia to Serbia and Southern Dobruja to Romania in the 33–day Second Balkan War, further destabilizing the region.[14]

On 28 June 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian-Serb student and member of Young Bosnia, assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo.[15] Suspecting Serbian involvement in the assassination,[15] Austria-Hungary delivered the July Ultimatum to Serbia, a series of ten demands aimed at diplomatically undermining Serbia.[16] When Serbia acceded to eight of the ten demands levied against it in the ultimatum, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on 28 July 1914. The Russian Empire, unwilling to allow Austria-Hungary to eliminate its influence in the Balkans, ordered a partial mobilization one day later.[10] When the German Empire began to mobilize on 30 July 1914, France—sporting significant animosity over the German conquest of Alsace-Lorraine during the Franco-Prussian War—ordered French mobilization on 1 August. Germany declared war on Russia the same day.[17]

Course of the War

Entente and Central Powers' forces

The strategies of the Central and Entente Powers on both the western and eastern fronts was primarily influenced by the nature of the terrain.[18] In the east—terrain that allowed for open and moving combat—the Austro-Hungarian First, Fourth, Third and Second Armies were concentrated in Galicia, while the Fifth and Sixth Armies surrounded the Serbian border.[19] Facing this was the Russian Third, Fourth, Fifth and Eighth Armies, while the Second, First, and Fourth Russian Armies opposed the German Eighth Army in the north.

In the West, the German Schlieffen Plan of 1905 dictated that German First and Second Armies would invade Belgium, bypssing French fortifications along the Alsace-Lorraine Region.[20] To the south, the Third through Seventh German Armies would engage the French First through Fifth armies, as the First and Second bypassed Entente defenses in a drive on Paris. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was mobilized and sent to France to assist the French in the defense of the Calais-Cambrai area.[21]

The Outbreak of War: 1914

On 4 August 1914, the German First and Second Armies—having completed their mobilization—attacked the Belgian fort-city of Liège, as the Third Army moved through Luxembourg to the south.[22] By 16 August, Liège had been captured, and six days later the entire country had been neutralized.

The War becomes Global: 1915

Europe

Africa

Asia

The Attrition Battles: 1916

Mutiny and Revolution: 1917

The Tide Turns: 1918

Aftermath

Impact of the War

Casualties

Ending Treaties

National Identities

War Crimes

Advances in Technology and Warfare

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b Evans 2004, p. 188
  2. ^ Willmott 2003, p. 10
  3. ^ Willmott 2003, p. 15
  4. ^ Keegan 1988, p. 8
  5. ^ Willmott 2003, p. 307
  6. ^ Willmott 2003, p. 6
  7. ^ Keegan 1988, p. 7
  8. ^ Keegan 1988, p. 11
  9. ^ a b c Willmott 2003, p. 15
  10. ^ a b Keegan 1998, p. 52
  11. ^ a b Willmott 2003, p. 21
  12. ^ Prior 1999, p. 18
  13. ^ a b Keegan 1998, pp. 48–49
  14. ^ Willmott 2003, pp. 22–23
  15. ^ a b Willmott 2003, p. 26
  16. ^ Willmott 2003, p. 27
  17. ^ Willmott 2003, p. 29
  18. ^ Esposito 1995, p. 8
  19. ^ Esposito 1995, p. 9
  20. ^ Willmott 2003, p. 31
  21. ^ Esposito 1995, p. 7
  22. ^ Willmott 2003, p. 43

References

  • Devries, Kelly; et al. (2008), Battles that Changed Warfare; 1457 BC—1991 AD, Phoenix, Arizona: Amber Books, ISBN 1905704674, OCLC 259836661 {{citation}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |last2= (help)
  • Esposito, Brigadier General Vincent (1995), The West Point Atlas of War: World War I, New York: Tess Press, ISBN 9781603760218, OCLC 263846388
  • Groom, Winston (2002), A Storm in Flanders, the Ypres Salient, 1914-1918, New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, ISBN 0871138425, OCLC 49285528
  • Keegan, John (1998), The First World War, Hutchinson, ISBN 0091801788, OCLC 40261114
  • Johnson, John Henry, Stalemate! the Great Trench Warfare Battles of 1915-1917, London: Arms and Armour Press, ISBN 185409257X, OCLC 32508799
  • Prior, Robin (1999), The First World War, London: Cassell, ISBN 030435256X, OCLC 55146939
  • Willmott, Hedley Paul (2003), World War I, New York: Dorling Kindersley, ISBN 0789496275, OCLC 52541937
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