A Brief Overview of World War I

The World War 1 conflict began in 1914 to 1918. It started as a nearby European war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia on July 28th 1914. It transformed into a general European struggle by declaration of the following nations known as the ‘Allies’ and the ‘Associated Powers’; Great britain, France, Russia, Italy and the United states. These nations defied the coalition(central powers). The assassination at Sarajevo in bosnia immediately caused the war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia on June 28th 1914. The Triple Entente was involved in the first world war along with the Triple Alliance.

The Triple alliance was formed by Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy in 1882. These Countries agreed to assist each other if attacked by either France or Russia. In WW1, Germany attacked France which caused the Triple alliance to support them in there war. Russia, who feared the growth in the German army, joined up with Britain and France which eventually formed the Triple Entente. The Russian Government was also very cautious and concerned about the possibility of Austria-Hungary increasing the size of their army’s population.

One of the causes of World War was that they made all the aforementioned items join in the war (alliances, imperialism, militarism, nationalism) and then was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary. In June 1914, him and his wife were assassinated by a Serbian Nationalist while they were in Sarajevo, Bosnia which was part of Austria-Hungary. Austria-Hungary was in protest of having control of this region. Serbia wanted Herzegovina and Bosnia to belong to them. This assassination led to Serbia being declared of war by Austria-Hungary.

When Russia began to mobilize because of its alliance with Serbia, Germany quickly declared war on Russia. This expanded the war including all those involved in the mutual defense alliances. Another cause was Nationalism. Bosnia and Herzegovina no longer wanted to be part of Austria-Hungary but instead be part of Serbia because most of the origin of the war was based on the desire of the Slavic peoples. nationalism led directly to the War in this way. The nationalism of countries throughout Europe contributed to the extension of the war and the beginning- in a general way.

Each country tried to prove their dominance and power through this. The Battle of Gallipoli was one of the major events that occurred in WW1. This battle began in 1915. By the spring, it sunk stalemate as there was combat on the Western Front. Trenches that stretched from the English channel to the swiss border, there were Enemy troops basically staring at each other. Neither opponent could outflank its enemy resulting in costly direct attacks on well-fortified defenses. Movement of each sides were predicted at the beginning of the conflict had devolved into deadly war(or stagnation).

The Battle of Verdun is another major event caused it WW1. it is considered the greatest and lengthiest battle in world history. There has never been a more lengthy battle such as this one, involving so many men, situated on such a tiny piece of land. The battle of Verdun lasted from 21 February 1916 until 19 December 1916 caused over an estimated 700,000 casualties (dead, wounded and missing). The battlefield wasn’t even ten square kilometres. There can be no justification for these losses from a strategic point of view.

The battle transformed into a matter of prestige of two nations literally for the sake of fighting! Economic change: Technology and weapons experienced a great boost after the war, as the production of automobiles, airplanes, radios, guns, weapons of mass destruction(WMA), and even certain chemicals, boosted wildly. The advantages of mass production and the use of machinery to perform former human labor tasks and encounters, proved to stimulate the economy, the United States’ in for example.

Much of Europe suffered eye opening losses of property and landscape as well as finances. Europe had the respect of the world as a very reliable money-lender by 1914. Yet just four years later, Europe was in danger for their greatly in debt to her allies for their financial contributions towards the war effort, owing them round about $10 billion. For them to pay back their allies, Many of the European governments began to rapidly print a lot of money, only to subject their countries to a period of inflation.

The middle class members who had been living rather comfortably on investments started to experience a bumpy financial period. Germany was hit the hardest in struggling terms with the war reparations, and the German mark drastically lowered the inflation value. In 1923,No more than three months into that year, the German mark boosted from 4. 6 million marks to the dollar to 4. 2 trillion marks to the German dollar. It occurred that the inflation knew it had no bounds.