There will always be wars fought in this world. Since the beginning of time man has punished one another with the sickening atrocity called war. In the summer of 1914 a new type of war emerged in the European theater. This war would be set off by a 19 year old Serbian nationalist named Gavrilo Princip (Willmott page number?). This kid was considered frail and weak by the other nationalist with whom Gavrilo tried to join. The refusal by the nationalist leaders helped fuel him to do something brave. On June 28, 1914 he fired two shots into the Archduke Franz Ferdinand's car. The two shots from Gavrilo's FN Model 1910 pistol killed the Archduke and his beloved wife Sophie (Keegan, page number). Why did Princip do this? What was taking place?)
Exactly a month after the Archduke was assassinated, the Emperor of Austria-Hungary, Franz Joseph declared war on Serbia (Schweikart, and Allen). This declaration of war caused a chain reaction of the bigger European nations getting involved in this struggle. On the first of August Germany declared war on Russia, two days later they declared war on France, and Germany declared war on the neutral country of Belgium (Willmott). Since Germany had not done enough declaring war; Austria-Hungary decided to declare war on Russia. The countries involved split up with their allies to form two factions, the Allies and the Central Powers. The Allies would include Britain, France, Russia, Belgium, Serbia, Italy, Japan, Greece, Romania, and Portugal. The Central Powers would include the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria (Zinn). This war had multiple fronts, but the main front would have to be the Western front.
The Germans invaded France and quickly started building trenches. They used gas and other forms of technology that had never been seen in battle before. The British joined France and helped stop the Germans at the first Battle of the Marne (Willmott). The battles of this war were very bloody because they fought from trenches across a field from each other. If an advance was signaled, it was guaranteed that the army advancing would suffer large casualties. The Allies and the Central Powers used barbed wire, machine guns, and heavy artillery to stop any opposition from getting to their trenches. At the Battle of Frontiers the French lost 27,000 men in a single day. Bloodshed on this scale had not been seen by any of the men who were fighting in World War I. Horror stories were spread about gas killing large numbers of soldiers. The Germans broke an agreement formed prior to the war by using chlorine gas (Keegan). The Allies and the Central Powers were at an almost stalemate on the Western front.
America was trying their best to stay out the war in Europe. The American president Woodrow Wilson told the American people that he would keep them out of war. On May 7, 1915 the Lusitania was sunk by German U-boats in the Atlantic Ocean. This event killed 1,198 people including 128 Americans (Zinn). The sinking of ships did not stop there. The Germans kept on sinking ships without warning. By 1917 Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany. This was the key pivotal moment in World War I that saved Europe as we know it. If America had not entered the war then France and Britain would have most likely been defeated. Over a half-million French soldiers had already committed mutiny and refused to fight. America helped bring up the slack in the war by pushing the Germans back. Germany signed a cease fire on November 11, 1918 (Willmott).
The First World War was extremely bloody and negative for the world. This war would set the stage for the World War II, The Soviet Union, other widespread socialist regimes, economic turmoil throughout Europe. This war has had long term effects in the whole world. When the Austro-Hungarian Empire fell it never really recovered. The countries in that area are still volatile and are not very wealthy. The Russian Empire lost their czar to the Bolshevik Revolution. Germany was knocked in to a massive depression that paved the way for Adolf Hitler to attain power in Germany. He went on to kill millions of people in World War II. The actions of World War I forever changed the world and set the stage for future conflicts.
Work Cited
Keegan, John. The First World War. Vintage Books, 1998.
Schweikart, Larry, and Michael Allen. A Patriot's History of the United States. Penguin Group, 2004.
Willmott, H.P., World War I. Dorling Kindersley Limited, 2009.
Zinn, Howard., A People's History of the United States. Harper Collins, 1980.
