Learning Objects

The Beginning of the First World War

A Continent in Peace

The first point to understand the beginning of the First World War is the situation of Europe in 1914. In this time Europe was enjoying a long term period of peace, a time with no wars during the previous 40 years. (The last important war was the war of Crimea in the 50’s of the XIX century).
This peace was maintained by:

The free trade and commerce (And peace is better for trade commerce and business in general)
Diplomacy used to deal with the main problems in conferences like the conference of Berlin (1885) were Europe distribute Africa between the European countries.
The fact that the royal families of Europe were linked by marriage was also a help (Queen Victoria of Great Britain was known as “The grandmother’s kings of Europe”)
The last point that help to keep the peace, was the idea that a war between European countries would be too much expensive (It would cost to much money) for anyone to consider initiating it.

But of course there was also 4 main aspects that were the causes of the beginning of the great war. This aspects were the colonial conflicts, the nationalism, the arms race, and the formation of international military alliances (the Entente Cordiale and the Triple Alliance).

Shadows in the Horizon

The first cause I’m going to talk will be the Imperialism. Despite the conference of Berlin, there was a lot of areas of conflict between different imperial countries because there wasn’t to many countries to be conquered at the beginning of the XX century, and the new countries like Italy or Germany wanted have their own colonial empires. That was the cause of conflict in Morocco between France and Germany in 1905 and 1911. Other point of conflict was the area of the Balkans, (Present Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro…) Because that territory was wanted by the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Russian Empire.
The Balkans area bring to us the second main cause, the nationalism, because Serbia was in conflict with the Austro-Hungarian empire for the territory of Bosnia, under the control of the Austro-Hungarian empire. So the Balkans were a point of conflict because the imperialism interest and the nationalism. Also there was a great point of conflict between France and Germany, because of the territories of Alsace and Lorena. Both, Alsace and Lorena were German territory that were wanted by France because there territory was taken from France in a previous war (French-Prussian War (1870-71)).
Italy also had in that time territorial ambitions in the part of the Alps occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire but habited by Italian speakers.
These two causes were the origin for the other two causes.

The arms race was a competition of the main European countries with the objective of having the greatest army and the most powerful weapons, that was made by creation massive armies with “Citizens/Soldiers” using the impressment system and also making the biggest warships, and guns and the fastest machine-guns and rifles.
Last one main cause was the creation of international alliance. The first alliance was the Triple Entente, formed by Germany, Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Italy. The other Alliance, was the entente Cordial, formed by Great Britain, France, and Russia. All this diplomacy, was deployed to keep the two sides in balance and avoid a war, but on the other hand this system had the great inconvenient of be able of transform a small and local conflict in a European general war.<

In fact that was precisely what happened the summer of 1914.

http://www.guerraycombate.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/alianzas-primera-guerra-mundial.jpg

Europe in 1914
Video explanation of this situation (in Spanish)

The causus belli

The beginning of the FWW was the result of the assassination by a Serbian nationalist of the archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo the 28 of June of 1914.
This cause a chain reaction. Austro-Hungary send and ultimatum to Serbia with abusive conditions with the support of Germany, then Russia support Serbia, that meant that an attack against Russia may cause a Conflict with France and GB.
At the end, the 28 of July Austria declared the war against Serbia, Russia moved his army to the border whit Austria the 30, the cause a declaration of war of Germany against Russia, and at the same time against France (first and third of August).
The last step was the invasion of Belgium by Germany in other to surround the French army, because it caused the entrance in the war of GB.
One last thing we can say about the beginning of the FWW is that many historians though that the main fault was for the Germans because they declare the to France And Invade Belgium when France, GB and Belgium were thinking in the possibility of kept the war as a local war in eastern Europe and didn’t help Russia or Serbia (Because Serbia wasn’t in the Entente Cordiale and this pact was operative only in case of first attack against Russia by Germany or Austria-Hungary. But Germany preferred do a greater movement of defeat at first France and then Russia in order to avoid the danger of a war in two fronts at the same time.

The Movement War

The first phase of the war was the fast mobilization of the armies of France and Germany. The German plan consist in a fast attack against the left side of the French army. At first, the attack was a complete success and the German army was only few kilometres from Paris. But in a spectacular movement the French army was able to move their divisions in other to stop the German army and then force the Germans to retreat.
At the same time the Russian army attacked the Germans and the Austro-Hungarians but they were stopped at Tannemberg battle.

The Movement War.

The Race to the Sea

After the failure of the German plans in the west and the destruction of the Russian armies in the east the last phase of the movement war was known as the “Race to the sea”.

This phase consisted in the attempt of the German and the French army to surround the enemy from the north but with no definitive conclusion. As a result, by October of 1914 the trench frontline was a continuous line of 300 Km from Switzerland to Nieuport.

The Trench Warfare had begun.