World War 1 - the Great War

World War 1

World War 1 was called “The Great War”, “The war to end all wars”, and “The first modern war”. It had many causes and a few repercussions and I will describe them in detail.

The most widely known reason for the start of World War1 was the assassination of the Arch Duke Ferdinad of Austria-Hungary in the Serbian capital of Sarajevo. The ArchDuke was there to talk to the Serbian leaders about peace in the Balkan Peninsula.

After a Serbian was arrested for the assassination Austria-Hungary pulled out of the peace talks and declared war on Serbia. Germany who was allied with Austria-Hungary also declared war on Serbia. Russia who was allied with Serbia had to declare war on Germany and Austria-Hungary. When Germany invaded France and Belgium, Great Britain declared war on Germany. World War 1 had begun. As the German Chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg said, “Once the dice are cast nothing can stop them.” Indeed once the dice were cast on World War 1 nothing stopped them until 22 million people had died.

Besides the assassination of the archduke there were four other reasons for the start of WW1. 1. Militarism- the building of large armies. All the nations in Europe at that time were engaged in what today could only be called an arms race. As soon as one nation built a new weapon, all the others followed suit. 2. Alliance System- The building of alliances to strengthen the borders of a country. In theses alliances if one country went to war all the other countries in the alliance