World War I: causes and consequences

World War One

The First World War radically changed the geography and political landscape of Europe and introduced a new form of warfare in which modern technology provided the means of killing that dramatically increased the loss of life and destruction of warfare in general. The war began almost inadvertently when prior international commitments and allegiances between long-standing allies were triggered by an act of nationalistic terrorism in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. By the time it ended more than four years later, approximately 10 million people had been killed, several new nations arose from postwar settlement, and the seeds for an even more destructive war had been planted in fertile soil of nationalism and seething resentment over the terms of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles that would erupt between the same principal combatants over the same land exactly two short decades later.

The Cause of War:

When a Serbian terrorist assassinated the Archduke Francis Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Sarajevo in July 1914, Serbian nationalism had already posed a great threat, at least in the minds of the Austro-Hungarian regime, to the continuation of the Austro-Hungarian dynasty in Europe. Serbia had already been engaged in increasingly adamant nationalistic uprisings intent on Slavic self-determination and breaking away from the oppressive Austro-Hungarian Empire. Austro-Hungary feared that the independence of the Slavs from the control of the Habsburg government would eventually result in the collapse of Austro-Hungary as a national power in Europe.

Historical Retrospective:

The assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand provided Austro-Hungary the excuse that it needed to declare war on Serbia. Future historians would determine much later that individuals within the Serbian government were involved in the planning of the assassination, but that was not known at the time that Austro-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia to allow Austro-Hungary to squash Serbian nationalist uprisings in Serbia. Serbia refused, knowing that Russia would support them if attacked by Austro-Hungary. Meanwhile, Germany supported Austro-Hungary, and within two weeks of the assassination, armies across Europe were mobilizing for war.

Germany attacked France preemptively because it believed that France support Russia resulting in a dreaded war on two fronts. Because Germany's Schlieffen Plan had always envisioned dealing with France first in any war with Russia, Germany declared war on France immediately even though France was still uninvolved in the issues directly. Germany attacked France in August 1914 through neutral Belgium to avoid the heavily fortified French-German border. This brought England and Prussia into the war by virtue of international agreements in place since 1939.