The Great War-Post 2

The political state of Europe just before world war 1 is not easy to understand. So let me summarize it. Serbia is not happy with the Austria-Hungarian empire for various reasons like the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Austrian empire is worried about the highly aggressive and violent nature of the newly independent Serbia. Russia supported Serbia as it was the only ally in a highly sensitive region. Germany allied with Austria in its quest to  become a dominant player in Europe. In fact when the German Kaiser declared unconditional support to Austria, he told his chancellor that they need not worry as there was hardly any chance of an European war and boy was he wrong!!!. Britain, being an island nation was worried about the increasing naval power of Germany. So when arch duke Ferdinand was assassinated,(the story of his assassination will be part of a special post which will come out soon) on June 28th,1914, Austria got its chance to go to war with Serbia and drag the whole of Europe into war with it and it took it. Austria drafted an ultimatum which was clearly designed to be rejected by Serbia. It contained such ridiculous terms like Austria running the judicial system of Serbia. It was rejected by Serbia and exactly one month after the assassination, on July 28,1914, Austria declared war against Serbia. Germany started mobilization of its troops and so did Russia. Neither of the heads of these two countries wanted war but the same cannot be said about their army chiefs. In the early hours of July 29, 1914, Czar Nicholas II of Russia and his first cousin, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, begin a frantic exchange of telegrams regarding the newly erupted war in the Balkan region and the possibility of its escalation into a general European war.The relationship between Nicholas and Wilhelm, two grandsons of Britain’s Queen Victoria, had long been a rocky one. They urged each other not to mobilize their armies, which would force the other to do the same. But all those telegrams proved futile as Russia and Germany declared war on August 1,1914. France began mobilization and Germany declared war on France on August 3,1914. Germany always knew that one day they will have to fight both France on the west and Russia on the east. So in December 1905 General Count Alfred Von Schlieffen devised a plan for such a war. According to the plan, a great part of the German force has to attack France and capture it swiftly. Then they will turn back and the whole German force will fight the Russians in the east. For the successful implementation of this plan France has to be won  in months time and this is not possible if the Germans launch their attack through the heavily defended Franco-German border. So some units of the German army have to go through Belgium and surround Paris from the back, avoiding the French defenses along the border. But Belgium is a neutral country, protected by Britain. Great Britain declared that war is inevitable with any country that compromises the neutrality of Belgium. .                                                                                        

So when German troops entered Belgium, even after being denied entrance by Belgium, Britain entered the war. It sent an expedition force of more than 100,000 men to France and Belgium. By the start of September 1914, almost the whole of Europe was at war. That is it for now folks. I found some of the Youtube videos about the Great War really entertaining. Do watch them if you have time. BBYE!!!

The Great War-Post 1

I believe that the very essence of studying history is to learn from the past, understand the impact of past generations on the future and use this knowledge for the greater good of humanity. So the choice for the topic of my first post was rather obvious. A third world war may mean destruction of the scale that we have never seen before and the knowledge of the events that led to the previous two world conflicts, the real stories of suffering and the consequences may help us appreciate the need to avoid another global war. So lets begin with war that came to be known as the Great war.

It all started with the assassination of the young arch duke Franz Ferdinand, heir apparent to the throne of Austria-Hungary empire and his wife, in Bosnia on June 28th, 1914. But how did this incident result in a global conflict that went of for years, killing millions around the globe? To understand that, we need to understand the state of Europe at that time.By the beginning of the 20th century Germany became the industrial and cultural center of Europe. The Prussia-German alliance became the dominant power in Europe after beating the French in 1871.Feelings of nationalism were highly prevalent all across the Europe except in the Austria-Hungarian empire. It was headed by an old emperor and at that time there were about a dozen different national anthems in the empire. The emperor made some really questionable decisions like annexing a part of the Ottoman empire much to the anger of the Slav nations. Germany dreamt of a German europe, Europe dominated culturally and commercially by Germany. All Germany needed to do was to form an alliance with the Austria-Hungary empire which it did. But the problem is Austria and its not so steady state of affairs.

At that time the Anti-Austrian sentiments in the Baltic and Slav nations are beyond words. When Germany got going industrially, Russia allied with France. So it is safe to say that Germany and Russia were no more friends. Britain, France and Russia formed the triple entente in 1907. The last thing Russia wanted was a Germany led alliance to be in control of the Dardanelles through which it sent most of its weed exports. So it supported the Slavs. That means  it is clearly anti-Austrian. Germany admired the success of the British empire and saw its navy as its key reason for success. So the Germans felt that they need to develop their navy if they ever have to establish supremacy as an empire. This did not go well with the British as a strong German navy is a real threat to the trade lines of Britain which is an Island nation. They felt that strong navy is a necessity for them but it is just a luxury for Germany. So it is safe to say that the pre-war Europe is a bomb ready to explode and the assassination just provided the necessary spark.

That is all for this post. The beginning and the early stages of the war will be covered in the next post. Meanwhile, I found the below channel very interesting and informative. Check it out.Bye.

https://www.youtube.com/user/TheGreatWar