The Beginnings of World War I

A

Called The Great War by many historians, World War I was catastrophic in a way that no other war before it could compare. Some thought it would be a conflict of mere months, but it would come to last a little over four years. In the end, over 8.5 million soldiers and citizens died as a direct result of the war, and nearly three times that many were injured or maimed by tanks, bombs and machine guns, the modern weapons of the early twentieth century. It was not a gentleman’s war, the kind where both sides took turns to reload guns and fire at the other side. Rather, it was a war of cunning strategy and great brutality. It wore out the citizenry and as the losses mounted, internal revolutions in one country after another were roused. It would also change the boundaries of countries and bring new countries to being, freeing peoples from the domination of larger, more powerful nations. And it shamed many European countries that, when the war began, believed themselves superior and unconquerable. How did this great and terrible war begin?

B

In the decades before World War I, Europe had become increasingly nationalistic and militaristic. Nation-states were jockeying for power, land, and natural resources, making war a very real threat even to the countries that did not want it. Europe was actively forming alliances to deter neighboring countries from destroying the balance of power that existed on the continent even if this balance was unstable to begin with.

C

In the 1870s, the German Second Empire, a nation-state of 26 constituent territories ruled by royal families, signed formal agreements with Austria-Hungary, Italy and Russia. However, it would neglect its accord with Russia after the agreement expired, paving the way for a Franco-Russian alliance forged in the years 1891 to 1894. France was resentful of Germany because it had been defeated by the latter in 1870, losing Alsace-Lorraine to the Germans in the process. Although Britain was a global empire and the foremost naval power at the time, Germany had quickly become the world’s industrial leader and was confident of its military strength and economy, even building battleships as a challenge to Britain. In 1904, Britain signed a series of agreements with France, called the Entente Cordiale, which Germany was cautious about. The arrangement between France, Russia and Britain meant that Germany was encircled by three nations that were cooperating militarily.

D

On the other hand, Germany had a strong relationship with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which consisted of a dual monarchy with separate parliaments and citizenships and Croatia-Slavonia, an autonomous country under Hungarian authority. The realm was a multinational one, with peoples of different languages and cultures, including Bosnian, Croatian, Czech, Polish, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene, Ukrainian, Yiddish, Italian, German and Hungarian. In the late nineteenth century, Russia and Austria-Hungary  were competing for the Balkan states, territories partly or completely located within the Balkan Peninsula. This would play a major role in fueling World War I. The Balkan Peninsula had had a long history of ethnic conflict and was a cauldron of discontent. By the close of the sixteenth century, the Ottoman Empire had control over the region, including the lands known as Thrace and Anatolia, and then for centuries after, the empire would find itself constantly involved in warfare. These numerous conflicts, coupled with the Ottoman proclivity to isolate itself from its neighbors, resulted in the Peninsula becoming less economically developed than the other parts of Europe. In the early part of the twentieth century, the Balkan Wars would make the situation even worse.

E

The Balkan War of 1912 was a war for freedom: Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria and Albania freed themselves from the Ottoman Empire and formed independent nation-states. The Balkan War of 1913 was a war for spoils. These two wars so weakened the Ottoman Empire that it lost virtually all of its territories except for the eastern part of Thrace. The Turks withdrew to Anatolia, which is roughly the Asian part of present-day Turkey. With the break-up of the Ottoman Empire, France, Russia, Germany and Great Britain were all eager to get a slice of the Balkan pie. Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, nationalistic sentiment in the Balkans had increased, with Serbia exerting great pressure upon Austria-Hungary to yield to their demands of allowing the South Slavic peoples under their rule to be united with Serbia. This crisis created enormous tensions between the nation-states in the region, particularly Serbia and Austria-Hungary. The groundwork for World War I had been laid.

F

Austria-Hungary did not want a conflict, but they also feared that Serbia would destroy the existing order. The people of the Balkans were far from united—there were class distinctions, rival nationalities and a disdain for the monarchy. Industrialization had given rise to a working class that was nationalistic and aggressive. Throughout Eastern and Southern Europe, the desire for national freedom simmered. It would take only a single incident to provide the trigger that would make it boil over.

G

That incident was the assassination of the prince of Austria-Hungary, the archduke of Ferdinand, and his wife. They were murdered by a 19-year-old Serbian student living in Bosnia. Europe stood by to see what would happen. The monarchy sent an ultimatum that it knew Serbia would find insupportable. The monarchy must have believed that any ensuing conflict would be easy to contain. Serbia’s reply was just as unacceptable, and Austria-Hungary began mobilizing its forces. Russia immediately pledged support for Serbia; France backed Russia and mobilized its own men. Germany warned Russia. Austria-Hungary declared war against Serbia and began attacking Belgrade. When Russia refused to back down, Germany declared war on Russia and France. France and Britain declared war on Germany, and Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. World War I had begun.  During the course of the war, 28 countries would become involved. And though its terribleness would leave a deep impression on those who participated and on the rest of the world, on the whole, that war did nothing to quiet the tribal and ethnic conflicts and resentments that caused it in the first place.