How it all started

World War I

How It All Started By Gavin Walker.

From the end of the 19th Century, Imperialist expansion was rife in Europe. Basically, six superpowers were intent on carving up the undeveloped world between them. These were Britain, France and Russia on one hand, all of whom were allied to each other (known as the Triple Entente) and were sympathetic to the Serbs who were subjugated by The Austria -Hungarian Empire with support from the Germans and the Italians (known as the Triple Alliance.

The Balkans (what is now Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia/Herzegovina) had for decades been of interest to the main powers as they had ports on the Adriatic Coast which meant, especially for Russia, that many hundreds of miles were cut from the journey to the Black Sea ports of Odessa and Rostov.

France and Britain had large empires overseas in both Africa and Asia and Germany, which at the time was a relatively new country having previously been a collection of states such as Prussia and Saxony, was eager to gain some lands in these areas for reasons of commerce, materials and power. Austria – Hungary and Italy both had overseas interests and Russia, being the biggest country in Europe extending into Asia with Siberia and Turkestan almost had an Empire in one country and was indeed called Imperial Russia.

This Expansionism resulted in an arms race. The Triple Entente, particularly Britain, were building large navies the main weapon of which was the Dreadnaught, which was an extremely large battleship with very thick armour and huge guns capable of firing shells over 25 miles. Germany, particularly, responded by also upping its Naval numbers and also building Dreadnaughts of its own.

In 1911 Italy fought a war with Turkey, which they defeated, disrupting the sway of the Ottoman Empire which had been influential in the Balkans up until the end of the previous century in opposing the Austro – Hungarian Empires proposed expanse into that area clearing the way for the Empire to influence these states.

In the Balkan Wars of the next two years four Balkan states beat the Ottoman Empire into submission and they had no further influence in the area. Austria – Hungary however were very active in the area and infiltrated into the Serbian and Bosnian sphere and started subjugating the natives. This obviously caused a great deal of unrest in the area and the Serbs were extremely active against Austro – Hungarian officialdom. On the 28th June 1914, The Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir the the Austro – Hungarian Emperor was assassinated in Sarajevo, Croatia by Bosnian separatists known as Black Hands. This started a series of events which led to war.

After a series of notes and ultimatums in the following six weeks between the six countries involved on August 1st Germany declared war on Russia, Then on the 3rd Germany declared war on France and on the 4th Britain declared war with Germany and because of the Triple Alliance Austria – Hungary and Italy became involved on the German side. At this time the Italians refused, however, to commit their troops to attack saying that the Triple Alliance was only defensive. So began a conflict which lasted 4 years and cost the lives of 10 million.

Germany hoped to invade France through Belgium, which was neutral at the time, and defeat the French Army within 6 weeks and then turn round and engage the Russians who they thought would be much slowed mobilising their troops and have the war won by Christmas 1914. This was known as the Schleiffen Plan. Belgium, however, opposed the use of their country as a conduit of war and fought the Germans and held up the Plan giving the French the time to engage the Germans on a more even footing and also the British forces time to get to what was now the Front in Belgium and North – Eastern France.

The Italians, however changed sides in 1915 and threw their lot in with the Allied Forces of the Triple Entente mainly fighting on their northern border against Austria – Hungary. Japan entered the war in late August 1914 by declaring war on Germany, thereby honouring the Anglo-Japanese agreement and two days later declared war on Austria – Hungary. The USA did not join the war until 1917 and Switzerland, Spain,Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Holland were all neutral. The British Empire countries of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and India were of course on the side of the Allied Forces.

Or as Baldrick said in Blackadder Goes Forth, “A bloke called Archie Duke shot an ostrich coz he was hungry.” which basically summed it all up for the common man whose knowledge of foreign affairs was much more limited in these days due to the fact that the only media was newspapers and they tended to mainly concentrate on home news rather than international politics.