reasons why ww1 was pointless

Although the great majority of casualties in WW1 were from the working class, the social and political elite were hit disproportionately hard by WW1. In the UK around six million men were mobilised, and of those just over 700,000 were killed. Germany lost all the territory it had gained after WW1 and another giant slice on top of that. Many German people complained of a need to conform to the euphoria around them, which allowed later Nazi propagandists to "foster an image of national fulfillment later destroyed by wartime betrayal and subversion culminating in the alleged Dolchstoss (stab in the back) of the army by socialists. The loss of life was greater than in any previous war in history, in part . Vladivostok, Russia. The result was tremendous damage to relations between both empires. [101], Traditional narratives of the war suggested that when the war began, both sides believed that the war would end quickly. However, academic work in the English-speaking world in the late 1920s and the 1930s blamed the participants more equally. Germany, France, Austria, Italy, Russia, and some smaller countries set up conscription systems in which young men would serve from one to three years in the army and then spend the next twenty years or so in the reserves with annual summer training. They, therefore, mobilized along both the Russian border with Austria-Hungary and the border with Germany. The Origins of World War I. Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp. Otto von Bismarck disliked the idea of an overseas empire but supported France's colonization in Africa because it diverted the French government, attention, and resources away from Continental Europe and revanchism after 1870. "War was compared to a tonic for a sick patient or a life-saving operation to cut out diseased flesh. Both sides were overwhelmingly armed with rifles. The German government was still dominated by the Prussian Junkers, who feared the rise of left-wing parties. That official policy was temporized by the political necessity of simultaneously and clandestinely supporting dreams of a Greater Serbian state in the long term. That doesn't mean that the Russians should be 'blamed' for the outbreak of war. Still, if its any consolation amid the tragedies and disorder of todays world, Homo sapiens have been way stupider in the past than they are right now. "The sooner the better. But most recent histories depict it as a necessary fight against German militarism. Women could not vore in either country until 1918. [87] Social Darwinism, therefore, normalized war as an instrument of policy and justified its use. /tv/ - This video keeps getting recommended to me but I'm - Television This website will always remain free but if you enjoy its varied and controversial comment feel free to assist West Point scholar argues 'hazy, rosy' myth shaped false sense of U.S. destiny. Equally, the 1907 Anglo-Russian Convention greatly improved BritishRussian relations by solidifying boundaries that identified respective control in Persia, Afghanistan, and Tibet. (That empire lasted into the 1970s.) World War 1 was like nothing that had ever happened in the world before. World War I in Eastern Europe: The war didn't end for everyone in 1918. [102] British Secretary of State for War Lord Kitchener expected a long war: "three years" or longer, he told an amazed colleague. They were now armed with flame throwers, portable machine-guns and grenades fired from rifles. Was the First World War justified? | Biography Online The Soviet states fell into such chaos it seemed even the threat of nuclear war . I doubt I could have endured what they did. Oblivious to the latter, Princess Sophie delighted in being by her husbands side amid pomp and ceremony, a privilege denied her in Vienna because of her modest origins and the emperors disapproval. And here's the really embarrassing part: Along the Somme River, in northern France, more than 1 million men were killed or wounded in 1916 for an Allied advance of seven miles. The dtente was driven by Britain's desire for imperial security in relation to France in North Africa and to Russia in Persia and India. The UK lost four or five times as many men in the brutal campaign as its imperial Anzac contingents. The Independent concluded that "such is the ridiculous and tragical situation resulting from the survival of the antiquated superstition of the 'balance of power,' that is, the theory that the prosperity of one nation was an injury to others":[6]. In fact the incident was made up by historian Alan Clark. Imperial rivalries between France, Britain, Russia and Germany played an important part in the creation of the Triple Entente and the relative isolation of Germany. "Arms Race prior to 1914, Armament Policy," in: Hamilton, Richard F. and Holger H. Herwig, eds. World War I - Encyclopedia Britannica | Britannica But 100 years ago we were constantly told that we were fighting evil men, with God on our side, and parts of that myth have persisted. [70] Russia, having become highly indebted to France in order to finance its own industrial development, rounds out the major powers of the Triple Entente at the outset of the conflict. According to Annika Mombauer, a new consensus among scholars had emerged by the 1980s, mainly as a result of Fischer's intervention: Few historians agreed wholly with his [Fischer's] thesis of a premeditated war to achieve aggressive foreign policy aims, but it was generally accepted that Germany's share of responsibility was larger than that of the other great powers. World War I Timeline: 1914, The War Begins. Generally speaking, the European business leaders were in favour of profits and peace allowed for stability and investment opportunities across national borders, but war brought the disruption trade, the confiscation of holdings, and the risk of increased taxation. "[57], It is true that Austro-Hungarian politics in the decades before the war were increasingly dominated by the struggle for national rights among the empire's eleven official nationalities: Germans, Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Slovenes, Croats, Serbs, Romanians, Ruthenians (Ukrainians), Poles, and Italians. They also downplay the impact of Weltpolitik and the Anglo-German naval race, which ended in 1911. Vol. So, has our species evolved? This "long First World War" was certainly bloody, and we can and should argue about the destructive effects of nationalism for the history of Europe. At the end of 1911, particularly during the Balkan Wars in 19121913, the French view changed to accept the importance of the Balkans to Russia. For the soldiers who fought it was in some ways better than previous conflicts, and in some ways worse. The death of Archduke Ferdinand saw the Austro Hungarian Empire go to war with Serbia. The alignment between Britain, France, and Russia became known as the Triple Entente. For instance there is ample evidence that on offensives we would take no prisoners, we sot Germans who surrendered. Secondary fault lines exist between those who believe that Germany deliberately planned a European war, those who believe that the war was largely unplanned but was still caused principally by Germany and Austria-Hungary taking risks, and those who believe that some or all of the other powers (Russia, France, Serbia, United Kingdom) played a more significant role in causing the war than has been traditionally suggested. [82], War was seen as a natural and viable or even useful instrument of policy. Even though Russia had faced massive industrial unrest . The Origins of World War I. Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp.27-29, Hamilton, Richard F., and Holger H. Herwig. The Urgent Lessons of World War I - Modern War Institute Although it was inevitable, the horrific loss of life was pointless. There were no major disputes there pitting any two European powers against each other.[67]. . Decisions for war, 1914-1917. World war 1 notes on the reasons for stalemate on the - StudyMode They look at such factors as political, territorial and economic competition; militarism, a complex web of alliances and alignments; imperialism, the growth of nationalism; and the power vacuum created by the decline of the Ottoman Empire. Lloyd George's famous Mansion House speech of 21 July 1911 angered the Germans and encouraged the French. WWI was avoidable because Germany could have not feared the future balance of power in Europe and . 8 Reasons Why You Should Be Writing Articles That Nobody Reads The status of Morocco had been guaranteed by international agreement, and when France attempted a great expansion of its influence there without the assent of all other signatories, Germany opposed and prompted the Moroccan Crises: the Tangier Crisis of 1905 and the Agadir Crisis of 1911. The war was started by the leaders of Germany and Austria-Hungary. Germany in 1874 had a regular professional army of 420,000 with an additional 1.3 million reserves. Austria-Hungary, although not a combatant, was weakened, as a much-enlarged Kingdom of Serbia pushed for union of all South Slavs. The treaty was notably less harsh than treaties that ended the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian War and World War Two. Immediately after the end of hostilities, Anglo-American historians argued that Germany was solely responsible for the start of the war. [36] Italy easily captured the important coastal cities, but its army failed to advance far into the interior. Ten days before Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914, prompting the descent into the Great War, people everywhere were working, resting, eating, sleeping, dreaming of nothing less than of war, a British political scientist wrote in The Atlantic the following year. An empire run by psychopaths for almost a century finally caved, and good triumphed over evil. All parties tried to revise international law to their own advantage.[94]. The principal German and French military leaders, including Moltke, Ludendorff, and Joffre, expected a long war. They are no more enemies than the Reds and the Blues into which an army corps is divided for practice maneuvers. He argues, "The fact that so many plausible explanations for the outbreak of the war have been advanced over the years indicates on the one hand that it was massively overdetermined, and on the other that no effort to analyze the causal factors involved can ever fully succeed."[108]. For all these reasons I must conclude, reluctantly, that from the UK's perspective the outcome of the war in 1918 was worth the sacrifice. He regarded colonial ambitions as a waste of money but simultaneously recommended them to other nations. It was a struggle between liberty and autocracy (although czarist Russias alliance with France and England undercut that argument). But the diplomatic diversions give the reader a greater sense of contingency. Austria might have been justified in retaliating against Serbia for the latters complicity in the murders, but that every major power leapt into the fray still beggars belief. Kramer Pacer Vintage Neck, What Does It Mean To Call Someone An Ostrich, Ark Thylacoleo Color Regions, What Element Is X On The Periodic Table, Punishment In Feudal Japan, Articles R