An unimagined tragedy

The First World War started in 1914 and ended in 1918. It would be a war unlike any before. New technology had changed warfare. Most of the main countries in the First World War were entering a new, deadlier battleground.

War plans

Every country thought it was well prepared for the First World War. In some countries, generals had planned for years for a war like this. Most military leaders understood that warfare had changed because of advances in industry and technology. Railroads, for example, were a game-changer that would make everything happen faster.

Before the war began, Germany had created the Schlieffen Plan. It was first proposed in 1891. Germany wanted to defeat both Russia and France. But fighting both opponents at once, on two sides of Germany, was risky. Planners knew that France had more modern railways. The French could get an army into Germany before Russia. Russia was larger and less industrialized than France.

The Germans planned to invade France first. Then, German armies would turn around and fight Russia. There was only one problem: Belgium. The fastest way to knock out France was to go through Belgium. However, Britain had promised to protect Belgium from invaders. But German planners hoped the British wouldn’t really come in to defend this tiny country.

World War I started following the assassination of the Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand. He was killed on June 28, 1914, by Gavrilo Princip. Austria-Hungary claimed Princip was working for Serbia. Austria-Hungary quickly declared war on Serbia. Russia entered the war on Serbia’s side. Germany joined their Austro-Hungarian allies. And, as the Schlieffen Plan predicted, France came to the aid of their Russian allies.

Trenches on the Western Front

The first big battles of the war were fought in Western Europe. The Schlieffen Plan quickly went into action. The German army invaded Belgium and France. Unfortunately, the decision to invade Belgium did bring Britain into the war. British forces joined the French, creating an alliance. It was known as the Triple Entente.1 Still, the Germans stuck to the plan. Along the Western Front, Triple Entente armies were pushed back. The efforts, however, turned out to be too slow. By September 5, the French were fighting back. They staged a counterattack known as the Battle of the Marne.

As the Germans retreated, the nature of the conflict began to change. Modern weapons, especially machine guns, could put out large amounts of bullets very quickly. This led to trench warfare. Armies dug trenches to hide in. Slowly the whole battlefront in the west became a series of trenches leading from Switzerland to the sea.

The war beyond the Western Front

Meanwhile, the Russian Empire got its armies to the front lines. At first, the Russian armies were pretty effective against the Austro-Hungarian forces. With their allies in Serbia, they defeated the Austro-Hungarians in several small battles. However, the two Russian armies were weakening. They were divided. Part of the problem was bad communication. At the end of August 1914, one Russian army was forced to surrender. Still, the Russians remained in the war.

Around this time, the Ottoman Empire and Italy joined the war. The Ottomans entered on Germany’s side. With Austria-Hungary, these three nations formed the Central Powers. They hoped that they could reclaim territory lost to Russia in previous wars. However, their first attacks on Russia were not successful. Italy, similarly, entered the war hoping to win back land from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Their first attacks were unsuccessful, too.

Japan entered the conflict within the first week of the war. The country came in on the side of its ally, Great Britain. Japan’s navy quickly conquered German colonies in China and the Pacific. In Africa, German colonies were also under attack. British and French forces took over German Togo and Cameroon in West Africa. British South African forces occupied German South-West Africa. The German armies in East Africa held out until the end of the war.

Attempting to break the stalemate

By the middle of 1915, the war was stuck with neither side advancing. Along the Western Front, a series of small attacks ended in terrible failure. The armies settled down in exhaustion. One strategy was to make the attacks even bigger. The result was just more casualties.

Another strategy for breaking the stalemate was to knock one opponent out of the war. The British, for example, thought they could break down the Ottoman Empire. They moved to take over the capital. At the time, the city was called Constantinople. It is now known as Istanbul. The British sent a force to land along the coast near Constantinople. This attack also failed. It left 250,000 casualties on either side.

Both sides also tried to damage each other through economic means. The British fleet tried to stop goods from going into Germany. It largely succeeded, but very slowly.

Russia and the Americans

Eventually, the Central Powers did manage to knock out Russia. Russian armies had suffered several losses. The Russian economy was struggling because of the war. This led to the Russian Revolution. After the communist Bolsheviks took power of Russia’s government, Russia exited the war.

Russia’s exit should have transformed the conflict. However, just as the Russians were leaving, the United States was entering the conflict. The U.S. entered the war for two important reasons. First, Germany was taking part in unrestricted submarine warfare. This was affecting American shipping. Second, Germany had reached out to Mexico in order to create an alliance.

American troops began to arrive in the summer of 1917. Their presence boosted morale in their exhausted allies.

By late 1918, things were looking bad for the Central Powers. Their armies were in retreat almost everywhere. Britain and local allies pushed the Ottoman forces out of Mesopotamia and Arabia in September. The Austro-Hungarians were defeated by the Italians in an important battle in June. Also, some of the Austro-Hungarians’ subject peoples were declaring independence. German soldiers held on as best they could. However, they faced terrible economic conditions at home. In late October, parts of the German navy began to revolt. Then, a new government came to power. On November 11, an armistice was signed. An armistice is an agreement to stop fighting. It was a deal between the victorious Triple Entente and their allies on the one hand, and Germany on the other.

Conclusions

The First World War was a terrible four-year war of mud and death. Everyone hoped it would be “the war to end all wars.” Unfortunately, it was not.

1 By treaty, the Franco-Russian-British Triple Entente had existed since 1907. The British entry into the war meant that it was actually in operation.