“Do you agree that alliances were the most important cause of the ‘First World War (WW1)’?” World War 1 (WW1) was a global war that started on the 28th July 1914 and ended on the 11th November 1918. It was also referred to as the ‘Great War’ because before it, there hadn’t been such a war that included so much alliances and nations in it. There were many causes of WW1. The events and the tension between Europe was a trigger that set off declarations of war and resulted in the “Great War”. Tensions had been building up in Europe for decades through militarism, alliances, nationalism, imperialism, ideology, assassination, significant individuals and crisis, and these tensions had reach such a point that an event was needed to break these tensions.
The pact was the final cause of war as Hitler could now invade Poland without any interference from Stalin. Britain and France had declared war on Germany as they guaranteed Poland’s independence. However, the policy of appeasement in the 1930’s also played a big role in causing the Second World War. Appeasement had led Hitler to believe that Britain and France were weak. Britain and France gave Germany the Rhineland, the Sudetenland and they were allowed to have an Anschluss with Austria.
The First World War, which is known as one of the most disastrous war in the history, began in 1914. Most of countries from Europe continents entered to the war due to the complicated alliances, and two armed camps, the Triple Entente and the Central Powers, were formed. The Central powers were Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Ottoman Empire. The Triple Entente was England, France, Russia, and U.S, the country that joined late to this camp. Each country had different aims for entering the war.
This was especially the case for Germany as she was to reap the blame for the First World War. The peace treaties took place soon after the final bloodbath of WW1, emotions would have been raging which would have tainted some of the decisions made, and soldiers would have retired back to their homes and would have been reluctant to want to be involved in border shifting and disputes. The Allied countries wanted Germany to concur to a harsh settlement but the United States brought diplomacy into the situation. The treaties were not just and reasonable but without the United States, Germany would have been handed a much harsher punishment. The injustice of the settlement unintentionally gave birth to long term problems, including key events for the lead up to the Second World War.
This reasoned to long-term tension before the war. The Great Powers also began their preparations for war on land long before the war broke out. Again, Germany created the Schlieffen Plan 1905. Named after German general Count Alfred von Schlieffen who created the plan, which later proved unsuccessful (arguably, they didn't actually follow the plan). The main idea of this plan was to avoid fighting a war on two fronts simultaneously, first take out France in the west and then move to the East and fight a slower mobilizing Russia to the
The Great War (1914 to 1918) and the Second World War (1939 to 1945) were two war that happened within a small gap of time. Different events, centered firstly inside Europe, created war at a global scale. It is without denying that a lot of what happened during the first World War led to a more massive and destructive second World War. World War I and World War II can be compared and contrasted in both their military strategy, but also in their fundamental values. First of all the first World War happened mainly in Europe while the Second World War was fought at a global scale but they both started by a threat to the balance of power and started within Europe showing the importance that took World War II.
Compare and contrast the effects of World War 1 on Africa and Middle East. Although the causes for the Great War were laid down years before, but the immediate spark was the Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, an Austrian hungry prince. Due to the alliances amongst the countries, the Great war which had initially started between Serbia and Austria had engulfed the whole world into the War. The main causes of the Great War were imperialism, race for arms, nationalism and the alliance system. Typically, when one thinks of Great War, they think of extensive fighting in Europe but in reality the Great War had numerous battles in the colonized states where there were clashes between Triple Alliance and the Allies.
An example of this was the remilitarization of the Rhineland in 1936. Britain and France allowed him to do this and the British released a statement saying Hitler was simply, ‘marching into his back yard.’ This policy taught Hitler that aggression paid off. More importantly, Appeasement scared Stalin. Stalin was the dictator in the U.S.S.R. His army were not advanced enough to stand a chance against even a small German army and he feared Britain and France would not help the Soviets if the Germans invaded them. This therefore led to him signing the Nazi-Soviet pact.
They had known Serbia would reject the ultimatum. So on the 28th of July 1914 Austria-Hungary confidently declared war on Serbia with Germany’s full backing. Russia was allied with Serbia so began mobilising its troops to help Serbia. On the 1st of August Germany declared war on Russia. If it hadn’t been for Germany, Austria-Hungary would not have been confident enough to start a war with Serbia and Russia.
They expected to have open discussions with everyone involved to produce a treaty and that there would not be any secret treaties. They hoped to be treated equally amongst other allies and managed fairly especially with negotiations. They did not expect the treatment they were given, and most of the fourteen points did not apply to Germany when she lost the war. Germany was not allowed to be part of the League of Nations, which meant she wasn’t involved in key decision making, the Germans felt this was hugely unexpected and unfair as she lost much of her strength and power. It resulted in diplomatic isolation, as she couldn’t defend lost Germans in other countries, and there were huge military restrictions where she was only allowed an army of 100,000 soldiers and very little weaponry.