WW1 for dummies

29 Jan 2016

Ever imagined why WWI happened? Lately, I thought of turning pages of history and going through the war anecdotes exhaustively. I came across a wide ranges of reasons for the cause for which the war was fought. Here is the first part of the summary.

The unification of Germany (1862)

Bismarck was made the first prime minister of Prussia in 1862 by Kaiser Wilhelm I (the emperor of Prussia). He was consumed with a desire to achieve the creation of a German Empire out of the collection of smaller German states largely led by Austria’s influence. He concocted the popular Seven Weeks War against Austria in 1866 and ended up with the complete dominance over the Austrian military. The win helped him extracting from Austria not only Schleswig and Holstein, but also Hanover, Hesse, Nassau and Frankfurt, thus creating the North German Federation.

Having put together a united assembly in the north, Bismarck determined to achieve the same in the south, and so unite all of the German states under the Prussian banner. Bismarck resolved that war with the French, a common enemy, would attain his aims. He turned up the diplomatic heat by releasing, on 14 July 1870, a doctored version of a telegram ostensibly from the Kaiser to Bismarck himself, called the Ems Telegram. The effect of the telegram was to simultaneously insult both France and Prussia over their inability to resolve the dispute over the Spanish throne.

Napoleon III, the emperor of France, responded by declaring war against Prussia five days later, on 19 July 1870. Once again, the Prussian military machine demolished the French forces. France ceded both Alsace and Lorraine to Prussia. The southern German states agreed to an alliance with their northern counterparts, resulting in the creation of Bismarck’s cherished German empire.

Bismarck’s need for alliances

Bismarck’s creation of a unified Germany was of direct relevance to the outbreak of war some 43 years later, since it resulted in the assembly of the key alliances that later came into play. He was acutely aware that the French were itching to revenge their defeat at the earliest opportunity, and the loss of Alsace and Lorraine to Prussia would prove to be a lasting sore. He began by negotiating, in 1873, the Three Emperors League, which tied Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia to each other’s aid in time of war. This however only lasted until Russia’s withdrawal five years later in 1878, leaving Bismarck with a new Dual Alliance with Austria-Hungary in 1879. This latter treaty promised aid to each other in the event of an attack by Russia, or if Russia aided another power at war with either Germany or Austria-Hungary. This alliance endured until war in 1914.

The Triple Alliance

Two years after Germany and Austria-Hungary concluded their agreement, Italy was brought into the fold with the signing of the Triple Alliance in 1881. Under the provisions of this treaty, Germany and Austria-Hungary promised to assist Italy if she were attacked by France, and vice versa: Italy was bound to lend aid to Germany or Austria-Hungary if France declared war against either. A Secret Franco-Italian Alliance In the event the Triple Alliance was essentially meaningless, for Italy subsequently negotiated a secret treaty with France, under which Italy would remain neutral should Germany attack France — which in the event transpired.

The Reinsurance Treaty

Potentially of greater importance, although it was allowed to lapse three years after its signature, Bismarck, in 1887, agreed to a so-called Reinsurance Treaty with Russia. This document stated that both powers would remain neutral if either were involved in a war with a third. However, should that third power transpire to be France, Russia would not be obliged to provide assistance to Germany (as was the case of Germany if Russia found itself at war with Austria-Hungary). Bismarck’s intention was to avoid the possibility of a two-front war against both France and Russia. This decidedly tangled mesh of alliances lapsed in 1890.

Franco-Russian Agreements

The year after the Reinsurance Treaty lapsed Russia allied itself with France. Both powers agreed to consult with the other should either find itself at war with any other nation. This rather loosely worded agreement was solidified in 1892 with the Franco-Russian Military Convention, aimed specifically at counteracting the potential threat posed by the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy.

British Emergence

Britain, at that time the greatest power of all, took note. In the early years of the twentieth century, in 1902, she agreed a military alliance with Japan, aimed squarely at limiting German colonial gains in the east. Cordial Agreements: Britain, France and Russia Two years later Britain signed the Entente Cordiale with France. This 1904 agreement finally resolved numerous leftover colonial squabbles. More significantly, although it did not commit either to the other’s military aid in time of war, it did offer closer diplomatic co-operation generally. Three years on, in 1907, Russia formed what became known as the Triple Entente by signing an agreement with Britain.

The beginning

The assassination of Franz Ferdinand by the Serbian nationalist secret society, the Black Hand, provided the Austro-Hungarian government with a golden opportunity to stamp its authority over the region.

Russia, ally of Serbia, had been struggling to hold back full-scale revolution ever since the Japanese military disaster of 1905. In 1914, while the Tsar himself was reluctant, his government saw war with Austria-Hungary as an opportunity to restore social order, which indeed it did, at least until the continuation of repeated Russian military setbacks, Rasputin’s intrigue at court and food shortages combined to bring about the long-threatened total revolution (which, encouraged by Germany, brought about Russia’s withdrawal from the war in 1917).

Then there is France. Almost immediately following her defeat by Prussia in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, together with the humiliating annexation by the newly unified Germany of the coal-rich territories of Alsace and Lorraine, the French government and military alike were united in thirsting for revenge.

Germany’s Path to War

Bethmann Hollweg, the Chancellor, who became most despondent, came to believe that Germany’s only hope of avoiding civil unrest sooner rather than later lay in war: preferably a short, sharp war, although he did not rule out a European-wide conflict if it resolved Germany’s social and political woes. This outlook on life fueled his decision of 6 July 1914, whilst the Austro-Hungarian government was weighing its options with regard to Serbia — to offer the former what has been commonly referred to as “a blank cheque”; that is, an unconditional guarantee of support for Austria-Hungary no matter what she decided.

The so-called Schlieffen Plan, devised by former Army Chief of Staff Alfred von Schlieffen, had been carefully crafted to deal with a two-front war scenario. The plan, which very nearly succeeded, outlined a plan to conquer France, to knock her out of the war, on a ‘Western Front’, within five weeks — before, the Germans calculated, Russia could effectively mobilize for war on the ‘Eastern Front’.

It is often speculated and argued that the plan would have succeeded but for the decision of the then-German Chief of Staff in 1914, Helmuth von Moltke, to authorize a critical deviation from the plan that, it is believed, stemmed from a lack of nerve, and crucially slowed the path towards Paris with fatal consequences.

Still, the German plan took no real account of Britain’s entry into the war. The German government gave no credence to the possibility that Britain would ignore her own commercial interests, and would instead uphold her ancient treaty of obligation to recover violated Belgian neutrality.

One Thing Led to Another

So then, we have the following remarkable sequence of events that led inexorably to the ‘Great War’, a name that had been touted even before the coming of the conflict.

Austria-Hungary, unsatisfied with Serbia’s response to her ultimatum declared war on Serbia on 28 July 1914.
Russia, bound by treaty to Serbia, announced mobilization of its vast army in her defense, a slow process that would take around six weeks to complete.
Germany, allied to Austria-Hungary by treaty, viewed the Russian mobilization as an act of war against Austria-Hungary, and after scant warning declared war on Russia on 1 August.
France, bound by treaty to Russia, found itself at war against Germany and, by extension, on Austria-Hungary following a German declaration on 3 August. Germany was swift in invading neutral Belgium so as to reach Paris by the shortest possible route.
Britain, allied to France by a more loosely worded treaty which placed a “moral obligation” upon her to defend France, declared war against Germany on 4 August. Her reason for entering the conflict lay in another direction: she was obligated to defend neutral Belgium by the terms of a 75-year old treaty. With Germany’s invasion of Belgium on 4 August, and the Belgian King’s appeal to Britain for assistance, Britain committed herself to Belgium’s defense later that day.

With Britain’s entry into the war, her colonies and dominions abroad variously offered military and financial assistance, and included Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and the Union of South Africa.
United States President Woodrow Wilson declared a U.S. policy of absolute neutrality, an official stance that would last until 1917 when Germany’s policy of unrestricted submarine warfare — which seriously threatened America’s commercial shipping forced the U.S. to finally enter the war on 6 April 1917.
Japan, honoring a military agreement with Britain, declared war on Germany on 23 August 1914. Two days later Austria-Hungary responded by declaring war on Japan.
Italy, although allied to both Germany and Austria-Hungary, was able to avoid entering the fray by citing a clause enabling it to evade its obligations to both. In short, Italy was committed to defend Germany and Austria-Hungary only in the event of a ‘defensive’ war; arguing that their actions were ‘offensive’ she declared instead a policy of neutrality. The following year, in May 1915, she finally joined the conflict by siding with the Allies against her two former allies.

I am still editing the second half. Stay tuned :)

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