High School History Teacher
Background to WWI
World War 1 officially started on July 28, 1914 and lasted until November 11, 1918. The main belligerents, France, England, The United States, Austria-Hungary, Germany, Italy, Russia, and Japan fought a horrific war that claimed as many as 10 million soldiers' lives. What were the events that surrounded the start of the war? In what sort of political and social atmosphere could such a devastating war have arisen?
We'll turn our gaze first to Europe, the heart of the conflict. In Austria-Hungary an event known as the Bosnian Crisis took place from 1908-1909. Austria-Hungary officially announced the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina from the Ottoman Empire. This act angered Austria-Hungary's neighbor the Kingdom of Serbia and its patron the Russian Empire. Political maneuvering by the Russian Empire and further conflicts in the area resulted in the further fracturing of the Ottoman Empire, the creation of an independent Albanian State, and land successions from the Ottoman Empire to Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, and Greece. The constant power struggles, nationalist, and racial tensions between the countries in the Balkans resulted in what was known as “The powder keg of Europe”
Racial tensions helped fuel the many conflicts that were arising in the Balkans. The Balkans during the early parts of the 20th century were an area made up of many different nationalities, cultures, and religious beliefs. Many country's fights for independence came from this ethnic tension and from the growing sentiment of nationalism that many people across the Balkans, and around the world, were feeling.
These struggles resulted in the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914. Six assassins, members of the nationalist group Young Bosnia (Mlada Bosna) were supplied by the Serbian secret military group The Black Hand to carry out the assassination. The assassination resulted in widespread shock and pity for Austria-Hungary, while the Austrians' personal reaction was significantly more muted.
However, in the Bosnian capital city of Sarajevo, Austrian authorities encouraged violence against the ethnically Serb residents, leading to the Anti-Serb riots of Sarajevo. Violent actions against ethnic Serbs were organized not only in Sarajevo, but also in many other large Austro-Hungarian cities such as Herzegovina. Austro-Hungarian authorities imprisoned thousand of ethnic Serbs, many of whom died in prison or were sentenced to death by the predominantly Muslim special militia known as the Schutzkorps, who primary job was to carry out the persecution of Serbs.
The assassination led to a month of diplomatic maneuvrings between Austria-Hungary, Germany, Russia, France, and Britain which was called the July Crisis. Due to various alliances and treaties between countries, countries physically far away from the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and countries who had nothing to do with the assassination soon found themselves in the middle of the conflict. Believing correctly that Serbian officials were involved in the plot, and wanting to finally end Serbian interference in Bosnia, Austria-Hungary delivered to Serbia the July Ultimatum. The July Ultimatum was a series of ten demands intentionally made unacceptable to Serbia. The goal of the July Ultimatum was to provoke a war with Serbia.
Serbia would agree with only eight of the ten demands, and Austria-Hungary declared war on July 28, 1914. The Russian Empire, not wanting to loose its sphere of influence in the Balkans, and wanting to support it's longtime ally Serbia, ordered its troops to be mobilized. Due to Russia's mobilization, Germany mobilization on July 30, refused to negotiate terms of demobilization, and declared war on Russia on August 1, 1914.
The German war planned called for a quick, sudden, massive strike on France, a new ally of Russia, to eliminate any threat from the west before turning east to fight against the Russians. Germany attacked Luxembourg on August 2, 1914 and on August 3, 1914 declared war on France. On August 4, after Belgium refused to permit German troops to cross its borders into France, Germany declared war on Belgium as well. Britain declared war on Germany on August 4, 1914, following an "unsatisfactory reply" to the British ultimatum that Belgium must be kept neutral, and in 1915 Italy also entered the war. World War 1 now included its main European participants.
Not until 1917 did the US enter the war. Germany had put in place a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare, targeting any ship or vessel that may be transporting arms or supplies to any of the Entente powers. The Lusitania was one of the victims of this practice. Later, the interception of the Zimmermann Telegram, a German document that purposed Mexico enter World War 1 on the side of the Central powers proved to be the last straw for US, finally drawing the US into the war.
Though a latecomer to the war, the US and its influx of troops and supplies was enough to tilt the balance of the war in the Entente's favor. On November 11, 1918 the Treaty of Versailles was signed between the Entente and Germany, while the other Central powers were dealt with on their own. The treaty called for Germany to release lands captured in Europe, give up its imperialist holdings in Africa and China, effectively eliminate its military, and pay war reparations to the Entente powers.