Consequence of WWI

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An inappropriate time for “Democracy”

                                       ---The consequence of World War I

World War I (August 1914-November 1918) was a military conflict which happened in the Europe and quickly penetrated the whole world. Eventually, 32 nations were involved in the war. The war was fought between two great military coalitions of countries—the Allied Powers, which included France, Russia, Britain, and eventually the United States; and the Central Powers, which opposed  the Allied Powers, included Germany, Austro-Hungary, and later, the Ottomans. By the end of this most violent war in the European history, nearly 10 million troops had died and about 21 million soldiers had been wounded. (Edward J.) Moreover, the consequences of World War I - the failure of Weimar Republic and the rise of Hitler, also influence the European order in the first half the 20th century.

In 1815, a coalition (Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia) defeated France in the Napoleonic Wars. These countries held a peace conference, which was known as Congress of Vienna, to prevent another Europe-wide war. At the conference, Austrian foreign minister Prince Klemens won Metternich, firstly put forward the idea of "the balance of power". If any country was to attempt to disturb the balance of power, the other countries would oppose it as an alliance in accordance with the diplomatic principle. Because of that, only two wars occurred in the 19th century in terms of nationalism; just two new nation-states were established, Italy in 1861 and Germany in 1871. Germany had a rapid development in both military and economy after the establishment, which in some way threatened the balance of power, even though the leader of Germany did not want to become the leader of the world. Maybe it was an underlying reason for World War I.

The heir to the Austrian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated by a young Serbian terrorist on June 28, 1914. As a consequence, Austria-Hungary regarded Serbia as a threat to the nation’s security, and William II in Germany also promised infinite support to Austria-Hungary to declare war on Serbia. So the war began! After the Germans invaded Belgium On August 4, 1914, the war things were looking very clearly. Germans were powerful enough, so they succeeded seemingly at the first two months until October. However, the war turned to a stalemate during the next three years when battles always happened along a line of entrenched fortifications stretching from the North Sea, all the way through France to the Saar River in Germany.(Philips, G, 1996,1 ) In 1917, a big event occurred; Russia withdrew. As the war dragged on, Russia experienced high inflation so that people could not afford to the commodity they needed to survive. The same things happened at the front. The troops were starving and weaponless. February Revolution began with the uprising of females. They quickly attracted the support of large numbers of workers, as well as soldiers at the front finally. The Russia military collapsed. One month later, the Central Powers and Russia signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on March 3, 1918. Russia’s participation in the war ended. Even though a powerful country left the war, another more powerful country- the United States entered the war on April 6, 1917. After that, the Central Powers were quickly defeated. World War I was finally at the end on A.M. 11, November 11, 1918.

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Everywhere seemed on the verge of collapse after German nation was defeated. Moreover, hundreds of thousands soldiers returned from the military fronts, jobless, hungry, which in some way promoted the revolution happened in Germany at the beginning of 1918. “Long live the German republic!”, this “accidental” proclamation directly made Ebert set his mind to establish a moderate democratic republic, rather than a republic of workers' and soldiers' councils in imitation of the soviet republic. And this “dream” came true in February 1919. “The new German Republic would eventually have a constitution that made it on paper one of the ...

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