Shortly after the Archduke’s death, Austria sent an ultimatum to Serbia and 5 days later, declared war and bombed its capital, Belgrade. Russia then prepared its army to help Serbia but Germany sent a warning to Russians not to help the Serbs. As Russia didn’t listen to Germany and helped Serbia anyway, Germany declared war on the country and moved it army towards France and Belgium. The French army got ready and Germany declared war on France too, and invaded Belgium. Britain ordered Germany to withdraw from Belgium but Germany didn’t, therefore Britain declared war on Germany and later Austria declared war on Russia.
Also, the Alliances formed shortly after the death of the Archduke. The Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente. The Triple Alliance included Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy; and The Triple Entente included Russia, France and Britain. The reason that Germany formed an alliance with Austria-Hungary and Italy was because it needed help from other countries against Russia and France as they were apparently trying to surround and threaten Germany. Austria-Hungary surrounds the south-west of Russia and Italy surrounds the south of France and also protects Austria-Hungary in the south.
Austria-Hungary, Germany and Italy (The Triple Alliance) needed mutual help in order to overcome the crisis that each country faced. Italy wanted to set up its own colonies and build up an overseas empire and this is the main reason Italy joined hands with Germany and Austria-Hungary. However, Germany and Austria didn’t seem to trust their ally and Italy wasn’t a strong military or industrial power.
Britain saw France and Russia as its most dangerous rivals. However, later on, it set up an agreement with them to defend each other if war breaks out. Britain needed help against Germany because the Kaiser made it very clear that he wanted Germany to have an empire overseas and a strong navy, Britain saw this as a big threat and therefore joined hands with France and Russia.
France was defeated by Germany in 1870, so France was also against Germany like Britain and therefore, agreed to help Britain. Also, France wanted its rich region of Alsace-Lorraine back from Germany which they took from France in the 1870 war.
Russia had history for its rivalry with Austria-Hungary and also it was worried about the growing power of Germany, like France and Britain.
Morocco also had a significant role in the causes of the war. In 1905, the Kaiser visited Morocco because Germany was building up its own empire and had colonies in central and south Africa, so the Kaiser also wanted to build colonies in the North. However, France also had plans for Morocco, so Kaiser made a speech saying he supported the independence for Morocco. Later on, a conference was called to try to calm things down but the opposite happened and Kaiser was humiliated. Britain and France had stuck together in the conference and rejected all the points of view of Kaiser. Later in 1911, France tried to take over Morocco again and another conference was called. Again, France and Britain stood against Germany; and France took over control of Morocco. Germany was given land in central Africa as compensation.
Also the Balkan crisis in 1908 was one of the many reasons Austria went against Serbia, therefore played a big role in the causes of the First World War. Austria took over Bosnia and Herzegovina, Russia and Serbia protested against this but backed down when Germany supported Austria. Germany was a powerful country, so neither Russia nor Serbia wanted to risk war with Germany. However this led to Austria into thinking that Germany will always back it up in future. Russia didn’t like backing down like that, that’s why it strengthened its army and arms build-up. After a few years, Serbia became the most powerful country in Balkans and was a close ally of Russia which Austria highly disliked. By 1914, Austria was looking for reasons to start a war with Serbia and going back to the first cause, the opportunity came when Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo. This spark lit the bonfire and the First World War of the history broke out.
The impacts of the aftermath of First World War were many, including the formation of new countries, abolition of the old ones, the establishment of international organizations and the rise of ideologies in people’s minds.
Germany was obliged to pay for all the reparations that had to be done which eventually led to the Second World War. Since Europe was in debt from war costs, the prices rose, leading to economic crisis. Millions of people lost their lives throughout Europe during these disastrous four years because of the disputes of Austria and Serbia. Almost immediately, the great powers, United States, Britain and France were at odds with each other. Britain and France wanted to punish Germany; however United States was keen on formation of the League of Nations. Also the Treaty of Versailles was signed by Germany at the Paris Peace Conference after the war.
According to the Treaty, Germany accepted all the blame for the damage that had been done in the war and all the colonies of Germany were divided up among the nations. Also, its army was now allowed only 100,000 men and forts could not be placed in Rhineland.
The industries that had been based on the war machinery weren’t needed anymore; therefore the level of unemployment rose and the government had many debts to pay. In 1929, the American Stock Market crashed which wiped out all the investments that the investors had made. During the Great Depression in Europe, there was a rise in political dictatorship such as Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. It is believed that Hitler would never have come to power if Germans had not been discontented with the economy and restrictions from the Treaty of Versailles.
The rise of Hitler is a very important effect of the First World War; Second World War would never have occurred if Hitler hadn’t risen as Germany’s dictator. The biggest effect of the First World War was the Second World War itself.
by
garima30 (student)
