World War One
What was WW1?
World War One was a key event in the world's history. It involved many of the worlds' countries and caused countless casualties. It was a horrific event that rocked the entire world. It was known as the "Great War" at the time, because humanity had never experienced anything like it before. The years of 1914-1918 changed the world and geopolitical landscape - such as creating new countries like Poland and making empires fall.
Why did it start?
The Greatest War at the time started because a gang of young men implored to cause havoc, unaware of its oncoming domino effect. They planned to assassinate the Archduke of Austria-Hungary - Franz Ferdinand because they were trying to seek political revenge, and they wanted to unite South Slavs and liberate Serbians from Habsburg or Ottoman rule using terrorist methods. The assassin was Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb nationalist, and he, alongside his other gang members, successfully assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand. However, it was not in the first attempt. In the first attempt, when the car came near the attackers, one of them threw a grenade, but it bounced off, leading to explosions that injured bystanders rather than the Archduke. One of their officers was injured in the attack, and the Archduke insisted on visiting him in hospital. However, since this was a change in schedule, their driver became confused and mistakenly took the wrong turn. While trying to correct the route, the motorcade stalled, and Gavrilo Princip seized the opportunity and successfully assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie.
Gavrilo Princip - the assassin
This led to the start of World War I, as Austria-Hungary was extremely infuriated that their upcoming emperor was assassinated by a Serbian man, which led to Austria-Hungary declaring war on Serbia, and this had an onslaught of effects.
When Austria-Hungary declared war on July 28, 1914, this initiated a chain reaction of events due to the existing alliance systems, which ultimately did lead to global conflict. However, declaring war wasn't the first thing that Austria-Hungary did. They instead, with the backing of Germany, used the assassination as an excuse to confront Serbia, presenting Serbia with an ultimatum that was designed to be rejected. And after it was inevitably rejected, Austria-Hungary went ahead and declared war.
Why did everyone get involved?
Most of Europe got involved in the war because Austria-Hungary tried to get Germany to prevent Russia entering the war. However, Germany ignored Austria-Hungary's preferences, and instead went ahead with their Schlieffen Plan to invade Russia and France.
What was the Schlieffen Plan?
The Schlieffen Plan was a German pre-war plan that intended to defeat France first, before Russia could fully mobilise its forces. The main German forces were to mass on the extreme right, advancing through neutral Belgium to encircle French armies. This was supposed to avoid the stronger French defences along the German border. German forces would then envelop the French armies, crushing them against the German southern wing. The plan called for a 7 to 1 manpower ratio from the right wing to the left, ensuring a massive force for the enveloping manoeuvre. Schlieffen was proposed by Alfred Graf von Schlieffen, Chief of the German General Staff. He also developed a detailed timetable accounting for potential French responses to German actions. It was altered prior to its implementation in WWI by Helmuth von Moltke. Moltke reduced the size of the attacking army, a change often blamed for Germany's failure to achieve a quick victory.