Causes of the First World War

Only last night at a house party, my father and my father's friend were talking about the causes of the First World War. These causes are still widely debated to this day, as it is vital that we remember, and strive to understand the soldiers' sacrifice and what they perished for. World War I began in Balkans in July 1914 and ended in November 1918 leaving 17 million dead and 20 million wounded.

The start of the First World War has always been a complicated debate. Many European countries had military interests around the globe, especially the European nations of Germany, Britain and France, who were all thirsty for power.

The First World War could be said to have been caused by three key features of modern society as it was then; Nationalism, Imperialism and Militarism, which brought with it an alliance system that started its grass roots with Queen Victoria. I think that Queen Victoria was one of the key causes of the First World War as her blood line reached across Europe and her descendents sat at the head of some of the greatest families of that time.

I also believe that a major immediate cause of the Great war in 1914 was the assination of Archduke Frans Ferdinand of Austria on 28 June 1914. It had a rolling dominos affect right across the world stage. The terrorist responsible was a member of the Black Hand. All the assassins were eventually captured and shot. The assination produced widespread shock around the Royal houses of Europe, eventually resulting in the Empire of Austria Hungry declaring war on the Kingdom of Serbia.

Many Historians argue that the start of the World War was mainly the attitude of the aggressive Germans as they wanted to be free of influence, independent and have strong boarders. Moreover, they wanted to be equal to the nations of Britain and Russia. In addition, they also did not believe they were being perceived internationally as the equal of the British or the Russian Empires, and so Germany tried to increase its standing by being agressive towards Denmark.

This idea of Nationalism was one of the main reasons that caused the beginning of the World War. However Imperialism was also an important factor, with empire building and resource gathering around the globe. In this sense, I think that Nations within Europe especially Germany were still discovering who they were as a Nation on a world stage and being so unsure led in some ways to global instability.

I believe it was called the Great War because it resulted in so many factors which effected a vast proportion of the countries around the World. I believe it was the first time that Trench warfare was ever used in the World and that despite incredible new medical procedures and improvements, disease also killed off a lot more of the soldiers than the actual bullets.

The War also resulted in many changes within Nations as the economy and society itself were forced to change as a result of the war effort. The British men went off to fight, so it meant that women had a more important role in British society. In this fashion they had their first taste of independence and it was the first step towards emancipation. Even the social divides were deconstructed with many rich people helping and opening the doors to their Stately homes, converting them into hospitals. Everyone was brought closer together during the Great War as a community because it effected everyone no matter what your background.

There were many devastating battles in the First World War and I find the battles very crucial and very interesting to analyse as it was one of the first wars to use gas and trench warfare. The list of the most horrific battles go in this order, I believe. The Battle of the Somme 1916 then the German Spring Offensive on the Western front 1918 then Battle of Cambri , Battle of Passchendale 1917 then Battle of Verdun 1916 then the battle of Jutland Spring of 1916 the most disastrous for the British battle of Gallipoli 1915 to 1916.

During April 25, 1915, the disastrous battle of Gallipoli took place. I find this battle fascinating as well as Churchill's role in it as part of the admiralty, and why he took the fall for the battle. More recent history shows that Churchill would always be haunted by the blame of the failure of Gallipoli and when he would start his speeches in the House of Commens, MPS would shout him down with abuse about the fallen in Gallipoli.

I also find the The Battle of the Somme very interesting as it was the largest battle in the First World war with some of the highest number of casualties . The Battle of the Somme began on 1 July in November 1916 was a combined campaign between the French forces and the British Empire. It was one of the most bitterly contested and fought over battle during the Great war.

On the 15 September 1916 tanks were used for the first time during the battle of the Somme. In total over a million soldiers were killed during the Battle of the Somme between both the British and German forces.

The battle of the Somme was a week long bombardment of artillery on both sides. On the British side there were 420,000 total battle casualties. Being a British historian it is easy to just focus on the British side of the War yet here I take a unique perspective and try objectively to understand the German viewpoint which is just as or equally important. The German casualties totalled 500,000. These statistics I find are shocking and mind numbing when one truly thinks about the lose of life in that one battle - that is what I call chaos and sadness combined.

Overall, it is important to remember the sacrifice and loss of life that happened a 100 hundred years ago. In the trenches and across the world they were all effected. To my mind, the First World War was tragic, horrific and despicable on all fronts. However, when one looks on the other side of the coin one can not deny how it improved the economy helped women's rights and medicine. Overall it was a poisend chalice.