The reasons for the First World War to start are very
complex. The main reason for war was the imperialistic foreign politic of the
main powers in Europe: the German Empire, the Russian Empire, the British
Empire, France, Italy, the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire. These
empires were combined in two conflicting alliances: the Allies (countries around British Empire, France and Russia) and
the Central Powers (countries
around the German Empire, Austrian-Hungarian Empire and Ottoman-Empire).
All that was needed was a little spark to ignite the powder-barrel.
This spark was delivered by a Bosnian-Serbian student,
Gavrilo Princip. He killed Archduke of Austria Franz Ferdinand and his wife
Sophie Chotek when they visited Sarajevo on the 28th of June 1914.
Bosnia was 6 years earlier annexed by the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. The day
for the visit was ill chosen. On the 28th of June, people in Serbia
remembered the end of the Serbian independence after the Battle of Kosovo in
1389. A first assassination attempt was carried out by Cabrinovic, a friend of
Princip. He tried to throw a grenade in the open car (a Gräf & Stift) of Franz
Ferdinand. One source mentions that the Archduke stayed calm, took up the
grenade and threw it out of the car. It fell on the street, rolled under the
car that followed Franz Ferdinand. There the grenade exploded and wounded three
officers. Another source states that the grenade ‘jumped’ out of the car of
Franz Ferdinand and came under the car that was following. There, it exploded
and wounded three officers. After the failed assassination, Cabrinovic tried to
kill himself by swallowing a bottle of potassium cyanide. However, the cyanide
was old and didn’t work. He ran away and tried to drown himself by jumping in
the river. Again he failed because the river was only 20 centimeters in depth.
He got arrested. Meanwhile the driver of Franz Ferdinand’s car drove away from
the place. Princip saw the failure of the assassination and went to a bar. The
Archduke decided that an assassination attempt wouldn’t retain him from
carrying out his visit to Sarajevo. After a short visit at the city hall,
Ferdinand wanted to visit the wounded officers in the hospital. The driver of
Ferdinand’s car didn’t know of the change in plans. The Archduke drew his
attention to this and the driver putted the car in reverse in the
Franz-Josephgasse. Just at the moment that the car was at the corner of the
Franz-Josephgasse, Princip came out of the bar. Without hesitation, he jumped
on the Gräft & Stift, took his gun (a
FN Model 1910) and shot down the Archduke and his wife. Sophie
Chotek died immediately. Franz Ferdinand died a few minutes later, his last
words were: "Sopherl! Sopherl!
Sterbe nicht! Bleibe am Leben für unsere Kinder!". (“Sophie! Sophie! Don’t die! Stay alive for our
children!”)
Princip got arrested but he couldn’t be sentenced to death since he wasn’t older than 21 years. Instead he was sent to jail for 20 years. In 1918 he died because of tuberculosis.
Princip got arrested but he couldn’t be sentenced to death since he wasn’t older than 21 years. Instead he was sent to jail for 20 years. In 1918 he died because of tuberculosis.
Gavrilo Princip
Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, outside the city hall
Austria demanded revenge. Citizens of Austria had
heard that Serbia was involved in the assassination and they destroyed, looted
and burned down Serbian stores in Austria. After some diplomatic maneuvers,
Austria-Hungary made an ultimatum to Serbia on the 23th of July.
There were 10 demands in this ultimatum but if Serbia would agree, than they
would break their own sovereignty. Serbia refused just one demand of the ten.
Austria threatened with war and a few days later, on the 28th of
July, Austria invaded Serbia. The July-ultimatum, made by Austria was just a
way to justify a possible attack on Serbia.
After the invasion of Serbia there was a cascade of
war declarations and invasions. All these invasions were a result of the
alliances between the different countries. Germany invaded Belgium, Luxembourg
and France a few days after the Austrian invasion of Serbia. Russia invaded
Germany. The Ottoman-Empire joined the war at the side of the Germans in 1914.
Italy and Bulgaria joined the war in 1915 and Romania in 1916. The war quickly
developed to a static front. The soldiers started to dig in and World War I
became a trench war. The soldiers came out of the trenches, stormed to the
trenches of the enemy and tried to conquer their trenches. This resulted in
unnecessary cruelties and deaths. The industry created more powerful and
hideous weapons. One of these weapons was chlorine gas and sulfur mustard. The
Germans used chlorine gas the first time on the western front in Ypres on 22
April 1915, at the start of the Second Battle of Ypres. This attack resulted in
5000 death soldiers. However, Germany wasn’t the first country to use chemicals
but they did intensive research on the use and composition of the gas. In
August 1914; the French used xylyl bromide (a
tear gas) against the German forces. On 15 September 1915
British forces used the first tanks. 49 British Mark I tanks joined the
fighting at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette (part
of the Battle of the Somme). Many broke down, but nearly a third succeeded in
breaking through. The weaponry developed but the front stayed the same for more
than three years. Things started to change at the end of 1917. The
Russian-Empire stopped the fighting after the October-Revolution in 1917. In
1918, after a German offensive along the whole Western front, American soldiers
entered the trenches. With the help of the Americans, the Allies were able to
push the Germans back. Germany realized they couldn’t win the war. They agreed
with a ceasefire on the 11th of November 1918. This ceasefire
resulted in the Treaty of Versailles. This would be one of the reasons for the
rise to power of the NSDAP and Adolf Hitler.
Results of gas
Mark I
Europe after the Treaty of Versaille
Like mentioned earlier Belgium was invaded by Germany
on 4 August 1914. The invasion was part of the von Schlieffenplan. This plan was made by Alfred von Schlieffen and
created for only one reason: avoiding a two front war, one front in the west,
against the France forces and one front in the east, against the Russian
forces. The German soldiers would quickly move through Luxembourg and Belgium,
move around Paris and trapping the France forces in the Elzas and forcing them
to surrender. After the French surrender, the German troops would than go by
train to the east where they would fight against the Russian forces. Von
Schlieffen calculated that they had 42 days to defeat the French. Before
Germany would enter Belgium, they would ask permission at the Belgian
government to move through Belgium. But the answer wouldn’t be important. Even
if the Belgian government would refuse, the German forces would move through
Belgium. The plan sounded good but it had a few problems. By moving German
forces through Belgium, the neutrality of Belgium would be broken. As a result
of the Treaty of London (signed in 1839)
Great-Britain would declare war to Germany. Under the treaty, the European
powers recognized and guaranteed the independence and neutrality of Belgium and
confirmed the independence of the German-speaking part of Luxembourg. Article
VII is the most important article in the treaty. This article stated that
Belgium should always remain neutral and that the countries, who signed the
treaty should guard the neutrality when there would be a foreign invasion. Informed
by the British ambassador that Britain would go to war with Germany because of
Germany’s violation of Belgian neutrality, German Chancellor Theobald von
Bethmann Hollweg exclaimed that he could not believe that Britain and Germany
would be going to war over a mere "scrap of paper." The British used
this to make a recruitment poster. Another problem was the tight time schedule,
42 days is really short to force the French to surrender. They didn’t count on
the determination of the French forces to keep on fighting. Also the size of
the German army wasn’t taken into account. It was too big for the Belgian and
French rail infrastructure. They could never reach the east in time. Also an
earlier mobilization of the Russian forces wasn’t foreseen in the plan. A last
point of critic on the plan is the need for fast moving armies. However, the
armies composed of infantry and cavalry couldn’t move fast enough to execute
all the objectives in the plan. The German upper command decided in favor for
the von Schlieffenplan.
"The Scrap of Paper - Enlist Today", a British WW1 recruitment poster of 1914
On the 27th of
July 1917 the Belgian army consisted of a field army (143.000 regular soldiers and 14.000 professional
soldiers), 65.000 soldiers in different fortifications and a
gendarmerie (19.000).
On 31 July 1914, the Belgium government announces the widespread mobilization.
The field army consisted of 6 divisions, 1 cavalry division (4500 horsemen). Each
division consisted of 3 or 4 brigades and each brigade was subdivided in 2
infantry regiments, an artillery group (12
75 mm cannons), one cavalry regiment, one artillery regiment (36, 75 and 150 mm cannons)
and engineers. There were 93.000 rifles, 6000 swords, 324 cannons and 102
machine guns available. The soldiers and officers were inexperienced and didn’t
had any training. Without enough weapons and with different uniforms, the
Belgian forces were not more than an unorganized group. The Belgian king, Abert
I decided that the Belgian army would concentrate their defenses on the river
Meuse.
King Alber I from Belgium
The Belgian army
On the first of August 1914,
the German forces invade Luxembourg. A day later the Belgian king writes a
letter to the German emperor. The emperor answered that Germany want to defend
themselves against a possible French attack. They ask the permission to move
through Belgium. Albert I asked the support of Great-Britain and France. Once
he was certain of their support, he replied that he German army couldn’t move
through Belgium. Germany answered with the declaration of war towards France.
The 1st and 2nd army under command of Alexander von Kluck
and Karl von Bülow invaded Belgium on the 4th of August 1914. The
Belgian government asked help from France, Great-Brittain and Russia. 2 days
later the German forces were held up by the fortifications around the town of
Liège. On the 12th of August, the Belgian cavalry won the Battle of
Haelen. This was the last cavalry charge in Europe. But the German forces
couldn’t be stopped by the inexperienced Belgian army. Even reinforcements from
the British Empire and France couldn’t turn the tide. The last stronghold,
Antwerp is lost and the Belgian king decided to evacuate the entire city. The
Belgian forces together with the Belgian king and queen and British forces move
out of Antwerp towards Ostend during the night of 8th October. Ghent
falls on 13th October. King Albert I decided to move all his
soldiers behind the river Yser. This river divides the province of
West-Flanders in two pieces. The place where the Belgian, French and English
forces dug in is called the Westhoek. On the 16th of October the
German forces occupied 95% of Belgium, expect for the Westhoek. Alongside a 35
kilometers wide front the Allied forces quickly started to dig trenches. The
Battle of the Yser started. While they were fighting along the Yser, the First
Battle of Ypres began.
Belgian
troops, ready to defend Liège
Belgian forces in Liége
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