reasons why ww1 was pointless

It was a sad, pointless war, for which were still paying a price. Men lived in the trenches for years on end, 6. By 1897, the regular army was 545,000 strong and the reserves 3.4 million. . However, a strong candidate for the most pointless battle of all time was a European skirmish that purportedly took place from Sept. 21 to Sept. 22 in 1788. In advance, I thank you, Tom Winnifrith. [73] In Britain, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George, had been informed by the Governor of the Bank of England that business and financial interests opposed British intervention in the war. Did the Germans commit industrial scale war crimes? [52] Indeed, one German military leader, Moritz von Lynker, the chief of the military cabinet, wanted war in 1909 because it was "desirable in order to escape from difficulties at home and abroad. German realignment to Austria-Hungary and Russian realignment to France, 18871892, British alignment towards France and Russia, 18981907: The Triple Entente, First Moroccan Crisis, 190506: Strengthening the Entente, Bosnian Crisis, 1908: Worsening relations of Russia and Serbia with Austria-Hungary, Italo-Turkish War: Isolation of the Ottomans, 19111912, Balkan Wars, 191213: Growth of Serbian and Russian power, Franco-Russian Alliance changes to Balkan inception scenario, 19111913, Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Serbian irredentists, 28 June 1914, Impact of colonial rivalry and aggression on Europe in 1914. The annexation caused widespread resentment in France, giving rise to the desire for revenge that was known as revanchism. It emphasised that struggle between nations and "races" was natural and that only the fittest nations deserved to survive. By contrast, around 4% of the population of England and Wales, and considerably more than that in Scotland and Ireland, are thought to have been killed in the Civil War. German isolation: a consequence of the Triple Entente? Even though Russia had faced massive industrial unrest . But that does not mean that it was not pointless. Units, often wet, cold and exposed to the enemy, would quickly lose their morale if they spent too much time in the trenches. More than a third of German males born between 1892 and 1895 died in the course of the war. Some historians, notably MacMillan and Hew Strachan, believe that a consequence of the policy of Weltpolitik and Germany's associated assertiveness was to isolate it. The Entente, in contrast to the Triple Alliance and the Franco-Russian Alliance, was not an alliance of mutual defence, and so in 1914 Britain felt free to make its own foreign policy decisions. Other factors that came into play during the diplomatic crisis leading up to the war included misperceptions of intent (such as the German belief that Britain would remain neutral), the fatalistic belief that war was inevitable, and the speed with which the crisis escalated, partly due to delays and misunderstandings in diplomatic communications. Security Studies (2021): 1-32. A Comparative Study of the July Crisis and Its Precursors." Remarkably, absentee rates due to sickness, an important barometer of a unit's morale, were hardly above those of peacetime. Germany, France, Austria, Italy, Russia, and some smaller countries set up conscription systems in which young men would serve from one to three years in the army and then spend the next twenty years or so in the reserves with annual summer training. Moreover, general narratives of the war regularly misstate that Russia was allied to Serbia. Although it was inevitable, the horrific loss of life was pointless. They, therefore, mobilized along both the Russian border with Austria-Hungary and the border with Germany. It could be the best of times, or the worst of times. [37]. ", Clark concluded, "In the minds of many statesmen, the hope for a short war and the fear of a long one seemed to have cancelled each other out, holding at bay a fuller appreciation of the risks."[103]. World War I Introduction and Overview. French sentiment was based on a desire to avenge military and territorial losses and the displacement of France as the pre-eminent continental military power. The Origins of World War I. Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp. Austria-Hungary and Germany. Some folks say that our gallant Tommies died fighting for Democracy. Governments would mobilise bankers and financiers to serve their interests, rather than the reverse. That is compounded by historical arguments changing over time, particularly as classified historical archives become available, and as perspectives and ideologies of historians have changed. A war of Balkan inception, regardless of who started such a war, would cause the alliance would respond by viewing the conflict as a casus foederis, a trigger for the alliance. Austria might have been justified in retaliating against Serbia for the latters complicity in the murders, but that every major power leapt into the fray still beggars belief. The Balkan wars, pt.1-2 -- v.10,pt.1. The toppling of the Russian monarchy and the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire created a balkanized Europe that, as recently as the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over strife-torn Ukraine, pains us still. Hamilton noted that Bismarck was famously not moved by such peer pressure and ended Germany's limited imperialist movement. The last years of peacev.11. They also put pressure on policymakers to begin their own mobilization once it was discovered that other nations had begun to mobilize. Each country devised a mobilization system in which the reserves could be called up quickly and sent to key points by rail. [14] Bismarck was wary of the French desire for revenge and achieved peace by isolating France and by balancing the ambitions of Austria-Hungary and Russia in the Balkans. The Battle of the Somme, also known as the Somme Offensive, was fought during the First World War from 1 July to 18 November 1916. They were leading in Science, Engineering, Medicine. (According to Clark, the hypertrophic forms of masculinity then prevalent favored unyielding forcefulness over suppleness.) They were not pushed; Clark dismisses the myth that European men leapt at the opportunity to defeat a hated enemy. And some knew the risks of continental, industrialized conflict; British Prime Minister Herbert Asquith feared Armageddon, while others foresaw the extinction of civilization.. But something went wrong, very wrong for the fight that was thought to be over in 43 days on the western front ended up as a shoot out for four long years. [10] The alliance was gradually built throughout the years from when Bismarck refused the sale of Russian bonds in Berlin, which drove Russia to the Paris capital market. The US Navy was in a period of growth, which made the German gains very ominous. Michael Bishop on a new history. The Liberal government had passed a Home Rule bill for Ireland over the objections of the Lords, and the army was threatening revolt. Philosophers, pundits, and poets spent the four-plus years of the war flailing around for explanations. pt.2. The Independent concluded that "such is the ridiculous and tragical situation resulting from the survival of the antiquated superstition of the 'balance of power,' that is, the theory that the prosperity of one nation was an injury to others":[6]. The assassination is significant because it was perceived by Austria-Hungary as an existential challenge and so was viewed as providing a casus belli with Serbia. The fatal shots are not fired for nearly 400 pages. Maybe you're reassessing your life because you've achieved your goals and still feel empty. Oblivious to the latter, Princess Sophie delighted in being by her husbands side amid pomp and ceremony, a privilege denied her in Vienna because of her modest origins and the emperors disapproval. "[68], Lenin concluded that these five features of imperialism had been established by the turn of the 20th century, after the great powers had spent the final decades of the prior century acquiring nearly all the remaining territory of the world that had not yet been colonized. According to Annika Mombauer, a new consensus among scholars had emerged by the 1980s, mainly as a result of Fischer's intervention: Few historians agreed wholly with his [Fischer's] thesis of a premeditated war to achieve aggressive foreign policy aims, but it was generally accepted that Germany's share of responsibility was larger than that of the other great powers. But that was not exactly the case," says Elizabeth D. Samet '91, author of "Looking for . Moltke hoped that if a European war broke out, it would be resolved swiftly, but he also conceded that it might drag on for years, wreaking immeasurable ruin. France's informal alignment with Britain and its formal alliance with Russia against Germany and Austria eventually led Russia and Britain to enter World War I as France's allies. "[25] The impact of the Triple Entente was therefore twofold by improving British relations with France and its ally, Russia, and showing the importance to Britain of good relations with Germany. Gary Sheffield is professor of war studies at the University of . Of course that ignores the fact that World War One was not caused by those evil Hun wanting to take over Europe but by events further East. The Origins of the First World War. ", Trachtenberg, Marc. Along the Somme River, in northern France, more than 1 million men were killed or wounded in 1916 for an Allied advance of seven miles. This "long First World War" was certainly bloody, and we can and should argue about the destructive effects of nationalism for the history of Europe. Otto von Bismarck disliked the idea of an overseas empire but supported France's colonization in Africa because it diverted the French government, attention, and resources away from Continental Europe and revanchism after 1870. Vladimir Lenin argued that "imperialism is the monopoly stage of capitalism," which emerges from the "free competition" stage of capitalism and is characterized by the presence of "five basic features": "(1) the concentration of production and capital has developed to such a high stage that it has created monopolies which play a decisive role in economic life; (2) the merging of bank capital with industrial capital, and the creation, on the basis of this 'finance capital,' of a financial oligarchy; (3) the export of capital as distinguished from the export of commodities acquires exceptional importance; (4) the formation of international monopolist capitalist associations which share the world among themselves and (5) the territorial division of the whole world among the biggest capitalist powers is completed. Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. They scoffed at the notion that the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was much more than a pretext. Serbia responded to the warning with defiance, and the ultimatum was dispatched on October 17 and received the following day. Vienna issued a strident ultimatum to Serbia, and Germany took the side of the aggrieved Empire; Russia, driven by Slavic solidarity and confident that her ally France would join the fray, mobilized against Germany; and Britain, outraged by the German violation of Belgian neutrality, reluctantly came to the aid of France. Germany had a Parliament and a powerful King (Kaiser) as did Britain. [102] British Secretary of State for War Lord Kitchener expected a long war: "three years" or longer, he told an amazed colleague. Maybe your original goal was taken from you-a lost career, a health . The game was not worth the candle. He did so to avoid arrest for evading his military service obligation to Habsburg Austria. Free online Top games on ToppieGames.com! This year marks the 100th anniversary of the end of the "War to End All Wars": World War One. On June 28, 1914, a diplomatic crisis began that led in five weeks to the First World War, a cataclysm that claimed millions of lives and ruined countless more. "[44], This was a crisis caused by the appointment of an Imperial German Army officer, Otto Liman von Sanders, to command the Ottoman First Army Corps guarding Constantinople and the subsequent Russian objections. However, France was smaller than Germany in terms of population and industry and therefore many French felt insecure next to a more powerful neighbor. [36] Italy easily captured the important coastal cities, but its army failed to advance far into the interior. Anglo-German tension. A race riot is a mob-related domestic disturbance in which specific racial groups are targeted for violence. Emperor Franz Josef was 84 and so the assassination of his heir, so soon before he was likely to hand over the crown, was seen as a direct challenge to the empire. Women could not vore in either country until 1918. And who started it? Imperial rivalries between France, Britain, Russia and Germany played an important part in the creation of the Triple Entente and the relative isolation of Germany. And the cause of the public clashes can be traced to changes in the balance of power in Europe that had been taking place since 1867.[5]. So was it utterly pointless, or a Great War for Civilization? Never have tactics and technology changed so radically in four years of fighting. The last years of peacev.11. It all makes the savagery seem even more arbitrary and unnecessary. August 2014 is the Centenary of the First World War - a dreadful war which cost the lives of millions of soldiers and civilians. The war plans all included complex plans for mobilization of the armed forces, either as a prelude to war or as a deterrent. The outbreak of war V.3. Many German people complained of a need to conform to the euphoria around them, which allowed later Nazi propagandists to "foster an image of national fulfillment later destroyed by wartime betrayal and subversion culminating in the alleged Dolchstoss (stab in the back) of the army by socialists. World War I Introduction and Overview. World War One was a brutal and unnecessary waste of human life and sowed the seeds for the second war, argues Chris Bambery. The assassination triggered the July Crisis, which turned a local conflict into a European and later a world war. The M-A-I-N acronym - militarism, alliances, imperialism and nationalism - is often used to analyse the war, and each of these reasons are cited to be the 4 main causes of World War One. Random House. Every European soldier knew where his uniform and rifle were stored; he also thought he knew as well where he was to fight, with whom he was to fight and when. Despite this, within three years the British had effectively invented a method of warfare still recognisable today. So many young Frenchmen died that the population of France actually fell between 1918 and 1939 due to a lack of births. But most recent histories depict it as a necessary fight against German militarism. MacMillan, Margaret (2013). British commanders had been trained to fight small colonial wars; now they were thrust into a massive industrial struggle unlike anything the British army had ever seen. Here is a list of the top 10 causes of the greatest war of the 20th century: Contents show. Read about our approach to external linking. France was thus able to guard its communications with its North African colonies, and Britain to concentrate more force in home waters to oppose the German High Seas Fleet. Why Alex Murdaugh was spared the death penalty, Why Trudeau is facing calls for a public inquiry, The shocking legacy of the Dutch 'Hunger Winter'. The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914. Rockoff estimates the total cost of World War I to the United States at approximately $32 billion, or 52 percent of gross national product at the time. ", Seligmann, Matthew S. "Failing to Prepare for the Great War? World War 1: A Short Timeline Pre-1914. Secondary fault lines exist between those who believe that Germany deliberately planned a European war, those who believe that the war was largely unplanned but was still caused principally by Germany and Austria-Hungary taking risks, and those who believe that some or all of the other powers (Russia, France, Serbia, United Kingdom) played a more significant role in causing the war than has been traditionally suggested. David Herrmann goes further by arguing that the fear that "windows of opportunity for victorious wars" were closing, "the arms race did precipitate the First World War." We are, this week, remembering one of the bloodiest battles of 1917, Passchendaele. The war, while it's causes juvenile, it's commanders incompetent, and it's methods brutal, was not pointless. Almost no-one except the politicians ruling agreed with it, which has been proven by soldiers diary's, and most famously the football. U.S. Race Riots. This is just another myth.During the war itself the Germans were portrayed back at home as barbarians. The Versailles treaty officially declared Germanys war guilt, but Clark finds fault in every European capital. How else could you get through such a nightmare? War came upon them like a thunderclap.. Biography of Czar Nicholas II, Last Czar of Russia. 1. Tanks had gone from the drawing board to the battlefield in just two years, also changing war for ever. Under blue skies in Sarajevo, terrorists with shadowy links to the Serbian government killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the rickety but splendid Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife. Russia was viewed as growing stronger every day, and it was believed that Germany had to strike while it still could before it was crushed by Russia. He wrote that the battle's "memory always served as a reminder to the Serbs that they must avenge the wrongs perpetrated upon their race".[61]. The collapse of the empire amid war and defeat in 1918 impressed itself upon the retrospective view of the Habsburg lands, overshadowing the scene with auguries of imminent and ineluctable decline. In addition to threatening Russia's foreign trade, half of which flowed through the Turkish Straits, the mission raised the possibility of a German-led Ottoman assault on Russia's Black Sea ports, and it imperiled Russian plans for expansion in eastern Anatolia. [4] The crisis escalated as the conflict between Austria-Hungary and Serbia was joined by their allies Russia, Germany, France, and ultimately Belgium and the United Kingdom. Clark states: "Serbian authorities were partly unwilling and partly unable to suppress the irredentist activity that had given rise to the assassinations in the first place".[63]. The Russians were, therefore, faced with only two options: canceling the mobilization during a crisis or moving to full mobilization, the latter of which they did on 30 July. Imperial opportunism, in the form of the Italian attack on Ottoman Libyan provinces, also encouraged the Balkan wars of 191213, which changed the balance of power in the Balkans to the detriment of Austria-Hungary. The Balkan Wars strained the German alliance with Austria-Hungary. [107], However, Schroeder argues that all of that was not the main cause of the war in 1914.

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