Why Did Germany Enter The First World War

The World War I, known to many as the Great War or the War to End All Wars, was the world’s first global conflict leading to many casualties and with no point. WWI was one of the most deadliest wars in history with over 16 million people dead and the estimated amount of both military and civilian deaths total to about 37 million people. Unlike most wars, the first World War did not end with a country winning territory and ended up with political, economic, and social downfalls.
The Balkan states of Bosnia and Herzegovina, had annexed from Turkey. When this happened the states had been taken into the Austria-Hungarian Empire. This upset some citizens and caused some to start to try to declare independence with help from Russia. In Sarajevo,
there lived a few Serbs and Bosnians who hated living in Austria-Hungary. So the Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand goes to visit. With this published in the newspaper in advance, this gave the assassinators the opportunity to assassinate Franz Ferdinand. The assassins were successful in their attempt and successfully assassinated him on June 28, 1914. The assassination angered Austria-Hungary and they believed the Serbian government had planned this. Austria needed an excuse to start a war with Serbia. This reason shows that this major conflict started off as a small conflict between two countries. They sent a list of demands to Serbia, and wanted Serbia to accept all. Serbia accepted all of the demands except for the last demand. This demand was to allow Austria-Hungarian police to operate freely within Serbia, which would essentially give Austria-Hungary major control over the law and thus the population. Austria-Hungary then gets help from Germany to start a war. Germany believes Russia will not mobilize and offers support if it was necessary to Austria-Hungary. After Serbia refuses the demands from Austria-Hungary, this gave Austria-Hungary the chance to declare war on Serbia. On the same day as the assassination, WWI begins. There are Primarily two sides of the war, the central powers and the Allies. The Allies included: Britain, France, Russia, Italy and the United States. The Allies fought against the Central powers which included: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria.
Germany declares war on Russia and France in the year 1914. This further shows that this war had nothing to do with ties between Russia and France because they were allies. France and Britain are in good relations and in close proximity, France tries to get Britain to join the war, in which Britain refuses. Under Helmuth Von Moltke’s command, Germany’s plan was to send all their troops through France to defeat them. Their plan was to go through France before Russia, so Russia can finish getting ready for war.
If their plan worked they planned to send German troops through Russia. The problem that the Germans faced through this was that France had forts and defences along the German border. Germany did not want to waste time fighting, so they decided to go around and enter through Belgium. Germany caused a neutral country, Belgium to join a global conflict when it was not needed and further shows Germany’s actions involving the nations in the region to enter the beginningbeginning of World War I. Although Belgium is a neutral country, Germany wanted to march approximately 750,000 troops through it to get around the defenses set by France. Belgium did not want to allow this to happen so they fought back against the German troops. This slowed down the troops and during this time the British came in. Angry about the invasion of neutral countries, Sir Edward Grey, a British foreign secretary, sent a final warning to Germany demanding their withdrawal from the neutral Belgium. However, Germany did not withdraw, and Britain declared war on Germany. This caused another country to join this conflict ending with many civilian casualties. On August 7, 1914, Britain formally asks Japan for
assistance in destroying the Imperial German Navy in and surrounding the Chinese waters. Because of an alliance she made with Britain in 1902, they comply. On August 23, 1914, Japan sent a threat to Germany in which Germany did not respond. Thus, on the same day, Japan formally declared war on Germany. On October 29, 1914, Turkey formally joined the war, on the Central Power, to assist the German naval bombardment. Russia declares war on Turkey on November 2, 1914, because of the help turkey was giving to the German attack on Russia. Not only does Russia declare war on Turkey, Russia’s allies, France and Britain, declare war. The United States joined later in the war, on April 6, 1917 after the sinking of the Lusitania ship on May 15, 1950. The Germans did not rule the top of the sea and ruled the bottom. The Lusitania was a British ocean liner that was torpedoed without warning by the German submarine off the coast of Ireland. Within half an hour, the vessel sank in the Celtic Sea. The Lusitania held more that 1,900 passengers and crew members. More than 1,100 of the passengers perished. Of the 1,100 passengers 120 of them were American. After two years, The United States would formally enter the First World War, in April of 1917. Because of the sinking of the Lusitania, it turned the public opinion against Germany, within both the United States and abroad. On May 23, 1915, Italy formally joins the war by declaring war on Austria-Hungary, on the side of the Allies. During the Second Battle of Ypres, on May 23, 1915, poison gas was first used during this battle. The poison gas, used by the Germans, claimed many casualties of the British. In April of 1916, Romania enters the war on the side of the Allies, but was later occupied by Germans and Austrians. On April 6, 1917 the United States declare war on germany in response to the sinking of the Lusitania. The United States had the option to join either side of the war, but the US joined the allies side for 6 major reasons. The first reason US joined the Allies side is because of the British culture. The US broke off from the British but they still had similar beliefs and the US fund it easier to identify with the British than other nations. The second reason is because of the language barrier. Majority of Americans spoke English and because Britain spoke the same language the US, it made it easier to communicate. The third factor was economics. The US was trading partners with the British and if they sided against them this would cause major problems in the future . The another factor was the British Propaganda. The british would exaggerate the story of the war enticingenticing Americans to believe their nation would be doing wrong if they were to side with the Central Powers. The fifth reason was because of pro-british political attitudes in the US. The ultimate reason for involving America was the Germany'sGermany's mistake of sinking the Lusitania ship on May 15, 1950 and creating a potential cause for concern of American trade ships from suffering the same fate.. This war has marked the end of the era of “innocence” in the way that people of this generation can no longer look at the world the same way. The world has experienced major loss of lives and now understand little things can trigger a war. Because this war had no real meaning to fight, this showed people that anything can cause a war. This war started off as a small conflict between two conflicting countries, so this showed that the world that something small can become something tragic. This war caused major destruction and the number of casualties 2% of the population, making this the world’s most deadliest war. Of those casualties, there were over 16.5 million deaths and over 20.1million left wounded. This mass loss showed people the true face of war. People began to see different viewpoints of things after this war and began viewing war itself as horrible. The beliefs of people were destroyed. The war formally ended on November 11, 1918, at 11:00 PM, when Germany surrendered and all nations had agreed to stop fighting while the terms of peace were negotiated.
The treaty that ended the war between the Allied forces and the Central Power was the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919. The Allied forces negotiated, with little participation by Germany, the treaty. The treaty reassigned the German boundaries and assigned liability for reparations. More specifically Britain and France wanted to punish Germany, this was the main idea of this treaty. Under the terms of this treaty, Germany had to take responsibility of the war. The conditions of the Treaty of Versailles caused a lot of disagreements in Europe, mainly on the side of the Central Powers, who had to pay for a lot of the finances. The aftermath of this war was very great. It caused the downfall of four monarchies, including: Germany, Turkey, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. This war also made more people open minded to other ideologies. The war changed the economic balance of the world and left the European countries in a debt to the United States. The United States then became the leading industrial power in the world. Inflation then shot up in majority of the countries and the German economy was affected greatly because they had to pay for reparations. Not only was the economy affected, World War I changed the face of modern technology forever, in the sense that there was new technology involved, including:
tanks, machine guns, tactical air support, and poison gas. Because of the harsh methods used during war, including the poison gas, many countries were left bitter towards one another. Social life was changed greatly, in the sense women were left to run businesses. Women had to run businesses while men were at war. During this time, labor laws started to be enforced due to mass production and everyone wanted to have better living standards. WWI also caused research to increase rapidly, due to the fact transportation and communication was in high demand.