First World War

The First World War was a world war which was held mainly in Europe of 1914 with 1918. It is named “world war”, because it is the first armed conflict which implied as much country throughout the world. However, before at the beginning of the Second world war, one called it “the Great War”, “the War of the Wars” or the “DER of Ders”.

Causes

There exist many causes with the release of the First World War and retrospectively, it can appear inevitable. The first years of the 20th century underwent several crises between European States (episode of the Canonnière of Agadir, many Franco-German border incidents, crises in Balkans including two Balkan wars) which did not have consequences on the rest of the world. However, the economic and colonial competitions between European powers had taken such an importance that a simple spark could lead to the general flashover. The “starter” was, the June 28th 1914, the assassination of the archduke of Austria François Ferdinand and his wife by the Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip. " Amorce" who will engage what the historian Jean-Baptiste Duroselle calls a " Mécanisme" who will almost involve in spite of them the protagonists towards the great catastrophe.

Economic and colonial competitions

At the end of the 19th century, the Europe dominates the world, militarily, technologically, financially, economically, and especially politically. The the United Kingdom especially, but also the France have immense empires which ensure quasi an exclusiveness in trade and exploitation of the richnesses on a colonial mode. The British Empire, where “the sun never lies down”, is vastest. The British control major strategic maritime points: Gibraltar, Singapore, the Cape, the Suez Canal. They also occupy the , East Africa Egypt to the South Africa, and colonized the Nigeria. The principal colony is the Empire of the Indies, the Raj. This large country is in the center of the British strategy, particularly in the Middle East. The United Kingdom also controls Dominion S, countries independent for the interior policy, but not for the foreign policy. These dominions, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa are colonies of white settlement and account for with them five of the important resources.

The Africa is almost entirely colonized (except for the Liberia and of the Ethiopia) and is in the middle of the European tensions. Whereas France controls most of the West Africa, the British hold all is continent. A conflict between these two metropolises could have burst with the incident of Fachoda. But the rise to power of the Germany, and supports it the latter with the republic of Orange at the time of the Guerre of Boers brought closer them in the Harmony. Germany, which had only a colonial empire limited (Cameroun, Namibia, Tanzania, Togo and Marshall Islands of today) and carrying out in a late way its unit, had arrived too late in the colonial competition and the division of the world between Européens. Especially, it does not have colonies of settlement. It expresses its claims on the Morocco during two crises in 1905 and 1911, which opposed it to France. Fritz Fischer, in the Goals of war of imperial Germany , sees in this situation one of the leading causes to the release of the conflict.

The European influence in Asia is less spectacular, but also causes problems. The littoral China falls under the Western economic domination. The British in particular are pressed on their counter of HongKong and the others, on concessions in the large ports. The Franco-Allemande competition is in particular poked by the presence of these two States in the Chantoung. The the United States, the Japan and the Russia are concurrent powers of the European States in this area. The Ottoman Empire is placed under the financial and economic supervision German. Supervision disputed by the British, who integrated the Perse in their zone of influence. The Russians wish an outlet on the hot seas (the Mediterranean or Indian Ocean) with their Empire, and are interested moreover in Ethiopia.

Lastly, the German industrial great power worries the European States because the German products flood the French markets and British. Conversely, German also worries about the economic growth (thanks to the French capital) and demographic of the Russian power, which lead them to think that they would be unable to resist to them in a few years. Perhaps of such kind they had interest to cause a conflict before it is too late.

National questions

The day before the conflict, Europe is in prey with the problems of nationalities and the claims of territories. These difficulties relate to especially the center of the continent.

German nationalism

Let us quote these written sentences in August 1914 by Mathieu Dreyfus in the epilog of its book " The business such as I have it vécue" (Grasset): " Cries of " Deutschland über ales " were sincere cries major and convinced of the German of all the classes; he believed himself of a higher race, race intended to lead the other races, weakened by a weak and refined civilization. The Germain was convinced of the superiority of his methods, of sound génie". These problems related to the conscience that Germany would have and to live a particular destiny go back to far. One can in particular date it from the vast medieval movement of colonization towards the east (the Drang nach osten ) which will mix during the XIXème century with the thesis of the Aryen myth, meanwhile elaborate in France (Augustin Thierry) and in England (discovery of India and Sanskrit). The German becomes then a race or a nation (it should well be noted that at the beginning of the XXème century these words are synonymous) particular, even higher, on which a destiny faustien falls (to take again the term of Oswald Spengler): that of the defense of the pure Western element against the Asian invasions (Slavic, Jewish, Chinese), and against the degenerated Westerners (Latin).

Franco-German competition

The Alsace-Lorraine, lost following the French demolished of 1871 is integrated into the German Empire. The French wish to take it again and live in a spirit revanchist and germanophobe. In the schools, one colors the Alsace and the Lorraine in black on the chart of France - territories which it had had to yield to Germany by the Traité of Frankfurt. This generation was thus high with the syndrome of the member amputee. In 1914, it has only 1 there; % of deserters. They were 30 % in 1871.

Balkans

The countries of the Balkans, withdrawn Ottoman Empire, are the object of competitions between the European great powers. The Ottoman Empire which émiette little by little (Balkan wars), does not have any more in Europe, the day before the war, which Istanbul. All the young countries resulting from its decomposition (Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania) clash. Serbia wants to obtain a maritime outlet and supports the claims of Slavic of Balkans (the Croatian and the Slovenien want to create a state independent of Austria-Hungary). It is allied with the Russian Empire.

Moreover, the two secular enemies of the Ottoman Empire continue their traditional policy. The Austria-Hungary wishes to continue its expansion in the valley of the the Danube, until the Black Sea, or, at least, to maintain the statute quo inherited the treaty of San Stefano. The Russian Empire, is historically and culturally related to him on the Slaves of the Balkans, in particular to Serb, of orthodoxe confession, and their already often his support in the past lent. It thus has natural allies in its policy of conquest of an access to a hot sea (Mediterranean). This policy passes by the control of the Détroits. Obviously, these two policies between a catholic power and an orthodoxe power cause confrontations besides (the two empires have a bicephalous eagle like emblem).

Italian ambitions

The Italy, unified since 1860, gave to France, following the victory of France over Austria, Savoy and the county of Nice. Italy thus has many territorial ambitions.

Italy, in spite of a pacifist fort running, wants to take to the Austrian neighbor, with whom it has an old dispute, territories that it regards as Italian ( Italia irredenta ) because mainly italophones. She wishes to extend in Dalmatie (where one speaks mainly Italian) and to control the Adriatic Sea following the example the EC what did the Sérénissime République of Venice. More especially as its attempts at conquest of a African colonial empire sank after the rout of Adoua in Abyssinie vis-a-vis the troops of Ménélik in 1896. Only part of Striped in Abyssinie was attached to the already Italian Erythrée, as well as the Somalia. The Libya became Italian colony in 1911 following the italo-Turkish Guerre.

Multinational empires

The empires of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany gather various people which assert more autonomy or a political recognition. For example, the Polish are private of Sovereign state and are divided between the empires of Germany, Russia and Austria-Hungary. In the Austro-Hungarian empire not less than 40 people cohabit; what will contribute to its bursting in 1918.

In the Empire of Austria-Hungary, the aspirations of people born of the upheavals due to the French revolution put directly in danger the supremacy of German on the pledged people following centuries of history (Battle of White Mountain in 1620; Hungarian revolution of 1848 subdued by the Austrians and thanks to the recourse of the Russian troops; populate Polish quartered following the divisions of their country).

System of alliances and arms race

Vast systems of alliances were created at the end of and the beginning of the 20th century, and this in a rather improbable way, compared to the situation inherited the first treaty of Versailles of 1871. Austria indeed will be combined with a State which four years earlier (in 1866) made him the war, while the most democratic mode of Europe (France) will be combined with more the reactionary (Russia), In 1882, the duplice austro-allemande becomes the Triple Alliance with the entry of Italy, cooled by its failure in Tunisia vis-a-vis in France. The treaty is unceasingly renewed even if the attitude of the Italy becomes increasingly ambiguous, in particular with the signature of a secret agreement of neutrality with the France in 1902. The attitude of the Italian kingdom evolves/moves because of increasingly large animosity towards Austria-Hungary, because of the thorny question of the grounds irrédentes (area of Austria cash a strong Italian minority, to see Irrédentisme). The French diplomatic step with respect to the transalpine kingdom with the advantage of avoiding in France having to fight on two faces.

The III {{E}} République (1870 - 1940) has work also to leave France its insulation in which Bismarck, for safety reasons, had locked up it. Thus, in 1892 is signed the Franco-Russian Alliance: France profits from an ally of weight (in particular on the demographic and strategic level with the possibility of a second face in the east of Germany, or of a face in India in the event of war with England) while the empire tsarist can modernize the economy and the army of the country thanks to the French capital (Russian loans). After the incident of Fachoda in 1898 with the Sudan between French and English who showed an agreement (French give up Sudan and English in against part commits itself helping France in the event of conflict) Theophilus Delcassé, then Foreign Minister, made a success of the bringing together free - English with the signature of the Harmony in 1904. This one is not a treaty of alliance binding the two countries but their destiny is increasingly overlapping. Lastly, in 1907, at the instigation of the France, the the United Kingdom and the Russia regulate their dispute in Asia by delimiting their zones of respective influences in Perse, Afghanistan and China. Thus was born the Triple Entente.

In the two camps, the Arms race accelerates and one attends a higher bid in the preparation of the war. The expenditure devoted to the armies flies away. Thus, France devotes in 1885, 867 million Franc-or to its armies whereas the civil expenditure is assembled to 1,239 billion. The fortifications of border (at least at the end of the 19th century), the artillery (the famous Canon of 75 Model 1897 of the French Army), the fleets of war (the British Dreadnought ) absorb a good part of the military appropriations. The material is modernized and the duration of the military service lengthened in several countries. Thus, in France, the duration of the military service passes to 3 years in 1913 to mitigate (to a certain extent) the numerical inferiority of France vis-a-vis Germany. So in 1870, the two countries had an quasi-identical population, in 1914 Germany saw its population growing of three quarters to be established to 67 million in 1914 while France hardly filled the loss of the Alsace-Lorraine with 39 million inhabitants.

The modernistic crisis

The sequence of the events which led to the First World War also explains by mentalities. A crisis shook the catholic mediums in France in the years 1890-1900. It was called the modernistic Crise. It appeared by various episodes like the Affaire Dreyfus (1898), the Separation of the Church and the State (1905).

The emergence of nationalist movements such as the French Action, is probably not foreign, on the French side, with the release of the world war.

In a total way, the consequences of the withdrawal of the church and end, for a good portion of the European populations, practices traditional, have, for number of authors (in particular Hannah Arendt), provided a fertile compost on which will be born the great movements from masses which precede totalitarianisms of the interval war.

Chronology of release

The detonator of the diplomatic process leading to the war was the double assassination of the archduke François-Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and his morganatic wife Sophie Chotek, duchess of Hohenberg, with Sarajevo the June 28th 1914 by the Serb student Gabriel Princip (see Assassinat of Sarajevo).

The events then proceeded very quickly. First of all, the July 5th the Germany ensures the Austria-Hungary of a conditional support (if Russia intervenes). The July 23rd, Austria-Hungary addresses an ultimatum to Serbia in which it requires that the Austrian authorities can inquire in Serbia, which Serbia will not accept. The following day, at the conclusion of the the Council of Ministers held under the presidency of the Tsar with Krasnoïe-Sélo, Russia orders the general mobilization for the military regions of Odessa, Kiev, Kazan, Moscow, like for the fleets of the Baltic and the Black Sea. She asks moreover the other areas to hasten the preparations of general mobilization.

Then, Serbia issues the general mobilization the 25 and in the evening states to accept all the other terms of the ultimatum. At the same time, Austria breaks its diplomatic relations with Serbia and Russia declares its " non-indifférence" in the conflict. The following day, Austria orders a partial mobilization (against Serbia) for the 28 where she declares the war with the Serbia.

The July 29th, Russia unilaterally declares (out the dialog envisaged by the Franco-Russian military agreements) the partial mobilization (against Austria-Hungary). The chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg leaves himself then until the 31 for an appropriate response. The 30, Russia orders the general mobilization secretly (against Germany).

Then the following day, Germany proclaims " the state of danger of guerre". It is also the general mobilization in Austria for the August 4th. Indeed the Kaiser Guillaume II request with his cousin the Tsar Nicolas II to suspend the Russian general mobilization. In front of its refusal, Germany addresses an ultimatum requiring the stop of its mobilization and to undertake not to support Serbia, and another in France requiring of him not to support Russia if the latter had suddenly taken the defense of Serbia. In France, Jean Jaurès, with the day before to denounce the operations which it perceives like warmongers of the government, is assassinated with Paris by Raoul Villain.

, Following the Russian answer, Germany mobilizes and declares the war in Russia. France mobilizes for the August 2nd. The following day, Germany invades the Luxembourg which until there was neutral and addresses a ultimatum to the Belgium (neutral) to claim the unrestricted passage of its troops. The Italy declares that it will remain neutral. At the same time, Germany and the Ottoman Empire sign an alliance against Russia.

The August 3rd, the Belgium rejects the German ultimatum. This is why Germany declares the war in France which had answered that “France would act in accordance with its interests” then declares the war in Belgium. The England also declares that it guarantees the neutrality of Belgium. The following day, the German armies penetrate in Belgium. The United Kingdom addresses an ultimatum to Germany requiring of him to withdraw its troops of Belgium. The Government of London will not receive any answer, and will thus declare the war in Germany. The Canada, the Australia, the India, the New Zealand and the South Africa (country of the the Commonwealth ) enter automatically in war against Germany.

The August 6th, Austria-Hungary declares the war in Russia and Serbia at the side of Germany. The 11, France declares the war in Austria-Hungary followed by England (August 13rd). And to finish, the August 23rd, the Japan declares the war in Germany.

The War of the Right

Whereas the armies began their confrontation, the belligerents launched out in a media fight by means of selectively documented publications, exhibant diplomatic exchanges primarily. The White paper of the Germans, buckled in “ space the one night ” contains 36 thus of them. The French Yellow Book, completed after three months of work, gathers 164 of them. They measure the effort authorized by the respective governments to convince the public opinions and the people of the founded good their actions. Works of propaganda, they present all of “installations” which betray the required objectives. In White paper, cuts eliminate all thus that could profit with the Russian position. The Yellow Book represents vast “a collection of falsifications ” aiming dissimulating the unconditional support granted to Russia, guaranteeing a second face to him, and at proving that the latter was forced with the general mobilization by that of Austria-Hungary. It provided the base on which the French government rested to formulate article 231 of the Traité of Versailles which affirms the exclusive responsibility for Germany and its allies. This “good right” posed by the winners was not accepted by the Germans who protested as follows: “ the question of the responsibilities could not be distinct unilaterally by one of the two parts in question, but only by one commission recognized like impartial on the two sides ”. It was answered to them that the document was to be signed such as it is, if not the engagements would be taken again. This clause, not negotiable than the others but justifying subsequent repairs, was felt like a deep humiliation.

Responsibilities

The chronology of the events lets see how much the question responsibilities remains whole. These last are in fact dispersed with the wire of the decisions. Nothing in this succession was inescapable. To determine responsibilities, it is necessarily to grant a weight, a value, with each episode, each decision:

the degree of implication of the services of the Serb state, probably without the knowledge of its leaders, in the preparation and the realization of the attacks;
negligence towards the warning pronounced by the Serb ambassador as for a threat of attack;
the error of judgment of Kaiser when it gives its conditional support to Austria-Hungary, persuaded that Russia will not intervene;
the desired hardness of the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum;
the pressure stage which Germany really put on Austria-Hungary to negotiate the condition rejected by Serbia without making lose vis-a-vis the opposing parties;
the degree of operation, vis-a-vis the panslaves, of Serb the Prime Minister, if favorable to a good agreement with its neighbor;
the fact for the tsar of not having been able or of not having known to be opposed to the warmongers of his government;
like to have accepted the idea of a secret mobilization, which was, quasi immediately, known Germans;
the unconditional support granted discreetly to Russia by the French government, which having already refused to support Russia at the time of the preceding Balkan wars, feared that the Triple Entente does not become a hollow alliance;
its acceptance of the non-observance of the military treaty which bound the two countries.

What undoubtedly supported the ineluctability of the events is the quarrelsome atmosphere openly posted by the public opinions. The exacerbated nationalism which reigned in all the European countries thus played a great part. In France, the feelings revanchists in connection with Alsace-Lorraine excited hatred with regard to the “German” (the drawings of Hansi are an illustration). On the other side of the Rhine, planning to have to fight on two faces, the Plan Schlieffen recommended that Germany struck the first, which forced it with the extreme vigilance towards the mobilization of the armies.

Thus, all the countries were ready with the war. One can think that a spark was enough to put fire at Europe. It is the thesis which some historians propose to explain massive acceptance by the European companies of the conflict, even a resolution to be fought. It is what one calls the patriotic Consentement.

In Germany, the consensus of long time in place according to which this country was free from any responsibility in the release for the war was beaten in breach by work of a historian, Fritz Fischer, published in part of 1961 in Goals of war of imperial Germany . This thesis iconoclast, at the origin of a vast polemic in addition to the Rhine, is that the imperial aiming (European hegemony), associated with a strategy including the armed conflict, would have supported the declaration of war of Austria-Hungary in Serbia, with the satisfaction of the political elites and soldiers, as well as movements pangermanists. In the cities, those which manufacture weapons in the factories (as the factories Schneider in Creusot) are called the " munitionnettes". The women will have manufactured in four years 300 million Obus and more than six billion Cartouche S. From now on, the women distribute also the mail, deal with administrative tasks, lead transport…

In the campaigns, they pull up their socks to be harnessed with the agricultural work. Many young women engage as nurses in the hospitals which accommodate each day of the thousands of casualties. They assist the doctors who operate on the battle field. Some are godmothers of war: they write letters of encouragement, send parcels to the soldiers, whom they sometimes meet at the time of their permissions. With the First World War, the women took the first steps on the way of the emancipation. But for much, the post-war period constituted a return to the normal and the traditional values. In 1921, the women with work in France were not more numerous than before 1914. Some however reached a new level of responsibility. Approximately 700.000 widows of war become household heads besides. In certain countries, like Germany and the the United States, the Right to vote is granted to the women dice 1919. France, it, in 1945 to allow the women to become finally citizens.

The war loans in France, of the gold collection campaigns are carried out near the civilians, to finance the war. But the independent source of financing is located at the United States, either in cash, or by the installment purchase of material.

Colonies

The colony S played a central role during the First World War, providing to the Alliés raw material and labor. Hundreds of thousands of " riflemen sénégalais" (a body of soldier made up in 1857 by Napoleon III) are mobilized in reinforcement of the French troops, often in first line. In October 1915, a decree orders the mobilization of African of more than 18 years. There a Senegalese deputy, Blaise Diagne, think of holding an opportunity for the Africans of émanciper. These men come from Black Africa (Senegal, Burkina Faso, Bénin, Mali, Niger), from North Africa (Algérie, Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania) and from Madagascar, of China, of Indo-China, the Antilles and Guyana.

They are between 300.000 and 500.000 to fight. Tens of thousands will leave the life there. Even if the image of the " indigène" leave room to that of the soldier, overall the prejudices remain. Thereafter, before and after the Decolonization, the debt of blood contracted by France during the two world wars will weigh heavy in the reproaches of ingratitude formulated in its connection.

The Khedive of Egypt Abbas II Hilmi invites the Egyptians to fight against the Great Britain, which decides to place Egypt under its Protectorat and replaced Abbas by her uncle Hussein Kamal.

Industry

The Great War is distinguished from the preceding conflicts in what it is also the first " war industrielle". Between 1915 and 1917, all the countries implied in the conflict are constrained to restructure their industry: it appears immediately that stocks are completely insufficient to support the effort of war. If it had not taken care to increase its production, the France, for example, would have been found with court of ammunition for heavy artillery, two months hardly after the opening of the hostilities. In Italy, where Marinetti and the other futuristic ones are made the enthusiastic cantors of the era of the machine, the production of machine-guns passes, between 1915 and 1918, from 613 to 19.904 units; cars, from 9200 to 20.000 units. From 10.400, the manufacture of ammunition passes to 88.400 units by day. The expenditure of war strongly weighs on the budget of the States which try to face their heavy deficit by applying various methods: the public loan (in Germany), increase in the direct taxes (Great Britain), the issue of public loans and increase in the money circulation (Italy and France). The labor employed in the sectors of industry related to the effort of war increases it too. It is necessary to provide the vacant stations left by the men called for the face. For that, one calls upon the women and with the hand of opens colonial or foreign: in France, at the end of the war, on 1.700.000 people assigned to the industry of war, one counts 497.000 soldiers, 430.000 women, 425.000 civil, 133.000 young people, 61.000 colonial and 40.000 prisoners.

After-effects of war

The catastrophic assessment of upset Europe and a world

The human losses rise to 9 million dead and 6 million invalids. France was the country more touched, proportionally: 1,4 million killed and missings, is 10 % of the male active population. The median number of killed per day among French soldiers is of 900 (1500 for the German army). This bleeding is accompanied by a deficit of the births. The French demographic stagnation is prolonged, with a Vieillissement of the population which ceases growing only with the recourse to immigration. The latter takes part in the rebuilding of a country whose north is in ruins houses, bridges, roads, factories…

It is to be also announced the new phenomenon of the broken Gueules, name given to disabled ex-serviceman who survived thanks to progress of medicine while keeping serious physical after-effects, which wounds were generally mortals in the past. The integration of these war victims of number at the company had to be done by means of new laws and organizations.

The material destruction is important.

The loss of prestige of Europeans in the colonies and the world is important. In Africa where the Franco-British ones seized the German colonies, in the Far East the Japan board made in the same way in the the Northern Marianna Islands and in New Guinea. The colonies provided vivres, raw materials, “riflemen Senegal board” and “zouaves Morocco ains”, often engaged in the combat of first line, as testify some the military cemeteries to Ourcq. The shortly after the war, the colonized people do not believe any more so that one inculcates to them - natural superiority of the metropolis - and claim an improvement of their fate. To this first decline of the European influence in the colonies the expansion of the United States is added, the largest recipients of the war, and Japan, whose capital is placed from now on to London and Paris.

The war causes also social upheavals: social cleavages are accentuated with the enrichment of the “arms dealers” and the impoverishment of the small shareholders, reprocessed and the employees touched by inflation. The women acquired a new place in the company, while being made essential during all the war, in the fields, the factories, the offices, the schools (to compensate for the loss of very many teachers). The Féminisme progresses, the fashion evolves/moves (the “garçonne” in short hair), the right to vote is granted to the the United Kingdom, in Germany, with the the United States, in Russia, but not in France.

The Démocratie gains apparently a victory: four authoritative empires collapsed, which deeply transforms the chart of Europe, redrawn by the peace treaties of 1919:

the Russian Empire became the communist Russia,
the Ottoman Empire is tiny room to current the Turkey,
the Empire Austro-Hungarian is dismantled - with the birth of a Austria and a Hungary, a Czechoslovakia, and a independent Yugoslavia,
finally the Empire German, that the Traité of Versailles decreases on the territorial level, cut into two by the “Couloir of Dantzig”, demilitarized, seeing its confiscated colonies, supervised, condemned to heavy repairs is returned only person in charge of the conflict. These repairs, whose amount is fixed only in 1921, rise to 132 billion mark-but, to pour in thirty annual installments (it will on the whole pour only 22,8 billion mark-but until 1932).

All these States adopt parliamentary modes. The democracy settles finally in good number of Central European country and Eastern. But, in some of these countries, the democracy does not resist the fast installation of authoritarian regimes in all the Central and Eastern Europe.

Important battles

Battle of the Marne
Battle of the Sum
Battle of Tannenberg
Face of Yser
Battle of Verdun
Battle of the Way of the Ladies
Battle of the peak of Vimy
Second battle of the Marne
Battle of the Old Armand Haut-Rhin
Battle of Dardanelles
List of the battles of the Great War

Characters - keys

See also: List of the historical characters of the First World War

Albert I {{er}} of Belgium
Benoit XV
Georges Clémenceau
John French
Charles Lanrezac
Joseph Galliéni
Ferdinand Foch
François-Joseph I {{er}}
François-Ferdinand of Austria
Guillaume II of Germany
Paul von Hindenburg
Joseph Joffre
Kemal Atatürk
Lénine
Karl Liebknecht
Erich Ludendorff
Robert Bubble
Philippe Pétain
Woodrow Wilson
John Pershing
David Lloyd George

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