reasons why ww1 was pointless

The Utterly Pointless First World War - The Daily Beast For purposes of ultimate emergencies it may be found to have no substance at all. Indeed, evidence is slim that weve grown wiser since the war intended to end all wars did nothing of the sort. World War 1 Dbq Essay - 384 Words | Bartleby . But by the time that happened, the Russian government had been moving troops and equipment to the German front for a week. 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. In 1900, the British had a 3.7:1 tonnage advantage over Germany; in 1910, the ratio was 2.3:1 and in 1914, it was 2.1:1. Find out more from Dan Snow on how so many soldiers survived the WW1 trenches and Michael Mosley on the plastic surgery techniques pioneered in WW1. Plus diaspora of Yiddish-speaking Ash. The return to seventh-century standards of thought and behavior incited by the Iranian revolution of 1979 and practiced by jihadists across the Middle East. A century on, we're still paying the price. Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook, Street fighting in Bakhmut but Russia not in control, Russian minister laughed at for Ukraine war claims. The official government position was to focus on consolidating the gains made during the exhausting Balkan War and to avoid further conflicts. In 1914, Germany adopted a policy of building submarines, instead of new dreadnoughts and destroyers, effectively abandoning the race, but it kept the new policy secret to delay other powers from following suit. All war plans called for a decisive opening and assumed victory would come after a short war. The poetry of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon; the image of troops as lions led by donkeys; and the poisonous consequences of the peace have all made the struggle seem to many a colossal waste. In fact, if you look at many British war memorials the dates for the . (Clark even casts a baleful glance at Italy, whose 1911 invasion of Libya sparked a feeding frenzy on the fringes of the Ottoman Empire.) August 2014 is the Centenary of the First World War - a dreadful war which cost the lives of millions of soldiers and civilians. The announcement upset the fragile balance of power in the Balkans and enraged Serbia and pan-Slavic nationalists throughout Europe. [33], The crisis led British Foreign Secretary Edward Grey, a Liberal, and French leaders to make a secret naval agreement by which the Royal Navy would protect the northern coast of France from German attack, and France agreed to concentrate the French Navy in the western Mediterranean and to protect British interests there. If Franz Ferdinand had been assassinated in 1904 or even in 1911, Herrmann speculates, there might have been no war. How else could you get through such a nightmare? A far higher proportion of the population of the British Isles were killed than the less than 2% who died in WW1. M-A-I-N. More than a third of German males born between 1892 and 1895 died in the course of the war. While the banks had ties to arms manufacturers, it was those companies that had links to the military, not the banks, which were pacifistic and profoundly hostile to the prospect of war. World War One was utterly pointless - why is this so controversial The Great War left more than 20 million soldiers dead and 21 million more wounded, which can be attributed to trench warfare and the number of . After their strained reception, they planned to visit their wounded countrymen before leaving the city. West Point scholar argues 'hazy, rosy' myth shaped false sense of U.S. destiny. Everything about the beginning of World War One was tragically absurd, but Italy ended up being the most unnecessarily and nakedly opportunistic of all the belligerents. Philosophers, pundits, and poets spent the four-plus years of the war flailing around for explanations. I am sure that one hundred years ago many really did think that they had a duty to King and Country and following that was right in itself and thus had a point. [72], Hamilton was more critical of the view that capitalists and business leaders drove the war. Russian Growth. The Black Hand believed that a Greater Serbia would be achieved by provoking a war with Austria-Hungary by an act of terror. Anderson Frank Maloy, and Amos Shartle Hershey. It was the industrialised weaponry of World War I that made trench warfare the norm rather than an occasional strategy. 6. Why did World War One start? - BBC Bitesize "[80] Since war was natural for some leaders, it was simply a question of timing and so it would be better to have a war when the circumstances were most propitious. The First World war effectively broke the worlds own idea of itself, turning it on it's head and casting new players into the field, new mindsets, and new horrors for the world to face. 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. [51] Moreover, the Archduke had been a decisive voice for peace in the previous years but was now removed from the discussions. European civilization shattered like a glittering chandelier fallen on a marble floor. 1904V.3. It would take a second, even more destructive war to do away with the German threat. No war in history has been so long anticipated, so carefully prepared for and so thoroughly discussed, not only in the privy councils, but in the press of all nations. Conservative estimates of the dead in the 14 . The Radical isolationists obtained an agreement for official cabinet approval of all initiatives that might lead to war. The French protectorate over Morocco was established officially in 1912. World War I Timeline: 1914, The War Begins. In 1914, however, the African scene was peaceful. The wounded archduke begged his unconscious wife to stay alive for their children, but within the hour both were dead. Imperialism is the expansion of a government's power through the conquest of new territories. The crisis worsened German relations with both France and Britain, and helped ensure the success of the new Entente Cordiale. America in World War I: Crash Course US History #30 Aftermath of World War I and the Rise of Nazism, 1918-1933 The centenary of the Great War (as it was known until the Second World War) is nearly upon us, and the first salvos of a barrage of new histories have arrived. [101], Traditional narratives of the war suggested that when the war began, both sides believed that the war would end quickly. Consensus on the origins of the war remains elusive, since historians disagree on key factors and place differing emphasis on a variety of factors. There is no evidence they ever received a direct response from the Kaiser, chancellor, or foreign secretary or that their advice was discussed in depth by the Foreign Office or the General Staff. In the aftermath of World War I, Germans struggled to understand their country's uncertain future. [12] That began the expansion of Russian and French financial ties, which eventually helped elevate the Franco-Russian entente to the diplomatic and military arenas. 8 Events that Led to World War I - HISTORY 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]. Marxism attributes war to economic interests and rivalries, in this case, imperialism. The Balkan Wars in 19121913 increased international tension between Russia and Austria-Hungary. Serbia responded to the warning with defiance, and the ultimatum was dispatched on October 17 and received the following day. It was not unusual to be out of the line for a month. 8 Reasons Why You Should Be Writing Articles That Nobody Reads Generally speaking, the European business leaders were in favour of profits and peace allowed for stability and investment opportunities across national borders, but war brought the disruption trade, the confiscation of holdings, and the risk of increased taxation. No. While it is true all military leaders planned for a swift victory, many military and civilian[citation needed] leaders recognized that the war might be long and highly destructive. A race riot is a mob-related domestic disturbance in which specific racial groups are targeted for violence. 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. Was World War One a pointless war? : r/AskHistorians - reddit The Lusitania. And we have carried on pedalling canards ever since. Many ministers in Austria, especially Berchtold, argue that the act must be avenged. In 1908, Austria-Hungary announced its annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, provinces in the Balkans. This is just another myth.During the war itself the Germans were portrayed back at home as barbarians. ", Seligmann, Matthew S. "Failing to Prepare for the Great War? -No, it changed Europe in a positive way. Even arms manufacturers, the so-called "Merchants of Death," would not necessarily benefit since they could make money selling weapons at home, but they could lose access to foreign markets. They look at such factors as political, territorial and economic competition; militarism, a complex web of alliances and alignments; imperialism, the growth of nationalism; and the power vacuum created by the decline of the Ottoman Empire. ", 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]. Vast Resources explicitly warns yet another placing needed: only 1? Most inhabitants associated the Habsburgs with the benefits of orderly government, public education, welfare, sanitation, the rule of law, and the maintenance of a sophisticated infrastructure. As they drove in an open car on a riverside quay, the terrorists clutched pistols and bombs in their various places along the river. Rarely in history have commanders had to adapt to a more radically different technological environment. Furthermore, evidence can be found from the Austro-Hungarian stock market, which responded to the assassination of Franz Ferdinand with unease but no sense of alarm and only a small decrease in share value. In fact, as a British soldier you were more likely to die during the Crimean War (1853-56) than in WW1. [citation needed]. It could be the best of times, or the worst of times. [102] British Secretary of State for War Lord Kitchener expected a long war: "three years" or longer, he told an amazed colleague. Moreover, whoever lost the war would pay an indemnity and therefore have to cede some of its interests to the victor, whether in the form of the loser's directly controlled colonies or in their financial interests in nominally independent states. Their lack of prewar planning for the partial mobilization made the Russians realize by 29 July that it would be impossible to interfere with a general mobilization. The Top 5 Causes of World War I - ThoughtCo Rhetorically speaking, there was an expectation that the war would be "over by Christmas" in 1914. The counterevidence is distressingly abundant. They were the largest military conflicts in human history. [81] William Mulligen argues that Anglo-German antagonism was also about a clash of two political cultures as well as more traditional geopolitical and military concerns. We enjoyed the Dreadnought races of the 1900s as both Countries vied to show that they were dominant on the High Seas. They are no more enemies than the Reds and the Blues into which an army corps is divided for practice maneuvers. Austria-Hungary, although not a combatant, was weakened, as a much-enlarged Kingdom of Serbia pushed for union of all South Slavs. Anglo-German tension. But that was not caused by German expansionism. Satisfactory Essays. Most histories of the Great War must deal with the Sarajevo murders in cursory fashion, but the focus on 1914 and the substantial scale of The Sleepwalkers allow for more detail. Social Darwinism played an important role across Europe, but J. Leslie has argued that it played a critical and immediate role in the strategic thinking of some important hawkish members of the Austro-Hungarian government. I: Imperialism . "[54], Other authors argue that German conservatives were ambivalent about a war for fear that losing a war would have disastrous consequences and believed that even a successful war might alienate the population if it was lengthy or difficult. German colonial rule in Africa in 1884 to 1914 was an expression of nationalism and moral superiority, which was justified by constructing an image of the natives as "Other." "War was compared to a tonic for a sick patient or a life-saving operation to cut out diseased flesh. He argued that it was not necessarily for logical, economic reasons. [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. 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. Moltke, Joffre, Conrad, and other military commanders held that seizing the initiative was extremely important. [8] Thus, the treaty with Austria-Hungary was concluded despite the Russian willingness to amend the Reinsurance Treaty and to sacrifice a provision referred to as the "very secret additions"[8] that concerned the Turkish Straits.[9]. IMPERIALISM AS A SPECIAL STAGE OF CAPITALISM", "VI. Many countries had made alliances with one other. In battle they were considerably closer to the action than generals are today. Clark argues that the Sarajevo assassination was a pivotal cause of the conflict, not merely an excuse for jostling empires to commence an inevitable war. 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. Although it was inevitable, the horrific loss of life was pointless. The Italo-Turkish War of 19111912 was fought between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Italy in North Africa. In a matter of days, Europe's great powers went to war. The secret Sykes-Picot Agreement reached by Britain and France in 1916 drew arbitrary boundary lines across the postwar Middle Eastaround Iraq, for instancethat are returning deadly dividends to this day. [100] Although Russia enjoyed a booming economy, growing population, and large armed forces, its strategic position was threatened by an expanding Ottoman military trained by German experts that was using the latest technology. The long-term causes were the militarism, alliance system, imperialism and nationalism- MAIN. The Liberal government had passed a Home Rule bill for Ireland over the objections of the Lords, and the army was threatening revolt. Germany sank many American merchant ships around the British Isles which prompted the American entry into the war. In the event of such an attack, both states would mobilize in tandem, placing Germany under the threat of a two-front war. Russia tended to support Serbia as a fellow Slavic state, considered Serbia its "client," and encouraged Serbia to focus its irredentism against Austria-Hungary because it would discourage conflict between Serbia and Bulgaria, another prospective Russian ally, in Macedonia. "[58], Jack Levy and William Mulligan argue that the death of Franz Ferdinand itself was a significant factor in helping escalate the July Crisis into a war by killing a powerful proponent for peace and thus encouraged a more belligerent decision-making process. But 100 years on we can look at these things more objectively. Prioleau Alexander: The New World Order - FITSNews The conquests would assure the Russian predominance in the Black Sea and access to the Mediterranean. Decisions for war, 1914-1917. Serbian policy was complicated by the fact that the main actors in 1914 were both the official Serb government, led by Nikola Pai, and the "Black Hand" terrorists, led by the head of Serb military intelligence, known as Apis. Germany reacted by sending the gunboat SMS Panther to the Moroccan port of Agadir on 1 July 1911. The Origins of World War I. Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp.27-29, Hamilton, Richard F., and Holger H. Herwig. The original Franco-Russian alliance was formed to protect both France and Russia from a German attack. 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. Ronald Reagan won. For the soldiers who fought it was in some ways better than previous conflicts, and in some ways worse. It is odd to talk about winning. The Sinking of the Lusitania and America's Entry into World War I. Free Essays on War Is Pointless - Brainia.com Supported by Wilhelm II's enthusiasm for an expanded German navy, Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz championed four Fleet Acts from 1898 to 1912. [19][20], Britain abandoned its policy of splendid isolation in the 1900s, after it had been isolated during the Second Boer War. The First World War (WWI) was fought from 1914 to 1918 and the Second World War (or WWII) was fought from 1939 to 1945. Levy, Jack S., and William Mulligan. Prior to the war, there were few signs that the international economy stood for war in the summer of 1914. In 1969, A. J. P. Taylor wrote that mobilization schedules were so rigid that once they were begun, they could not be canceled without massive disruption of the country and military disorganisation, and they could not proceed without physical invasion (of Belgium by Germany). Richard Hamilton observed that the argument went that since industrialists and bankers were seeking raw materials, new markets and new investments overseas, if one was strategically blocked by other powers, the "obvious" or "necessary" solution was war. Centuries of virtually unchecked Russian expansion in Asia ended with an embarrassing defeat in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05). "[28] Due to this crisis, Spain turned to the United Kingdom and France, and signed the Pact of Cartagena of 1907. Mulligan, William. This gave them both the ability and, more importantly, the need to acquire colonies: places without industry that would finance their development, primarily via enterprises of raw resource extraction, in British and French banks through taking loans, floating bonds, and selling shares. Read about our approach to external linking. Here are eight of the events that led to the war. . Trench warfare - World War I The Germans assumed that Russia had decided upon war and that its mobilisation put Germany in danger, especially since because German war plans, the so-called Schlieffen Plan, relied upon Germany to mobilise speedily enough to defeat France first by attacking largely through neutral Belgium before it turned to defeat the slower-moving Russians. Aftermath of World War I and the Rise of Nazism, 1918-1933. None planned for the food and munitions needs of the long stalemate that actually happened in 1914 to 1918. "Germany and France before the First World War: a reassessment of Wilhelmine foreign policy. The Russian ambassador conveyed Poincare's message as saying that "if Russia wages war, France also wages war. That's around 11.5%. While Russia eagerly pursued colonisation in East Asia by seizing control of Manchuria, it had little gain in wealth; the Manchurian population was never sufficiently integrated into the Russian economy, and efforts to make Manchuria a captive trade market did not end Russia's trade deficit with China. But the scale of the slaughter was on a scale it is hard to comprehend. Biography of Czar Nicholas II, Last Czar of Russia. New paper shows World's coral reefs not declining at all, so much for David Attenborough, Prince William et al, Jack Monroe Part 4 - brilliant expose by Awfully Molly, Jack Monroe Part 5 - superb journalism by Awfully Molly, The Guardian on the Vlachs of Greece, the folks my father lived with and wrote about & who I shall visit again this September, Native American arts leader/grants grifter exposed as 100% white ( here we go again) - Madison365, The great covid and cigarettes cover up - Christopher Snowdon. 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. Units, often wet, cold and exposed to the enemy, would quickly lose their morale if they spent too much time in the trenches. Ferguson argues, "So decisive was the British victory in the naval arms race that it is hard to regard it as in any meaningful sense a cause of the First World War. The Agadir Crisis resulted from the deployment of a substantial force of French troops into the interior of Morocco in April 1911. The Sinking of the Lusitania and America's Entry into World War I. Every year, the plans were updated and expanded in terms of complexity. "[53] The Conservative Party leader Ernst von Heydebrand und der Lasa suggested that "a war would strengthen patriarchal order. Equally, the French insisted that the Russians should not use the alliance to provoke Austria-Hungary or Germany in the Balkans and that France did not recognize in the Balkans a vital strategic interest for France or Russia. [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.

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