World War I: Part Two E-Book

50MINUTES

• Herausgeber: 50Minutes.com
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Serie: History
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 40

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Keen to learn but short on time? Get to grips with the events of World War I from 1915 to 1917 in next to no time with this concise guide.

50Minutes provides a clear and engaging analysis of World War I from 1915 to 1917. The First World War was at the time the deadliest conflict in history, and involved all the world’s most powerful countries. Despite hopes on both sides of a quick victory, the conflict soon descended into a war of attrition, with heavy losses but little decisive progress. The years 1915-1917 saw a continued stalemate and an expansion of the war as new countries, including the USA, entered the conflict.

In just 50 minutes you will:
•Learn why the conflict spread to cover a greater area and what motivated new countries to join the fighting
•Evaluate the military strategy of the Allies and the Central Powers at this stage in the war
•Understand why Russia signed a separate peace with Germany and why the USA decided to enter the war in 1917

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Leseprobe

WORLD WAR I, 1915-1917: STALEMATE

KEY INFORMATION

When: 28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918.Where: Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania.Countries involved:The Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire.The Allies and associated countries: the British Empire, France, Tsarist Russia, Italy, Serbia, the USA, Japan, China, Belgium, Romania, Portugal, Luxembourg, Greece, Albania, Montenegro and most of the South American countries.Outcome:Allied victory. Collapse of the German, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman and Russian Empires. Establishment of new states.Victims: More than 9 million dead.

INTRODUCTION

In the winter of 1915, Europe was in a bloody stalemate. Since the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (1863-1914) turned into an insurmountable international crisis in July 1914, war had been raging between Austria-Hungary and its ally Germany, and the Triple Entente, a coalition between France, Britain and Russia, which had been joined by Belgium and Serbia. This conflict, which everyone had expected to be over quickly, had by this point taken an unexpected turn.

During the autumn of 1914, the plans drawn up by the two camps to secure the victory had collapsed without any decisive result being obtained. On all fronts, the armies, exhausted and drained of their resources, had stopped advancing. In the West, in France and Belgium, millions of men were sheltering in trenches, and the existing means and military tactics proved incapable of driving them out.

The scale of the war surpassed all expectations. It was bloodier than ever before and had already caused a complete massacre: 300 000 French soldiers, 400 000 Russian soldiers and 260 000 German soldiers were dead. The destruction was immense and there were countless refugees. Even the economies of the warring countries were faltering under the weight of an unprecedented mobilisation of men and material. In spite of this, no peace was in sight. On the contrary, the war was beginning again with renewed energy and violence. It spread to new battlefields and new domains, demanding ever-greater involvement from civilians and societies. The conflict was gradually turning into total war.

THE SEARCH FOR A BREAKTHROUGH

Until 1917, Berlin, Vienna, Petrograd (modern-day St Petersburg), Paris and London were driven by the same obsession. They all wanted to upset, in their own favour, the balance established in 1914 by the Battle of Tannenberg and the Battle of the Marne. This would lead to victory. It was a necessary, indispensable step. Otherwise, how was it possible to justify the terrible sacrifices they had already accepted? The countries therefore had to forge ahead. As the means deployed in 1914 had been insufficient, the two sides raised the stakes and extended the war to the spheres of economy, science and diplomacy. Gradually, all of society was involved in the war.

THE EXPANSION OF THE CONFLICT

When hostilities first broke out in August 1914, the war already had a global dimension. The United Kingdom was the world’s foremost colonial power, ruling over more than 11 million square miles and 348 million people, from India to Egypt and including Australia, Malaysia, South Africa, New Zealand and Canada. France, meanwhile, had carved itself out a vast empire over the course of the previous century, covering West Africa, Madagascar, Indochina, and Polynesia and New Caledonia in the Pacific. Germany was present in the Solomon, Marshall and Caroline Islands, New Guinea, Togo, Cameroon and Namibia, and had a large colony in East Africa, in the area that would become Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. Following the example of the European countries, these territories rose up in turn and made their mark on the course of events until the end of the war.

The longer the war went on, the further it spread. Between 1914 and 1917, numerous participants joined one of the two sides. The stalemate on the main fronts in the winter of 1915 also strongly encouraged the warring nations to ally themselves with new countries and find other battlefields. In addition, the confrontation moved into the world of officialdom, where diplomats and foreign ministers competed to find ever more ingenious ways to win the support of neutral countries.