The thing was, during the year 1914, there were numerous revolutions taking place in various countries. As a result, countries grew up thanks to industrial revolutions and extensive infrastructure development. At the time, two nations, Britain and Germany, were playing a major role in the revolution, having established colonies in several countries. As a result, Britain and Germany were considered powerful countries. They were essentially competing with one another to become the most powerful nation. As a result, to win this battle, these nations begin developing new and advanced weapons and vehicles.
World War I lasted four years, three months, and two weeks, from July 28, 1914, to November 11, 1918. It was a massive conflict known as the Great War. So, what was the point of the Great War? It was predicted that no major wars will occur in the future. However, when World War 2 broke out, the Great War was renamed World War 1. Around 1 crore 70 lakh people have died. In which 1 crore 10 lakhs were the soldiers and 60 lakhs were the civilians.
As we all know, there were two powerful nations, so they began to strengthen their relationship with other small countries to become more powerful, or to put it another way, they began to group. So, these organizations were grouped into two categories: Allied Powers (France, Great Britain, Russia) and Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire (Turkey)).
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| TRIPLE ALLIANCE &TRIPLE ENTENTE |
As a result, these two major groups were given the names Triple Alliance and Triple Entente. Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy were all parties to the Triple Alliance, which was signed in 1882. Similarly, the Triple Entente (Britain, Russia, and France) was signed in 1907. Nations were building their armies and establishing secret friendships with other countries at the time. And Alliances were formed, which means that if one of the three countries in the triple alliance is attacked, the other two nations will defend and assist that attacked country and stand by their side as friends. You can compare this scenario to your friends in college and schools during fights. So this alliance formation was one of the reasons for war.
REASON FOR WORLD WAR:
Back then Germany was aware that France and Russia were going to attack them. So they decided to strike first.
Germany believed that since Russia is larger than France, it would be much easier to destabilize France first. France, on the other hand, was well aware of the situation. As a result, France dispatches army troops to the German-French border. After seeing the security on the French border, Germany decided that attacking France directly would be an idiotic move, so they requested help from a mutually neighboring country, Belgium, which shares a border with both Germany and France.
Belgium, on the other hand, refused to assist and closed its border with Germany. As a result, Germany came into conflict with Belgium. Belgium, on the other hand, requested assistance from Britain. Because in 1839, Belgium and Britain signed a friendship treaty. Britain had been out of the mess until August 4, 1914, when, to honor the treaty, it entered the war. As soon as Britain enters the battle, it defeats German forces on French and Belgium land.
As I previously stated, Britain was extremely strong, and it was relatively easy for them to defeat the Germans with the assistance of France and Belgium. From one side, German was lost now. As a result, the Germans only had one chance to return to the war, and it worked. The opportunity was to harm and defeat Russia. As a result, Germany attacked Russia and defeated the Russian army, by killing 3 lakh, Russian soldiers.
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| EUROPE 1914 |
When Russia was defeated by Germany. The Ottoman-Empire was so happy because Russia was the enemy of the Ottoman-Empire. As most of the trade of Russia was carried out by the trait/channel of Ottoman-Empire via the Black Sea. So there was always the Negotiation related to trade cut and business between these two countries and these negotiations have sometimes resulted in minor brawls. The Ottoman Empire was allied with Germany and Austria-Hungary in a triple alliance. They witnessed Russia's demise as a result of the triple alliance's respect. The Ottoman Empire took advantage of this demise and invaded Russia.
As time went on, more countries became involved in the conflict. But have you ever thought about why Italy was not a participant in this conflict? If Italy had signed an alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1882, why was it not assisting Germany? So the fact was, Italy joined the alliance for defense rather than attack, and in this case, Germany was the one who attacked France first. And this was the clever reason for Italy not to enter the war, although Italy was smart enough to join the Allied powers because Italy knew Germany was the loose end in the war at the time.
The majority of the world was involved in the war from here, but the United States was still out of it. By the time Germany and the Ottoman Empire defeated Russia. On the other hand, Britain and France have done a lot of harm to Germany. And as Germany was getting weak, Britain and France decided to attack German colonies in Africa, Guinea, and China. And it was from here that German imperialism was in trouble. As previously stated, imperialism played a significant role in World War 1. So now Britain and France are attacking German colonies in Africa, while Japan has joined the war and is destroying German colonies in China to strengthen relations with Britain. And it was at this point that Britain gained the upper hand, while Germany became extremely weak.
Germany, on the other hand, was stubborn about returning to the war. As a result, they launched the Naval Attack on Britain and France. The German Naval Technology was so advanced at the time, particularly their submarines, and they had an excellent command of their submarines rather than their ships.
As a result, the Germans began utilizing submarines to destroy British ships. As a result of the destruction of so many British ships, the Germans became the dominant force when it comes to Sea Battle. However, Germany made one mistake during this dominant Sea battle. i.e., when their submarines were destroying British warships, the Germans were overjoyed, and in their joy, they began to destroy ordinary civilian passenger ships. As a result, they destroyed a ship carrying 1200 civilians, of whom nearly 128 were Americans.
Until now, the United States was not an involved in this conflict. However, the death of Americans on that passenger ship outraged the United States. As soon as Germany realized their mistake, they sent an apology message to the United States. In that apology message, Germany assured that all passenger ships would be checked to sort the Americans so that they would not repeat the same mistake. And the United States accepted the German apology and calmed down.
At the time the United States. was the Neutral Power and at the same time, United States was the only country that was making a profit whereas the whole world was fighting. You might be thinking now that How did the United States profit in such a delicate situation? The reason was so simple, to win any war the basic need is the weapons and during world war 1, United States was the main source of weapons for most of the country. As the United States has a huge production of weapons & by supplying weapons they were filling their pockets. And this leads to the growth of the economy also in the time of war. Up till Britain was the one who drives the highest economy in the world. But after the second half of the world war, the United States has crossed Britain in terms of economy.
Now that Germany had promised to keep American passengers safe during the war, they were confronted with a new problem: whenever a passenger ship passes by a German submarine or warship, they must first check to see if there are any Americans on board. This diverted the German Navy's attention away from the main conflict, resulting in a loss for Germany. As checking for the Americans in every ship was one of the loopholes for Germany. And now Britain and France were taking advantage of this loophole, and their armies were hiding in passenger ships, destroying German Navy Troops, and the Germans were suffering the effects of the losses.
Now Germany realizes that if they continue in this manner, they will undoubtedly lose the war. To avoid this defeat, Germany came up with a plan that would keep The Us occupied and away from war.
Now, Germany has sent a message to the United States neighboring country, Mexico, to inflame anti-American sentiment. Because, many years ago, areas such as California, Nevada, and others were part of Mexico, but the United States took it away from them. So, to reclaim this, the Germans attempted to inflame a war between the United States and Mexico, in which the Germans would also assist Mexico. This would keep the United States focused on the war with Mexico and away from the European conflict. This message was sent to Mexico in code, but the British army decoded it, and the decoded message was sent to the United States. After this incident, United States was on the heat against German and then the United States announces the war against German in the favour of Britain & France.
As the United States entered the war, there were many countries like Brazil, Cuba, China, etc that got into the war. And from one side United States, Britain, France, and many small countries were trying to make Germany weaker. And from another side, two Russian revolutions occurred at the same time.
In October 1917, the Russian Revolution occurred, and Russia underwent some changes, leading to the Bolshevik Revolution, in which a man named Vladimir Lenin took full control of the government. After the Revolutions, Russia became the world's first communist country, and it left World War 1 as the world's first communist country. By signing the Brest-Litovisk Treaty, a peace treaty with Germany. As a result, one side of the war came to an end.
However, on the other hand, the war continues. Germany was now all alone, with no one on its side. After the Alliance's betrayal, Italy also turned its back on Germany and enlisted the help of Britain.
Germany had lost all hope, and on November 11, 1918, it surrendered and signed an Armistice Agreement with the Allied Powers, which announced the win of allied powers over central power, effectively ending the Great War.
On June 28, 1919, Germany and the Allies (Britain, France, Italy, and Russia) signed the Treaty of Versailles, i.e official ending of the war.
CONCLUSION:
This war lasted approximately four years and destroyed many countries, houses, and people. This war claimed the lives of 1 crore 70 lakh people, with 1.1 crore soldiers and 60 lakh civilians. Millions of people were seriously injured, and many people were forced to flee their homes and relocate. And the end of the war changed many things in Europe's geographical terms, resulting in the formation of many different countries. Germany, too, has lost land. Austria-Hungary has also split into many small countries & this is the reason why it is called as The Great War or The World War.
WHAT ROLE DOES INDIA PLAY DURING WORLD WAR 1?
I'm guessing that the majority of those reading this are Indians. Have you ever wondered, out of curiosity, what role India played during World War 1? Congratulations if you know the answer, but if you don't, take a look at the further article, which leads to a very interesting short story.
Between 1914 and 1918, the British gained control of India. In India, revolutionary activities were on the rise at the time. & At that time some of the influencers from Germany tried to motivate the people of India. The influencer said that “now British army is busy in the war so that India has good chance to overpower Britishers.” But Britain got the tip of the influence. Then Britain played something bad to dodge this influencing, Britain said to India that if people of India will help them to fight and win this War (As most of the people in the British army were Indian.). Then Britain will leave India free and make India independent. Indirectly Britain fooled Indians and India trusted Britishers as usual and the cost of this trust was so huge 13 lakh Soldiers were sent to war and out of which 75000 Soldiers were killed during the war. But no one talks about them. And at that time 75000 was the very big number in terms of Population. And in the war, the Indian troops were so dominant that they have defeated many advanced troops of German in the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in 1915. And here Britishers have noticed the dominance and the potential of Indian troops in the battle. So Britishers became concerned that if they did not pay compensation for the loss of Indian soldiers, the Indians would turn against them upon their return. To make amends for their loss, Britishers built India Gate to honor and respect the deceased soldiers who fought with Britain against Germany during World War 1.
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