World War One Essay, Research Paper

Was the war planned or the result of terrible miscalculations? (Rohl 21). The actual causes of the First World War have been very controversial issues faced by historians for years as a result of this question. Many of these historians feel there were many underlying causes. The system of secret alliances, a feeling of militarism and the assassination of the archduke Franz Ferdinand are three of the major reasons why the war broke out and why it lasted so long.

The most well developed underlying cause of the war was the system of secret alliances. Alliances have been thought through out history to promote peace but these alliances only made it easier to go to war (Findley 36). Under the true system of alliances, countries would be protected by each other in case of war, making it foolish for one country to declare war with another. The alliances pose dangers that if any of these countries got into an argument they could draw in the other nations to fight. That was the case when the conflict arouse between Austria-Hungry and Serbia, which would later lead to World War I. The triple alliance was then formed to counteract this conflict. The triple alliance seemed to stand without a rival for several years (Davis 318). Until, the Dual Alliance formed between Russia and France. It was clearly a marriage of interest not of affection . both nations feared and distrusted Germany and were not on good terms with England (Davis 319). The triple Alliance now stood opposed to the Dual Alliance. These two alliances against each other were hardly an equal match up. They did however, have something in common Both Alliances promised little help to their members if individual powers went off on schemes for bloody exploitation; but both Alliances promised honest defense in case any real member was attacked in its home territories and real integrity (Davis 322). The members of each alliance felt that they

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must support each other. That is why the Dual Alliance became the Triple Entente. The officials of the British Foreign office became increasingly convinced that England must support France and Russia in order to preserve the solidarity as a check to the Triple Alliance (Fay 34). These two Alliances had been involved in secret conduct and because of this they both became one of the underlying causes to the First World War leading to many miscalculations. Examples of this were, the information that passed throughout Germany and Bismark that revealed foreign policy ideas and other secret documents that had been circulated around. The most important thing that these secret documents revealed was that the effects of Russia and France to strengthen the friendship with England and to tighten the bonds of the Triple Entente into a combination which should be firm and powerful enough to defy the Triple Alliance if necessary (Fay 38). The feeling of secrecy helped to produce suspicion and fear instead of the planned interest of defense and peace (Barnes 66). The Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente became the fuse, which would ignite the explosion that turned into the First World War. The various quarrels and forces led into one gigantic struggle for the balance of power, and the war came in 1914 because then, for the first time, the lines were sharply drawn between the rival groups and neither could settle issues without seeing the balance pass definitely to the other side (Barnes 68). The secrecy of these Alliance systems helped to plan a war, which would merely make friends and develop many enemies. Militarism is the dominance of a military view and of the men who represented it. The issue of declaring war should be a very developed decision and requires the position of the army in society, the degree of control exercised by civilian ministers, the mature

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and implications of armament programs and strategic doctrines as well as of specific operational plans (Joll 58). Because these issues were not taken into consideration World War One became a series of miscalculations. These miscalculations lead to a later incident. Germany was secretly planning to defeat France and they might have succeeded if the army hadn t been planning a war against France and Russia while the navy was planning a war against England. An effect of this was that many problems occurred once the army and navy realized they had different aims and needs. (Lee 234) The Germans then decided to build a large Navy, which impacted most aspects of life at home and abroad. Militarism had a gradual growth throughout the world. The naval and military armaments of the alliances and great powers began to increase as so did the financial burden. The system of armaments was developed to provide defense and interests of peace, but in the end all it did was produce worldwide feelings of anger, suspicion and fear, and the loss of money. (Tillet 4) The Alliance system began competing with each other for increased army s and navies out of fear and it became a vicious cycle would not help to end the war. (Fay 39) Germany and Austria, uncertain of Italy s loyalty, believed they must increase their armaments to serve their own safety. France urged Russia to increase her army and build strategic railways, against Germany, Russia urged France to extend the term of French military service from two to three years (Fay 40). The results of all these actions were that armaments were increased to allow for a greater sense of security towards ones own country and it helped to strengthen the bonds between the groups of alliances. This influence of militarism was a matter of concern for Germany, Austria and Russia, less in France and non-exisistent in England.

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Since the influences of militarism impacted these nations in different ways, it also helped to determine what degree of military action, these governments were prepared to risk for war. Germany an Austria had the highest plans for general war, but the actual question is not who wanted war most through their military, but who was in the right state of mind to defend it. The war that had been expected and planned out by the governments and military officials was hardly the war they got. (Schmitt 78) No one expected the war to drag out as long as it did and be so deadly and destructive. The same government that prepared the military for war forgot to recognize the economic plans and within a short time the weapons and ammunition had already begun to run out. Militarism was a key cause of the war because so many people were concerned with how strong the military forces were, that they forgot to stabilize the economic and psychological aspects of their own countries. All the governments and most of their subjects were the victims of what history has called the short war illusion . The consequences of these miscalculations were to make the First World War a far more significant turning point in European history than those who embarked on it ever imagined (Joll 89). If the feelings of honesty and courage had not been crushed by fear and secrecy then World War One would have not been such a long and bloody war.

The murder of prominent people-kings, presidents, leading politicians-had been for some three decades a familiar technique used by groups and individuals anxious to draw attention to what they believed to be national or social injustices, but no previous assassination within living memory had provoked a major international crisis as the killing of the Archduke was to do (Joll 9). This assassination would be the trigger of

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World War One. The Archduke was on his way to visit Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia on June 28, 1914. Once Ferdinand got to Sarajevo he was not given any protection, which indicates that he Austrian government desired to see the Archduke assassinated. The Archduke was a strong but unbalanced person who was disliked by many for being a hunter of animals, having made a morganatic marriage and barring his children from his throne. The one person that expressed his hatred to the maximum was a nineteen-year-old terrorist, Gavrilo Princip who with shaking hands pumped bullets into the archduke and his wife killing them both (Findley 32). His passing was therefore not mourned. Every effort was made top keep his funeral as small and plain as possible (Fleming 143). Once Ferdinand was killed the foundations of the war came out. The disputes between Austria and Serbia on would bring on WWI. It was the tragic fate of Austria that the only man who might have had the power and ability to develop became the innocent victim of the crime which was the occasion of the World War and so of her ultimate disruption (Fay 552). As a result of this the Serbian government must be held responsible for having plotted an assassination designed to advance Serbian national aspirations through provoking a European war (Barnes 167). A long time period of Serbian broken promises as to the termination and punishment of the plots against Austria allowed for the breakthrough of the war. Austria declared war on Serbia, and general mobilizations occurred in the order of Serbia, Russia, Austria, France and Germany. General mobilizations occur when military men in countries are at the point of making war and the military hostility begins to steadily rise. As a result of this Germany learned of Russians general mobilizations and sent ultimatums, Germany got no

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response, so Germany mobilized and declared war. But it was primary Russia s general mobilization, when Germany was trying to bring Austria to a settlement, that precipitated the final catastrophe, causing Germany to mobilize and declare war (Fay 555). If the Archduke had never been assassinated, would the war have started with such a spark or where the underlying causes strong enough that it wouldn t have mattered? There are many points that back up that the assassination was the key cause of the war, because in a society based on secrets their in no way that their can be a right mind set to blow out such a hot spark.

The system of secret alliances, a feeling of militarism and the assassination of the archduke Franz Ferdinand are three of the major reasons why the war broke out and why it lasted so long. The war that would destroy European society had been coming for a long time. World War One could have been averted if the nations involved trusted each other and talked openly at conferences and meetings. New nations were being formed all during the nineteenth century and the balance of power had not been equal for a long time. Balances of power and false sense of security are two other issues that if dealt with when they were problems would have halted the war or even stopped it. The last reason that the war could have been prevented is if the systems of Alliances had worked together to keep peace instead of triggering the guns, which brought the great nations to war against each other. As World War One began soldiers were sent off to fight the enemy not realizing that it would be the beginning of two world wars that would end Europe s worldwide domination.

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Works Cited

Barnes, Harry Elmer. The Genesis of The World War. New York: Knopf, 1926

Davis Ph.D, William Stearns. The Roots of The War. New York: The Century Co., 1923

Fay, Sidney Bradshaw. The Origins of the World War. New York: The Macmillan Comapany, 1998

Findley, Carter Vaughn and John Alexander Murray Rothney. Twentieth-Century World. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998

Fleming, D.F. The Origins and Legacies of World War I. New York: Doubleday and Company, 1968

Joll, James. The Origins of the First World War. London and New York: Longman, 1984

Lee, Dwight E. The Outbreak of the First World. London: D.C. Heath and Company, 1975

Rohl, John. 1914:Delusion or Design? New York: St. Martin s Press, 1973

Schmitt, Bernadotte E. The Coming of the War 1914. London: The Whitwell Press, 1917

Tillett, Benjamin. Who was responsible for the War- – And why? London: The Whitwell Press, 1917