The First World War (WWI)

World War One, also known as “The Great War” was a global war that essentially took place in Europe from 1914 to 1918, ultimately killing over twenty million people. World War one was fought by two dominant alliances, the Entente powers and the Triple Alliance. The Entente powers initially existed of France, England, Russia as well as their correlated empires. On the contrary, the Triple Alliance consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy; the alliance formed the basis of the Central Powers. The cause of the war cannot be accredited to one specific event but rather numerous events. The fundamentally known causes of World War One include the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, mutual defense alliances, imperialism, militarism, and

In June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand traveled to Sarajevo to audit the imperial armed forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina who presupposed that they should join the newly independent and determined Serbian nation. Coincidentally, the date planned for his visit, June 28, was the anniversary of the First Battle of Kosovo in 1389, this was when medieval Serbia was conquered by the Turks. This day was of great importance to Serbian nationalists, and a day on which it would be predicted that they initiate a demonstration of Austrian imperial strength in Bosnia. On June 28, Franz Ferdinand and his wife were touring Sarajevo in an open car, with an astonishing lack of security, when Serbian nationalist Nedjelko Cabrinovic threw a bomb at their car; it did not harm the couple but rather injured an officer as well as bystanders. Subsequent to this incident, on the way to visit the wounded officer, Ferdinand’s procession took a wrong turn where one of Cabrinovic’s companions, Gavrilo Princip, 19-year-old Serbian nationalist with connections to the secretive military organization known as the Black Hand, occurred to be waiting. Ceasing his chance, the young nationalist shot into the car, shooting Franz Ferdinand and Sophie. The assassination of Franz-Ferdinand triggered a expeditious chain of events. As the powerful Prussian statesman Otto van Bismarck once said, “One day

As the expansion of the war advanced, countries within Europe made mutual defense agreements that would drag them into battle. The main mutual defense allies were Russia and Serbia, Germany and Austria-Hungary, France and Russia, Britain and France and lastly, Belgium, Japan and Britain. Once Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Russia got embroiled to defend their Slavic ally. Germany, who was allied with Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia as they saw them mobilize. France and Britain were then dragged into the war after Germany wanted to invade France through Belgium, this was known as the Schlieffen plan. Then Japan joined the war due to Britain asking for their assistance. Subsequently, Italy and the United States entered the war on the side of the allies. Furthermore, the alliance between Germany, Austria, and Russia known as the "Three Emperor's League", secluding France, collapsed when conflicts evolved between Austria and Russia about the Ottoman Empire. Bismarck formed a secret treaty with Austria known as the “Dual Alliance”, which agreed mutual defense if Russia were to attack. Every five years the Dual Alliance was renewed until the end of the war, and can be contemplated as a foundation to the alliance systems in Europe as it connected Germany’s interests to the Austria-Hungarian Empire. Later, Italy joined Germany and Austria, which was acknowledged as the “Triple Alliance” in