World War One Attestation Paper What was only intended to be a war for the Austro-Hungarian Empire to gain back lost land, resulted in one of the most horrific, disastrous wars in history. Although there were many moments leading up to June 28th, 1914 that could have possibly sparked World War I, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand is the widely recognized event to have triggered the war. This death may have not been metamorphic for the Austrian people however, this was just the excuse their empire needed to commence a preventative war against Serbia in which they planned to reclaim the Balkans, a contentious geographical area in South-Eastern Europe. Due to all of the alliances in Europe at the time, it only took Germany’s promise to help Austria-Hungary fight Serbia, for over a dozen more countries to be pulled into the war. Militarism and nationalism also played a role in the level of destruction caused by the war. Nevertheless, imperialism, the act of using military to further expand a country’s power, is the overlying umbrella of this war which brought about such a devastating outcome. Granted there were at least 65 …show more content…
October 1st, 1914 marked the day that Thomas McGrath was declared to be enlisted into the war. Only two days later, October 3rd, 1914, he embarked on a short journey to Pleasantville, St. John’s where he would complete his training before heading off to Europe. Although there is no records of his time in Pleasantville, the hastily built camp lacked most, if not all of the basic military supplies and gear. It didn’t matter if it was a machine gun, the material for Khaki’s, or training instructors; the soldiers had little to none of it. Thus, the training was far less than satisfactory. Nevertheless, just under a year later, Thomas McGrath along with his unprepared and inexperienced Newfoundland Regiment set off for GalliPoli,