Europe Before Ww1

World War 1, otherwise known as the “Great War”, was a global conflict that originated in Europe and eventually spread across the world and lasted from July, 28. 1914 until November, 11. 1918. The political condition of Europe before the war could be said to be that of a “Powder Keg” waiting to explode. Tensions were already high in the Balkans where 2 regional wars had already been fought. The first Balkan war was fought between the Balkan league and the Ottomon Empire, while the second Balkan war was fought between Bulgaria against its former allies, Serbia and Greece. Pre-WW1 Europe was a mess of alliances, differing ideologies, imperialistic rivalries, rising militarism, and nationalistic ideas that all contributed to the eventual war to

The “Powder Keg” was eventually sparked when Archduke Franz Ferdinand (the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne) was assassinated by Gavrilo Princip (a Serbian nationalist). The Austro-Hungarian Empires reaction to this event was to blame the Serbian government for the attack, hoping to use this incident to justify a war against Serbia. With the full support of the German empire, an ultimatum with impossible demands was then issued to Serbia by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The ultimatum was rejected and the Austro-Hungarian Empire formally declared war on Serbia on July, 28. 1914, pulling Germany, Russia, and France into the war. It was only after the German invasion of Belgium did Britain join the war, pitting the great powers of Europe against one another. Soon after, the Japanese Empire and the Ottoman Empire would join the war, establishing the global scale of the

With the invention of the machine gun and rapid-fire artillery, firepower technology had surpassed that of mobility technology. Therefore, maneuver warfare had effectively been replaced by trench warfare on the Western Front. The majority of the battles fought during WW1 could be described as throwing large masses of soldiers against extensive trench networks only to suffer high casualties and gain little to no territory. However, it is interesting to note that the war in the East was more fluid in comparison to the Western Front, where the static defensive line of trenches led to a war of attrition. Fighting on the Eastern Front featured massive sweeping movements, and breakthroughs leading to deep advances into enemy territory. Rapid maneuver warfare and concentration of troops resulted in “Cauldron Battles”. This was due to a majority of reasons, the main one being because of the vast expanses of space and flat terrain on the Eastern Front allowing for freedom of movement. The problem on the Western Front was the opposite of that on the Eastern front, being that there were “too many forces in too little space”. By the end of 1914, the Western Front had stabilized into 2 parallel trench lines facing one another from the Swiss Border