The Causes and Consequences of World War I

World War I was one of the greatest large-scale wars that had ever occurred up until its time. Almost every country in the world was involved in this conflict. Due to new Industrial Revolution technology this war was like no other, and sometimes called “The War to End All Wars.” What started this enormous conflict and why did almost every world power play a role in it?

The core of the war began in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, where the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated by Gavrilo Princip on June 28, 1914. Franz Ferdinand was heir to the empire of Austria, but after his death Austria would have to find another successor. This event does not explain why so many countries became involved in the war though, long before the assassination the countries in Europe, the Far East, and the Middle East were looking at one another wondering if they would be attacked, and to protect themselves, alliances were formed between countries. After the Austro-Prussian war, Prussia became dominant over Austria and grew in power until it joined Russia and Austria-Hungary, forming the League of 3 Emperors in 1873. This alliance allowed Prussia to have protection against its surrounding forces, Otto Von Bismarck, the emperor of Prussia decided that the nation needed to arrange as many alliances as was possible for maximized protection, therefore, they established the Dual Alliance between them and Austro-Hungary, and with these alliances Prussia could now focus on strengthening their infrastructure and building themselves up. In 1882, Italy joined the dual alliance because it wanted protection as well. During this time Prussia grew so powerful that the only country that could rival it as far as production was Britain, but Prussia had also built a large military. In 1894, France and Russia formed an alliance to help balance the power in Europe, but they would need more than two countries to even the odds. Before long Britain joined the alliance, as they had previously remained out of the conflict, and may have joined the alliance for protection. In 1907, in Western Europe, Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, and Montenegro, were fighting to completely destroy the crumbling Ottoman Empire, and they succeeded at this, however, after destroying the Ottomans they began to fight amongst themselves, and these little battles eventually erupted into the full scale World War, dragging many countries into it.

The Aftermath of World War I, was a time of great hardship for two main reasons, the first is that there was famine in many areas of Europe and the East, as it primarily struck those who were losing the war because they had consumed and lost a lot of their resources, in some areas the famine was so bad that people were dying of starvation. Though the famine was destructive, it was nothing compared to the massive Flu Pandemic of 1918. The flu began in the trenches of France, which is why it is sometimes called the Spanish Flu, and while it was in the trenches it developed, instead of being a simple flu that can be easily recovered from, it became a very powerful flu strain that we now call H1 N1. The flu spread all over France, but the country did not declare it because they were in the middle of a war, and if the enemy were to hear about it they might take advantage of them. Soon the flu escaped into the surrounding countries and upon reaching Spain, a neutral country, it was finally announced, but it was to late too do anything. As the war ended, people from all over the world were going home, some of them had the flu and it was brought into almost every country of the world. This global pandemic wiped out 50-100 million people. The death toll was even greater than the war, and struck many nations hard. But even worse than all the deaths, is that only 20 years later the nations would go into another global war. World War I was a war that was felt for many years and is still remembered as one of the first times in history almost every world power engaged in warfare.

Information gathered from the Ron Paul curriculum 8^th grade history class.