world war 1 essay summary

• History Classics
• Your Profile
• Find History on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on YouTube (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on Instagram (Opens in a new window)
• Find History on TikTok (Opens in a new window)
• This Day In History
• History Podcasts
• History Vault

World War I

By: History.com Editors

Updated: May 10, 2024 | Original: October 29, 2009

World War I, also known as the Great War, started in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. His murder catapulted into a war across Europe that lasted until 1918. During the four-year conflict, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire (the Central Powers) fought against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Canada, Japan and the United States (the Allied Powers). Thanks to new military technologies and the horrors of trench warfare, World War I saw unprecedented levels of carnage and destruction. By the time the war was over and the Allied Powers had won, more than 16 million people—soldiers and civilians alike—were dead.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Tensions had been brewing throughout Europe—especially in the troubled Balkan region of southeast Europe—for years before World War I actually broke out.

A number of alliances involving European powers, the Ottoman Empire , Russia and other parties had existed for years, but political instability in the Balkans (particularly Bosnia, Serbia and Herzegovina) threatened to destroy these agreements.

The spark that ignited World War I was struck in Sarajevo, Bosnia, where Archduke Franz Ferdinand —heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire—was shot to death along with his wife, Sophie, by the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip on June 28, 1914. Princip and other nationalists were struggling to end Austro-Hungarian rule over Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Great War

Watch The Great War . Available to stream now.

The assassination of Franz Ferdinand set off a rapidly escalating chain of events: Austria-Hungary , like many countries around the world, blamed the Serbian government for the attack and hoped to use the incident as justification for settling the question of Serbian nationalism once and for all.

Kaiser Wilhelm II

Because mighty Russia supported Serbia, Austria-Hungary waited to declare war until its leaders received assurance from German leader Kaiser Wilhelm II that Germany would support their cause. Austro-Hungarian leaders feared that a Russian intervention would involve Russia’s ally, France, and possibly Great Britain as well.

On July 5, Kaiser Wilhelm secretly pledged his support, giving Austria-Hungary a so-called carte blanche, or “blank check” assurance of Germany’s backing in the case of war. The Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary then sent an ultimatum to Serbia, with such harsh terms as to make it almost impossible to accept.

World War I Begins

Convinced that Austria-Hungary was readying for war, the Serbian government ordered the Serbian army to mobilize and appealed to Russia for assistance. On July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and the tenuous peace between Europe’s great powers quickly collapsed.

Within a week, Russia, Belgium, France, Great Britain and Serbia had lined up against Austria-Hungary and Germany, and World War I had begun.

The Western Front

According to an aggressive military strategy known as the Schlieffen Plan (named for its mastermind, German Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen ), Germany began fighting World War I on two fronts, invading France through neutral Belgium in the west and confronting Russia in the east.

On August 4, 1914, German troops crossed the border into Belgium. In the first battle of World War I, the Germans assaulted the heavily fortified city of Liege , using the most powerful weapons in their arsenal—enormous siege cannons—to capture the city by August 15. The Germans left death and destruction in their wake as they advanced through Belgium toward France, shooting civilians and executing a Belgian priest they had accused of inciting civilian resistance. 

First Battle of the Marne

In the First Battle of the Marne , fought from September 6-9, 1914, French and British forces confronted the invading German army, which had by then penetrated deep into northeastern France, within 30 miles of Paris. The Allied troops checked the German advance and mounted a successful counterattack, driving the Germans back to the north of the Aisne River.

The defeat meant the end of German plans for a quick victory in France. Both sides dug into trenches , and the Western Front was the setting for a hellish war of attrition that would last more than three years.

Particularly long and costly battles in this campaign were fought at Verdun (February-December 1916) and the Battle of the Somme (July-November 1916). German and French troops suffered close to a million casualties in the Battle of Verdun alone.

HISTORY Vault: World War I Documentaries

Stream World War I videos commercial-free in HISTORY Vault.

World War I Books and Art

The bloodshed on the battlefields of the Western Front, and the difficulties its soldiers had for years after the fighting had ended, inspired such works of art as “ All Quiet on the Western Front ” by Erich Maria Remarque and “ In Flanders Fields ” by Canadian doctor Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae . In the latter poem, McCrae writes from the perspective of the fallen soldiers:

Published in 1915, the poem inspired the use of the poppy as a symbol of remembrance.

Visual artists like Otto Dix of Germany and British painters Wyndham Lewis, Paul Nash and David Bomberg used their firsthand experience as soldiers in World War I to create their art, capturing the anguish of trench warfare and exploring the themes of technology, violence and landscapes decimated by war.

The Eastern Front

On the Eastern Front of World War I, Russian forces invaded the German-held regions of East Prussia and Poland but were stopped short by German and Austrian forces at the Battle of Tannenberg in late August 1914.

Despite that victory, Russia’s assault forced Germany to move two corps from the Western Front to the Eastern, contributing to the German loss in the Battle of the Marne.

Combined with the fierce Allied resistance in France, the ability of Russia’s huge war machine to mobilize relatively quickly in the east ensured a longer, more grueling conflict instead of the quick victory Germany had hoped to win under the Schlieffen Plan .

Russian Revolution

From 1914 to 1916, Russia’s army mounted several offensives on World War I’s Eastern Front but was unable to break through German lines.

Defeat on the battlefield, combined with economic instability and the scarcity of food and other essentials, led to mounting discontent among the bulk of Russia’s population, especially the poverty-stricken workers and peasants. This increased hostility was directed toward the imperial regime of Czar Nicholas II and his unpopular German-born wife, Alexandra.

Russia’s simmering instability exploded in the Russian Revolution of 1917, spearheaded by Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks , which ended czarist rule and brought a halt to Russian participation in World War I.

Russia reached an armistice with the Central Powers in early December 1917, freeing German troops to face the remaining Allies on the Western Front.

America Enters World War I

At the outbreak of fighting in 1914, the United States remained on the sidelines of World War I, adopting the policy of neutrality favored by President Woodrow Wilson while continuing to engage in commerce and shipping with European countries on both sides of the conflict.

Neutrality, however, it was increasingly difficult to maintain in the face of Germany’s unchecked submarine aggression against neutral ships, including those carrying passengers. In 1915, Germany declared the waters surrounding the British Isles to be a war zone, and German U-boats sunk several commercial and passenger vessels, including some U.S. ships.

Widespread protest over the sinking by U-boat of the British ocean liner Lusitania —traveling from New York to Liverpool, England with hundreds of American passengers onboard—in May 1915 helped turn the tide of American public opinion against Germany. In February 1917, Congress passed a $250 million arms appropriations bill intended to make the United States ready for war.

Germany sunk four more U.S. merchant ships the following month, and on April 2 Woodrow Wilson appeared before Congress and called for a declaration of war against Germany.

Gallipoli Campaign

With World War I having effectively settled into a stalemate in Europe, the Allies attempted to score a victory against the Ottoman Empire, which entered the conflict on the side of the Central Powers in late 1914.

After a failed attack on the Dardanelles (the strait linking the Sea of Marmara with the Aegean Sea), Allied forces led by Britain launched a large-scale land invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula in April 1915. The invasion also proved a dismal failure, and in January 1916 Allied forces staged a full retreat from the shores of the peninsula after suffering 250,000 casualties.

Did you know? The young Winston Churchill, then first lord of the British Admiralty, resigned his command after the failed Gallipoli campaign in 1916, accepting a commission with an infantry battalion in France.

British-led forces also combated the Ottoman Turks in Egypt and Mesopotamia , while in northern Italy, Austrian and Italian troops faced off in a series of 12 battles along the Isonzo River, located at the border between the two nations.

Battle of the Isonzo

The First Battle of the Isonzo took place in the late spring of 1915, soon after Italy’s entrance into the war on the Allied side. In the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo, also known as the Battle of Caporetto (October 1917), German reinforcements helped Austria-Hungary win a decisive victory.

After Caporetto, Italy’s allies jumped in to offer increased assistance. British and French—and later, American—troops arrived in the region, and the Allies began to take back the Italian Front.

World War I at Sea

In the years before World War I, the superiority of Britain’s Royal Navy was unchallenged by any other nation’s fleet, but the Imperial German Navy had made substantial strides in closing the gap between the two naval powers. Germany’s strength on the high seas was also aided by its lethal fleet of U-boat submarines.

After the Battle of Dogger Bank in January 1915, in which the British mounted a surprise attack on German ships in the North Sea, the German navy chose not to confront Britain’s mighty Royal Navy in a major battle for more than a year, preferring to rest the bulk of its naval strategy on its U-boats.

The biggest naval engagement of World War I, the Battle of Jutland (May 1916) left British naval superiority on the North Sea intact, and Germany would make no further attempts to break an Allied naval blockade for the remainder of the war.

World War I Planes

World War I was the first major conflict to harness the power of planes. Though not as impactful as the British Royal Navy or Germany’s U-boats, the use of planes in World War I presaged their later, pivotal role in military conflicts around the globe.

At the dawn of World War I, aviation was a relatively new field; the Wright brothers took their first sustained flight just eleven years before, in 1903. Aircraft were initially used primarily for reconnaissance missions. During the First Battle of the Marne, information passed from pilots allowed the allies to exploit weak spots in the German lines, helping the Allies to push Germany out of France.

The first machine guns were successfully mounted on planes in June of 1912 in the United States, but were imperfect; if timed incorrectly, a bullet could easily destroy the propeller of the plane it came from. The Morane-Saulnier L, a French plane, provided a solution: The propeller was armored with deflector wedges that prevented bullets from hitting it. The Morane-Saulnier Type L was used by the French, the British Royal Flying Corps (part of the Army), the British Royal Navy Air Service and the Imperial Russian Air Service. The British Bristol Type 22 was another popular model used for both reconnaissance work and as a fighter plane.

Dutch inventor Anthony Fokker improved upon the French deflector system in 1915. His “interrupter” synchronized the firing of the guns with the plane’s propeller to avoid collisions. Though his most popular plane during WWI was the single-seat Fokker Eindecker, Fokker created over 40 kinds of airplanes for the Germans.

The Allies debuted the Handley-Page HP O/400, the first two-engine bomber, in 1915. As aerial technology progressed, long-range heavy bombers like Germany’s Gotha G.V. (first introduced in 1917) were used to strike cities like London. Their speed and maneuverability proved to be far deadlier than Germany’s earlier Zeppelin raids.

By the war’s end, the Allies were producing five times more aircraft than the Germans. On April 1, 1918, the British created the Royal Air Force, or RAF, the first air force to be a separate military branch independent from the navy or army. 

Second Battle of the Marne

With Germany able to build up its strength on the Western Front after the armistice with Russia, Allied troops struggled to hold off another German offensive until promised reinforcements from the United States were able to arrive.

On July 15, 1918, German troops launched what would become the last German offensive of the war, attacking French forces (joined by 85,000 American troops as well as some of the British Expeditionary Force) in the Second Battle of the Marne . The Allies successfully pushed back the German offensive and launched their own counteroffensive just three days later.

After suffering massive casualties, Germany was forced to call off a planned offensive further north, in the Flanders region stretching between France and Belgium, which was envisioned as Germany’s best hope of victory.

The Second Battle of the Marne turned the tide of war decisively towards the Allies, who were able to regain much of France and Belgium in the months that followed.

The Harlem Hellfighters and Other All-Black Regiments

By the time World War I began, there were four all-Black regiments in the U.S. military: the 24th and 25th Infantry and the 9th and 10th Cavalry. All four regiments comprised of celebrated soldiers who fought in the Spanish-American War and American-Indian Wars , and served in the American territories. But they were not deployed for overseas combat in World War I. 

Blacks serving alongside white soldiers on the front lines in Europe was inconceivable to the U.S. military. Instead, the first African American troops sent overseas served in segregated labor battalions, restricted to menial roles in the Army and Navy, and shutout of the Marines, entirely. Their duties mostly included unloading ships, transporting materials from train depots, bases and ports, digging trenches, cooking and maintenance, removing barbed wire and inoperable equipment, and burying soldiers.

Facing criticism from the Black community and civil rights organizations for its quotas and treatment of African American soldiers in the war effort, the military formed two Black combat units in 1917, the 92nd and 93rd Divisions . Trained separately and inadequately in the United States, the divisions fared differently in the war. The 92nd faced criticism for their performance in the Meuse-Argonne campaign in September 1918. The 93rd Division, however, had more success. 

With dwindling armies, France asked America for reinforcements, and General John Pershing , commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, sent regiments in the 93 Division to over, since France had experience fighting alongside Black soldiers from their Senegalese French Colonial army. The 93 Division’s 369 regiment, nicknamed the Harlem Hellfighters , fought so gallantly, with a total of 191 days on the front lines, longer than any AEF regiment, that France awarded them the Croix de Guerre for their heroism. More than 350,000 African American soldiers would serve in World War I in various capacities.

Toward Armistice

By the fall of 1918, the Central Powers were unraveling on all fronts.

Despite the Turkish victory at Gallipoli, later defeats by invading forces and an Arab revolt that destroyed the Ottoman economy and devastated its land, and the Turks signed a treaty with the Allies in late October 1918.

Austria-Hungary, dissolving from within due to growing nationalist movements among its diverse population, reached an armistice on November 4. Facing dwindling resources on the battlefield, discontent on the homefront and the surrender of its allies, Germany was finally forced to seek an armistice on November 11, 1918, ending World War I.

Treaty of Versailles

At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, Allied leaders stated their desire to build a post-war world that would safeguard itself against future conflicts of such a devastating scale.

Some hopeful participants had even begun calling World War I “the War to End All Wars.” But the Treaty of Versailles , signed on June 28, 1919, would not achieve that lofty goal.

Saddled with war guilt, heavy reparations and denied entrance into the League of Nations , Germany felt tricked into signing the treaty, having believed any peace would be a “peace without victory,” as put forward by President Wilson in his famous Fourteen Points speech of January 1918.

As the years passed, hatred of the Versailles treaty and its authors settled into a smoldering resentment in Germany that would, two decades later, be counted among the causes of World War II .

World War I Casualties

World War I took the lives of more than 9 million soldiers; 21 million more were wounded. Civilian casualties numbered close to 10 million. The two nations most affected were Germany and France, each of which sent some 80 percent of their male populations between the ages of 15 and 49 into battle.

The political disruption surrounding World War I also contributed to the fall of four venerable imperial dynasties: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia and Turkey.

Legacy of World War I

World War I brought about massive social upheaval, as millions of women entered the workforce to replace men who went to war and those who never came back. The first global war also helped to spread one of the world’s deadliest global pandemics, the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, which killed an estimated 20 to 50 million people.

World War I has also been referred to as “the first modern war.” Many of the technologies now associated with military conflict—machine guns, tanks , aerial combat and radio communications—were introduced on a massive scale during World War I.

The severe effects that chemical weapons such as mustard gas and phosgene had on soldiers and civilians during World War I galvanized public and military attitudes against their continued use. The Geneva Convention agreements, signed in 1925, restricted the use of chemical and biological agents in warfare and remain in effect today.

Photo Galleries

Sign up for Inside History

Get HISTORY’s most fascinating stories delivered to your inbox three times a week.

By submitting your information, you agree to receive emails from HISTORY and A+E Networks. You can opt out at any time. You must be 16 years or older and a resident of the United States.

More details : Privacy Notice | Terms of Use | Contact Us

First World War: Causes and Effects Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Introduction

The causes of world war one, the effects of the war.

World War one seems like an ancient history with many cases of compelling wars to many people, but amazingly, it became known as the Great War because of influence it caused. It took place across European colonies and their surrounding seas between August 1914 and December 1918 (Tuchman, 2004). Almost sixty million troops mobilized for the war ended up in crippling situations.

For instance, more than eight million died and over thirty million people injured in the struggle. The war considerably evolved with the economic, political, cultural and social nature of Europe. Nations from the other continents also joined the war making it worse than it was.

Over a long period, most countries in Europe made joint defense treaties that would help them in battle if the need arose. This was for defense purposes. For instance, Russia linked with Serbia, Germany with Austria-Hungary, France with Russia, and Japan with Britain (Tuchman, 2004).

The war started with the declaration of war on Serbia by Austria-Hungary. This later led to the entry of countries allied to Serbia into the war so as to protect their partners.

Imperialism is another factor that led to the First World War. Many European countries found expansion of their territories enticing.

Before World War One, most European countries considered parts of Asia and Africa as their property because they were highly productive. European nations ended up in confrontations among themselves due to their desire for more wealth from Africa and Asia. This geared the whole world into war afterwards.

Competition to produce more weapons compared to other countries also contributed to the beginning of World War One. Many of the European nations established themselves well in terms of military capacity and eventually sought for war to prove their competence.

Desire for nationalism by the Serbians also played a crucial role in fueling the war. Failure to come to an agreement about Bosnia and Herzegovina led the countries to war. Both countries wanted to prove their supremacy.

Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife in Austria-Hungary sparked the war. Tuchman (2004) reveals that the Serbians assassinated Ferdinand in Sarajevo in June 1914 while protesting to the control of Sarajevo by Austria-Hungary. The assassination led to war between Serbia and Austria-Hungary. This led to mobilization of Russian troops in preparation for war.

The already prepared Germany immediately joined the war against Russia and France. On the other hand, Russians declared war on Austria and Germany. The invasion of the neutral Belgium by Germany triggered Britain to declare war against Germans.

Earlier, Britain had promised to defend Belgium against any attack. The British entered France with the intention of stopping the advancement of Germany. This intensified the enmity among the countries involved (Tuchman, 2004).

Tuchman (2004) argues that the French together with their weak allies held off the fighting in Paris and adopted trench warfare. The French had decided to defend themselves from the trenches instead of attacking. This eventually gave them the victory.

Although The British had the largest number of fleet in the world by the end of 1914, they could not end the First World War. The Germans had acquired a well-equipped fleet. This helped them advance the war to 1915. However, many countries participating in the war began to prepare for withdrawal from the conflict. The war had changed the social roles in many of the countries involved.

For instance, women in Britain performed duties initially considered masculine so as to increase their income (Tuchman, 2004). In the Western Front, the innovated gas weapons killed many people. In the Eastern Front, Bulgaria joined Austria-Hungary as the central power leading to more attacks in Serbia and Russia. Italy too joined the war and fought with the allied forces.

The British seized German ports in 1916. This led to severe shortage of food in Germany. The shortages encountered by the Germans led to food riots in many of the German towns. The Germans eventually adopted submarine warfare. With the help of this new tactic, they targeted Lusitania, one of the ships from America.

This led to the loss of many lives, including a hundred Americans, prompting America to join the war. On 1stJuly the same year, over twenty thousand people died and forty thousand injured. However, in the month of May the same year, the British managed to cripple the German fleet and eventually take control of the sea (Tuchman, 2004).

The year 1917 marked a remarkable change in Germany. Attempts to convince Mexico to invade the United States proved futile. Germany eventually lost due to lack of sufficient aid from their already worn-out allies. Towards the end of 1918, British food reserves became exhausted. This reduced the intensity of the warfare against Germans. It was in this same year that they established “Women Army Auxiliary Corps”.

It placed women on the forefront in the battlefield for the first time. On the Western Front, the Germans weakness eventually led to their defeat. The war came to an end. The British eventually emerged the superior nation among all the European nations.

The signing of the Treaty of Versailles on twenty eighth June 1919 between the Allied powers and Germany officially ended the war. Other treaties signed later contributed to the enforcement of peace among nations involved in the war (Tuchman, 2004).

First World War outlined the beginning of the modern era; it had an immense impact on the economic and political status of many countries. European countries crippled their economies while struggling to manufacture superior weapons. The Old Russian Empire replaced by a socialist system led to loss of millions of people.

The known Austro-Hungarian Empire and old Holy Roman Empire became extinct. The drawing of Middle East and Europe maps led to conflicts in the present time. The League of Nations formed later contributed significantly in solving international conflicts.

In Britain, a class system arose demarcating the lower class from the advantaged class whereas, in France the number of men significantly reduced (Tuchman, 2004). This led to sharing of the day to day tasks between men and women. First World War also caused the merger of cultures among nations. Poets and authors portray this well. Many people also ended up adopting the western culture and neglecting their own.

In conclusion, the First World War led to the loss of many lives. These included soldiers and innocent citizens of the countries at war. The First World War also led to extensive destruction of property. The infrastructure and buildings in many towns crumbled. It contributed to displacement of people from their homes. Many people eventually lost their land.

The loss of land and displacement of people has substantially contributed to the current conflicts among communities and nations. However, the First World War paved way to the establishment of organizations that ensured that peace prevailed in the world. It also led to the advancement of science and technology. It led to the realization that women too could perform masculine tasks.

Tuchman, W. B. (2004). The Guns of August : New York: Random House Publishing Group.

• First World War Issues and Causes
• First World War: German and Austrian Policies' Response
• World War I Causes by Ethnic Problems in Austro-Hungary
• Was the birthplace of Canada at Vimy Rigde
• United States and World War I
• Why Europe Went to War
• WWI-War: Revolution, and Reconstruction
• World War I Technology
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2019, May 20). First World War: Causes and Effects. https://ivypanda.com/essays/world-war-one-essay/

"First World War: Causes and Effects." IvyPanda , 20 May 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/world-war-one-essay/.

IvyPanda . (2019) 'First World War: Causes and Effects'. 20 May.

IvyPanda . 2019. "First World War: Causes and Effects." May 20, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/world-war-one-essay/.

1. IvyPanda . "First World War: Causes and Effects." May 20, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/world-war-one-essay/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "First World War: Causes and Effects." May 20, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/world-war-one-essay/.

The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet.

World War I: ‘The War to End All Wars’

World war i facts.

The war fought between July 28, 1914, and November 11, 1918, was known at the time as the Great War, the War to End War, and (in the United States) the European War. Only when the world went to war again in the 1930s and ’40s did the earlier conflict become known as the First World War.

Its casualty totals were unprecedented, soaring into the millions. World War I is known for the extensive system of trenches from which men of both sides fought. Lethal new technologies were unleashed, and for the first time a major war was fought not only on land and on sea but below the sea and in the skies as well. The two sides were known as the Allies or Entente — consisting primarily of France, Great Britain, Italy, Russia, and later the United States — and the Central Powers, primarily comprised of Austria-Hungary (the Habsburg Empire), Germany, and the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). A number of smaller nations aligned themselves with one side or the other. In the Pacific Japan, seeing a chance to seize German colonies, threw in with the Allies. The Allies were the victors, as the entry of the United States into the war in 1917 added an additional weight of men and materiel the Central Powers could not hope to match.

WHEN DID WORLD WAR I START?

July 28, 1914

When Did World War I End?

November 11, 1918

WHERE DID WORLD WAR I TAKE PLACE?

Europe, Mediterranean, and Northern Africa

Who Won World War I?

The Allied powers, namely France, Great Britain, and the United States.

ALLIED Leaders

• Nicholas II, Czar of Russia
• Aristide Briand, Prime Minister of France (1915-1917)
• Georges Clemenceau, Prime Minister of France and Minister of War (1917–1920)
• H. H. Asquith, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1908–1916), Secretary of State for War (1914)
• David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1916–1922), Secretary of State for War (1916)
• Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States

Central Power Leaders

• Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria (1848-1916)
• Karl I, Emperor of Austria (1916-1918)
• Wilhelm II, German Emperor
• Mehmed V, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1909-1918)

Related Stories & Content

Book Review: Showing A New Side to Rommel At War

How Erwin Rommel Has Been Lost in Translation

Mercy Dogs: Meet the Heroes Who Delivered Aid and Comforted the Dying on the Battlefields of World War I

An Inside Look At 100 Years of Honoring America’s War Dead

World war i summary: .

The war resulted in a dramatically changed geopolitical landscape, including the destruction of three empires: Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman and Russian. New borders were drawn at its conclusion and resentments, especially on the part of Germany, left festering in Europe. Ironically, decisions made after the fighting ceased led the War to End War to be a significant cause of the Second World War.

As John Keegan wrote in  The First World War  (Alfred A. Knopf, 1999), “The First World War was a tragic and unnecessary conflict … the train of events that led to its outbreak might have been broken at any point during the five weeks of crisis that preceded the first clash of arms, had prudence or common goodwill found a voice.”

CASUALTIES IN WORLD WAR I

In terms of sheer numbers of lives lost or disrupted, the Great War was the most destructive war in history until it was overshadowed by its offspring, the Second World War: an estimated 10 million military deaths from all causes, plus 20 million more crippled or severely wounded. Estimates of civilian casualties are harder to make; they died from shells, bombs, disease, hunger, and accidents such as explosions in munitions factories; in some cases, they were executed as spies or as “object lessons.” Additionally, as Neil M. Heyman in  World War I  (Greenwood Press, 1997) wrote, “Not physically hurt but scarred nonetheless were 5 million widowed women, 9 million orphaned children, and 10 million individuals torn from their homes to become refugees.” None of this takes into account the deaths in the Russian Civil War or the Third Balkan War, both of which directly resulted from World War I, nor the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918 that killed 50 million people worldwide, which was spread in part by conditions at the front and by soldiers returning home.

The highest national military casualty totals—killed, wounded, and missing/taken prisoner—in round numbers (sources disagree on casualty totals), were:

• Russia: 9,150,000
• Germany: 7,143,000
• Austria-Hungary: 7,000,000
• France, 6,161,000
• Britain & Commonwealth: 3,190,000
• Italy: 2,197,000
• Turkey (Ottoman Empire): 975,000
• Romania: 536,000
• Serbia: 331,000
• USA: 323,000
• Bulgaria: 267,000

For more information, click to see the  Casualties of World War I .

What Started World War I?

Prime Minister of Germany Otto von Bismarck had prophesied that when war again came to Europe it would be over “some damn foolish thing in the Balkans.” Indeed, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir apparent to the Habsburg throne of Austria-Hungary, and his wife, Sophie, by a Serbian nationalist on June 28, 1914, was the match that lit the fuse—but it didn’t create the powder keg. The outbreak of war between European nations was the result of several factors:

• Concern over other countries’ military expansion, leading to an arms race and entangling alliances
• Fear of losing economic and/or diplomatic status
• Long-standing ethnic differences and rising nationalism in the Balkans
• French resentment of territorial losses in the 1871 Franco-Prussian War
• The influence exerted by military leaders

Following their 1871 victory in the Franco-Prussian War, the German states unified into a single nation. Its leader, Kaiser Wilhelm II, eldest grandson of Britain’s Queen Victoria, envisioned an Imperial Navy that could rival Great Britain’s large and renowned fleet. This would increase German influence in the world and likely allow the country to expand its colonial holdings. Britain, fearful of losing its dominance of the seas, accelerated its naval design and construction to stay ahead of the Kaiser’s ship-building program.

Russia was rebuilding and modernizing its large army and had begun a program of industrialization. Germany and Austria-Hungary saw the threat posed by Russia’s large population and, hence, its ability to raise a massive army. They formed an alliance for self-protection against the Russian bear.

France, still stinging over the loss of Alsace and part of Lorraine in the Franco-Prussian war, made an agreement allying itself with Russia in any war with Germany or Austria-Hungary. Britain, after finding itself friendless during the Second Boer War in South Africa (1899–1902) allied itself with France and worked to improve relations with the United States of America. Russia, with many ethnic groups inside its vast expanse, made an alliance with Serbia in the Balkans.

The old Ottoman Empire was crumbling; “The Sick Man of Europe” was the phrase used to describe the once-powerful state. As its ability to exert control over its holdings in the Balkans weakened, ethnic and regional groups broke away and formed new states. Rising nationalism led to the First and Second Balkan Wars, 1912 and 1913. As a result of those wars, Serbia increased its size and began pushing for a union of all South Slavic peoples. Serbian nationalism led 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir apparent to the Habsburg throne of Austria-Hungary, and his wife, Sophie. Austria-Hungary, urged on by Germany, sent a list of demands to Serbia in response; the demands were such that Serbia was certain to reject them. When it did, the Habsburg Empire declared war on Serbia on July 28, exactly one month after the archduke’s assassination. Russia came in on the side of the Serbs, Germany on the side of the Habsburgs, and the entangling alliances between the nations of Europe pulled one after another into the war. Although diplomats throughout Europe strove to settle matters without warfare right up to the time the shooting started, the influence military leaders enjoyed in many nations won out—along with desires to capture new lands or reclaim old ones.

COMBAT IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR

German military planners were ready when the declarations of war began flying across Europe. They intended to hold off the Russians in the east, swiftly knock France out of the war through a maneuver known as the Schliefffen Plan, then throw their full force, along with Austria-Hungary, against the Russians. The Schliefffen Plan, named for General Count Alfred von Schlieffen who created it in 1905, called for invading the Low Countries (Luxembourg and Belgium) in order to bypass to the north the strong fortifications along the French border. After a rapid conquest of the Low Countries, the German advance would continue into northern France, swing around Paris to the west and capture the French capital. It almost worked, but German commander in chief General Helmuth von Moltke decided to send his forces east of Paris to engage and defeat the weakened French army head-on. In doing so he exposed his right flank to counterattack by the French and a British Expeditionary Force, resulting in the First Battle of the Marne, September 6–10, 1914. Despite casualties in the hundreds of thousands, the battle was a stalemate, but it stopped the German drive on Paris. Both sides began digging a network of trenches. The First Battle of the Marne was a window onto how the rest of the war would be fought: extensive trenchworks against which large numbers of men would be hurled, suffering extremely high casualties for little if any territorial gains. The centuries-old method of massed charges to break through enemy positions did not work when the men faced machine guns, barbed wire, and drastically more effective artillery than in the past.

The next four years would see battles in which millions of artillery shells were fired and millions of men were killed or mutilated. Click here to read about some of the  costliest battles of the First World War . Deadly new weapons were responsible for the unprecedented carnage.

NEW WEAPONS OF WORLD WAR I

Among the lethal technological developments that were used for the first time (or in some cases used for the first time in a major conflict) during the Great War were the machine gun, poison gas, flamethrowers, tanks and aircraft. Artillery increased dramatically in size, range and killing power compared to its 19th-century counterparts. In the war at sea, submarines could strike unseen from beneath the waves, using torpedoes to send combat and merchant ships to the bottom. Click here for more information on  Weapons of World War I .

WAR ON THE EASTERN FRONT

On the Eastern Front, the German general Paul von Hindenburg and his chief of staff Erich Ludendorff engineered strategies that gave them dramatic victories over Russian armies. The war became increasing unpopular among the Russian people. Ludendorff, sensing a chance to take Tsar Nicholas II’s country out of the war, arranged for an exiled Marxist revolutionary named Vladimir Lenin to cross Europe in a special train and get back into Russia. As hoped, Lenin helped fuel the rising revolutionary fervor. The tsar was deposed and executed with his family in the March 1917 revolution. For the first time in Russian history a republican democracy was established, but its leaders underestimated the people’s resistance to continuing the war. When the new government failed to bring about a rapid peace, it was overthrown in November by a socialist revolution led by Lenin, following which Russia signed a peace agreement with Germany.

WAR IN THE MOUNTAINS

Fighting in the high elevations of the Balkans and Alps created additional agony for soldiers fighting there: bitterly cold winters and especially rugged terrain.

Serbia, whose countryman had fired the shots that gave rise to the slaughter taking place in Europe, was invaded twice by Austria-Hungary but repulsed both attempts. In the autumn of 1915, a third invasion came. This time the Hapsburgs were joined by Germany and Bulgaria. The outnumbered Serbs gave ground. Ultimately, the Serbian Army only escaped annihilation by a demanding march through Albania to the Adriatic Sea, where the French Navy rescued the survivors.

Romania remained neutral until August 1916 when it joined the Allies and declared war on Austria-Hungary in hopes of securing additional territories including Transylvania. As the poorly trained Romanian army advanced into Transylvania, German forces invaded and occupied Romania itself, quickly knocking the country out of the war.

Italy, wooed by both sides, entered the war on the Allied side in May 1915. Its efforts were concentrated on breaking through Austria’s mountain defenses, but its poorly equipped soldiers were ground up in a series of attacks at the Isonzo River, though their opponents also suffered severely. What gains the Italians made in the war were wiped out by a rout that began at Caporeto in October 1917 and unhinged the entire line.

THE WAR SPREADS BEYOND EUROPE

While soldiers in Europe lived and died in the muddy, disease-ridden trenches, Britain attempted an attack in February 1915 against the Ottoman Empire, the “soft underbelly” of Europe, to aid the Russians and, ideally, force Turkey out of the war. An attempted invasion on the Gallipoli Peninsula resulted in a bloody repulse, but war in the interior of the Ottoman Empire met with greater success. Arab groups seeking to overthrow the empire waged a successful guerrilla war in the Mideast, led by Prince Feisal, third son of the Grand Sharif of Mecca. The revolt was aided by British liaison officer T.E. Lawrence of Wales, who became known as Lawrence of Arabia.

When the war ended, the Ottoman Empire was broken up. England and France drew borders for new countries in the Mideast without regard for ethnic and religious factions. The centuries-old tensions between the native inhabitants of the region led to many of the problems causing turmoil in the Mideast today, another irony of the War to End War.

Africa was home to a sideshow of the European fighting. European nationals and colonial troops of both sides fought against each other, but the German colonies were widely separated and unable to support each other. In German East Africa (Tanzania) an aggressive general named Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck waged a guerilla campaign against his British opponents until after the armistice was signed in Europe that ended the Great War.

In the waters of the Pacific Ocean German commerce raiders found prey among merchant vessels of Allied nations. Japan joined the Allies war effort on August 23, 1914, ostensibly in fulfillment of the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of 1911. The Land of the Rising Sun seized German colonies such as the Marianas, Marshalls and Carolines island chains that would see intense fighting during the Second World War.

Among the causes of the First World War was the naval arms race that began with Britain’s deployment of HMS  Dreadnought , a new design that eschewed small, secondary arms in favor of big guns heavily armored for protection. Every nation wanted a Dreadnought, and Germany sought to increase the size of its fleet to the level of Britain’s. Accomplishing that goal while supporting large armies engaged in warfare proved impossible for Germany, but World War I saw the last great battles fought entirely between surface ships. Notable naval engagements include the Falkland Islands and Coronel off South America, and the battles of Heligoland Bight, Dogger Bank and Jutland in the North Sea. Jutland would prove to be not only the largest naval battle up to that time but the last in which fighting would take place only between surface ships. In World War II, the aircraft carrier became the most lethal surface ship and allowed enemy fleets to engage in battle without ever seeing each other from a captain’s bridge.

The most significant advance in naval warfare to come out of the Great War was the development of submarines, which the German Imperial Navy called  Unterseeboots  (undersea boats). That got shortened to U-boats, a name that became synonymous with submarine. Subs could hide beneath the waves in shipping lanes to attack merchant or combat ships with torpedoes without ever being seen. Such attacks on merchant or passenger ships without giving the crews and passengers warning so they could escape in lifeboats was considered a violation of the laws of naval warfare, and became known as “unrestricted” submarine warfare. Germany engaged in such unrestricted warfare until  U-20  sunk the British passenger liner  Lusitania  off Ireland in May 1915. Over 1,200 lives were lost, including 128 Americans, and the US threatened to break diplomatic relations with Germany. The Imperial Navy subsequently instituted strict regulations for U-boat attacks, but those went by the boards in 1917 as the Germans tried to cut off supplies to Britain and starve the island nation into submission. It was a bad decision. The renewal of unrestricted submarine warfare and subsequent sinking of three American ships brought the US into the war, after which Germany’s fate was all but sealed.

WAR IN THE AIR

Airplanes had already seen limited military before World War I began. Italian aircraft were used for reconnaissance and small-scale bombing during the Italo-Turkish War of 1911. Aircraft during World War I continued to be used primarily for reconnaissance, including photo-reconnaissance missions. The first aircraft of the war weren’t even armed, since no serious effort had been made to create a fighting flying machine. Pilots began shooting at each other with pistols and rifles. Soon various schemes were attempted to attach machine guns to planes. The breakthrough came in 1915 when Holland’s Anthony Fokker developed a method to synchronize a machine gun’s fire with the rotation of the propeller on his  Eindecker  (single-wing) design for the German air force.

Early war planes were very light and used small engines with top speeds of less than 100 mph. On many designs the engine was in the rear and pushed the plane through the air. The demands of wartime, each side trying to outdo the other’s technological advances, created rapid improvements in aircraft design. Changes might occur within weeks; in the decades following the war, such changes would take years. By war’s end small, single-engine planes had been joined by multi-engine bombers such as the Giant, which Germany used to bomb British cities. Zeppelins were also used for reconnaissance and for bombing over land and sea. Tethered barrage balloons carried observers high above the front to watch enemy troop movements—and attracted the attention of the enemy’s airborne fighters.

While the war on the ground was a miserable existence in muddy, rat- and disease-infested trenches, and millions of lives might be spent to gain a few miles of territory, the war in the air captured the imagination of the world. Using this exciting new technology to maneuver through the skies and engage the enemy in one-on-one dogfights in which skillful pilots could rise to the status of ace gave the air war a sense of glamour that still hangs over the pilots of World War I.

AMERICA JOINS THE WAR

Most Americans saw little reason for the United States to involve itself in “the European War,” though some individuals—such as young pilots excited at the notion of flying in combat—enlisted through Canada or elsewhere. President Woodrow Wilson won reelection in 1916 on the slogan, “He kept us out of war.” That same year he tried to bring the combatant nations to the bargaining table to seek an end to the war that would be fair to all, but the attempt failed.

America was drawn into the conflict by the Zimmerman telegraph and unrestricted submarine warfare. On January 16, 1917, Foreign Secretary of the German Empire Arthur Zimmerman sent a coded message to the German ambassador in Mexico City, Heinrich von Eckart informing him Germany would return to unrestricted submarine warfare on February 1, a policy that might cause America to declare war. “We shall endeavor in spite of this to keep the United States of America neutral,” Zimmerman wrote, but if those efforts failed, Eckart was to convince Mexico to become Germany’s ally. As an inducement, Eckart was authorized to offer the return of the US states of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona to Mexico after America was defeated.

The code was broken, and the contents of the telegram published on March 1. Americans were outraged. Two weeks later German U-boats sank three American vessels. Wilson asked Congress on April 1 to authorize a declaration of war against Germany, which it did four days later. War was declared on the other Central Powers shortly thereafter.

When American troops and war materiel began arriving in Europe later in 1917, it unalterably shifted the balance of power in favor of the Allies. A final German offensive began on May 21, 1918, an attempt to win the war before the full weight of American strength could arrive. The Spring Offensive (also called the Ludendorff Offensive and the Kaiser’s Battle) sputtered out when German supply vehicles couldn’t keep up with the rapidly advancing soldiers across the broken, cratered battleground, and the Kaiser’s troops were left in poor defensive positions. An Allied operation that became known as the Hundred Days Offensive pushed the enemy back to the German border by September. Germany’s allies began their own peace negotiations.

The German navy mutinied. Ludendorff, architect of many German victories in the east, was dismissed. Riots broke out, often led by German Bolsheviks. Prince Max, Chancellor of Germany, authorized negotiations for peace terms and stipulated that both military and civilian representatives be involved. He then turned his title over to Friedrich Ebert, leader of the Socialist Democratic movement. Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated on November 9. An agreement between the combatants called for all guns to fall silent on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. Yet, even on the morning of November 11, before the designated time for the armistice to begin, some field officers ordered their men to make attacks, which accomplished little except more bloodshed.

THE ARMISTICE

A series of peace treaties were signed between the combatant nations, but the most significant was the Treaty of Versailles, signed on July 28, 1919, five years after Austria-Hungary had declared war on Serbia. Germany had hoped Woodrow Wilson would be a moderating factor that would allow for more generous peace terms, but the nations that had lost millions of young men to the weapons of the Central Powers were in no mood to be forgiving. As a result of the various treaties, the Ottoman Empire was dismantled. Austria-Hungary was broken into separate nations and forced to cede lands to successor states such as Czechoslovakia. Bulgaria was limited to a 20,000-man army, denied any aircraft or submarines and ordered to pay reparations over a 35-year period. Germany was restricted to a standing army of just 100,000 men, denied possession of certain weapons such as tanks, forced to pay reparations to its former enemies and give up all of its overseas colonies as well as some of its territories in Europe. In the coming years Germans would brood over the harsh terms and seek not only to overturn them but to inflict punishment on the nations that demanded them.

All combatant nations had concealed from their people the true extent of casualties during the war, but in Germany, where Hindenburg and Ludendorff were given control over virtually all aspects of civilian life as well as over the military, any negative reports about what was happening at the front were considered “defeatist” and were prohibited. Accordingly, much of the population believed it when they were told Germany was winning the war. The country’s sudden capitulation left them shocked and bewildered. Hindenburg claimed that the German soldier had been winning the war but was “stabbed in the back” by civilians who overthrew the monarchy. The popular old soldier was elected president of Germany, and his “stabbed in the back” myth was used to great effect by a rising political star, Adolf Hitler.

World War I Introduction and Overview

Belligerent nations.

• Origins of World War I

World War I on Land

World war i at sea, technical innovation, modern view.

• M.A., Medieval Studies, Sheffield University
• B.A., Medieval Studies, Sheffield University

World War I was a major conflict fought in Europe and around the world between July 28, 1914, and November 11, 1918. Nations from across all non-polar continents were involved , although Russia, Britain, France, Germany, and Austria-Hungary dominated. Much of the war was characterized by stagnant trench warfare and massive loss of life in failed attacks; over eight million people were killed in battle.

The war was fought by two main power blocks: the Entente Powers , or 'Allies,' comprised of Russia, France, Britain (and later the U.S.), and their allies on one side and the Central Powers of Germany, Austro-Hungary, Turkey, and their allies on the other. Italy later joined the Entente. Many other countries played smaller parts on both sides.

Origins of World War I

To understand the origins , it is important to understand how politics at the time. European politics in the early twentieth century were a dichotomy: many politicians thought war had been banished by progress while others, influenced partly by a fierce arms race, felt war was inevitable. In Germany, this belief went further: the war should happen sooner rather than later, while they still (as they believed) had an advantage over their perceived major enemy, Russia. As Russia and France were allied, Germany feared an attack from both sides. To mitigate this threat, the Germans developed the Schlieffen Plan , a swift looping attack on France designed to knock it out early, allowing for concentration on Russia.

Rising tensions culminated on June 28th, 1914 with the assassination of  Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand  by a Serbian activist, an ally of Russia. Austro-Hungary asked for German support and was promised a 'blank cheque'; they declared war on Serbia on July 28th. What followed was a sort of domino effect as more and more nations joined the fight . Russia mobilized to support Serbia, so Germany declared war on Russia; France then declared war on Germany. As German troops swung through Belgium into France days later, Britain declared war on Germany too. Declarations continued until much of Europe was at war with each other. There was widespread public support.

After the swift German invasion of France was stopped at the Marne, 'the race to the sea' followed as each side tried to outflank each other ever closer to the English Channel. This left the entire Western Front divided by over 400 miles of trenches, around which the war stagnated. Despite massive battles like Ypres , little progress was made and a battle of attrition emerged, caused partly by German intentions to 'bleed the French dry' at Verdun and Britain's attempts on the Somme . There was more movement on the Eastern Front with some major victories, but there was nothing decisive and the war carried on with high casualties.

Attempts to find another route into their enemy’s territory led to the failed Allied invasion of Gallipoli, where Allied forces held a beachhead but were halted by fierce Turkish resistance. There was also conflict on the Italian front, the Balkans, the Middle East, and smaller struggles in colonial holdings where the warring powers bordered each other.

Although the build-up to war had included a naval arms race between Britain and Germany, the only large naval engagement of the conflict was the Battle of Jutland, where both sides claimed victory. Instead, the defining struggle involved submarines and the German decision to pursue Unrestricted Submarine Warfare (USW). This policy allowed submarines to attack any target they found, including those belonging to the 'neutral' United States, which caused the latter to enter the war in 1917 on behalf of the Allies, supplying much-needed manpower.

Despite Austria-Hungary becoming little more than a German satellite, the Eastern Front was the first to be resolved, the war causing massive political and military instability in Russia, leading to the Revolutions of 1917 , the emergence of socialist government and surrender on December 15. Efforts by the Germans to redirect manpower and take the offensive in the west failed and, on November 11, 1918 (at 11:00 am), faced with allied successes, massive disruption at home and the impending arrival of vast US manpower, Germany signed an Armistice, the last Central power to do so.

Each of the defeated nations signed a treaty with the Allies, most significantly the Treaty of Versailles which was signed with Germany, and which has been blamed for causing further disruption ever since. There was devastation across Europe: 59 million troops had been mobilized, over 8 million died and over 29 million were injured. Huge quantities of capital had been passed to the now emergent United States and the culture of every European nation was deeply affected and the struggle became known as The Great War or The War to End All Wars.

World War I was the first to make major use of machine guns, which soon showed their defensive qualities. It was also the first to see poison gas used on the battlefields, a weapon which both sides made use of, and the first to see tanks, which were initially developed by the allies and later used to great success. The use of aircraft evolved from simply reconnaissance to a whole new form of aerial warfare.

Thanks partly to a generation of war poets who recorded the horrors of the war and a generation of historians who castigated the Allied high command for their decisions and ‘waste of life’ (Allied soldiers being the 'Lions led by Donkeys'), the war was generally viewed as a pointless tragedy. However, later generations of historians have found mileage in revising this view. While the Donkeys have always been ripe for recalibration, and careers built on provocation have always found material (such as Niall Ferguson's The Pity of War ), the centenary commemorations found historiography split between a phalanx wishing to create a new martial pride and sideline the worst of the war to create an image of a conflict well worth fighting and then truly won by the allies, and those who wished to stress the alarming and pointless imperial game millions of people died for. The war remains highly controversial and as subject to attack and defense as the newspapers of the day.

• 5 Key Causes of World War I
• World War I Timeline: 1914, The War Begins
• World War I: A Stalemate Ensues
• World War I Timeline From 1914 to 1919
• The Fourteen Points of Woodrow Wilson's Plan for Peace
• The Causes and War Aims of World War One
• Causes of World War I and the Rise of Germany
• The Major Alliances of World War I
• Key Historical Figures of World War I
• World War I: A Battle to the Death
• World War 1: A Short Timeline Pre-1914
• The Countries Involved in World War I
• World War I: Opening Campaigns
• The First Battle of the Marne
• World War 1: A Short Timeline 1915
• World War I: A Global Struggle

What caused World War I and what were its effects?

Also called The Great War, World War I was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and set the stage for another world war just 20 years later.

It was known as “ The Great War ”—a land, air and sea conflict so terrible, it left over 8 million military personnel and 6.6 million civilians dead . Nearly 60 percent of those who fought died. Even more went missing or were injured. In just four years between 1914 and 1918, World War I changed the face of modern warfare, becoming one of the deadliest conflicts in world history.

Causes of the Great War

World War I had a variety of causes, but its roots were in a complex web of alliances between European powers. At its core was mistrust between—and militarization in—the informal “ Triple Entente ” (Great Britain, France, and Russia) and the secret “ Triple Alliance ” (Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Italy).

The most powerful players, Great Britain, Russia, and Germany, presided over worldwide colonial empires they wanted to expand and protect. Over the course of the 19th century, they consolidated their power and protected themselves by forging alliances with other European powers.

In July 1914, tensions between the Triple Entente (also known as the Allies) and the Triple Alliance (also known as the Central Powers) ignited with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand , heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by a Bosnian Serb nationalist during a visit to Sarajevo. Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia for the attack. Russia backed its ally, Serbia. When Austria-Serbia declared war on Serbia a month later, their allies jumped in and the continent was at war.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand (1863-1914), above, was assassinated in Sarajevo by a Serb nationalist. The event incident precipitated World War I.

The spread of war

Soon, the conflict had expanded to the world, affecting colonies and ally countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Australia. In 1917, the United States entered the war after a long period of non-intervention . By then, the main theater of the war—the Western Front in Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France—was the site of a deadly stalemate.

Despite advances like the use of poison gas and armored tanks, both sides were trapped in trench warfare that claimed enormous numbers of casualties . Battles like the Battle of Verdun and the First Battle of the Somme are among the deadliest in the history of human conflict.

Aided by the United States, the Allies finally broke through with the Hundred Days Offensive , leading to the military defeat of Germany. The war officially ended at 11:11 a.m. on November 11, 1918.

By then, the world was in the grips of an influenza pandemic that would infect a third of the global population. Revolution had broken out in Germany, Russia, and other countries. Much of Europe was in ruins. “Shell shock” and the aftereffects of gas poisoning would claim thousands more lives.

Never again?

Though the world vowed never to allow another war like it to happen, the roots of the next conflict were sown in the Treaty of Versailles , which was viewed by Germans as humiliating and punitive and which helped set the stage for the rise of fascism and World War II. The technology that the war had generated would be used in the next world war just two decades later.

Though it was described at the time as “the war to end all wars,” the scar that World War I left on the world was anything but temporary.

American Colonel Christopher Miller surveys the cratered landscape on the top of Fort de Vaux. The seemingly gentle hills are lasting testaments to the heavy shelling during the Battle of Verdun.

Related Topics

• WORLD WAR I

You May Also Like

What the end of the war in Afghanistan means to one mother and her family

Top guns of World War I

100 years ago, the United States enters World War I

A military spouse reflects on life over two decades of war—and what comes next

The Christmas Truce of 1914: What historians say really happened

• Environment
• Paid Content
• Photography
• Perpetual Planet

History & Culture

• History & Culture
• History Magazine
• Mind, Body, Wonder
• Destination Guide
• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Your US State Privacy Rights
• Children's Online Privacy Policy
• Interest-Based Ads
• About Nielsen Measurement
• Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
• Nat Geo Home
• Attend a Live Event
• Book a Trip
• Inspire Your Kids
• Shop Nat Geo
• Visit the D.C. Museum
• Learn About Our Impact
• Support Our Mission
• Advertise With Us
• Customer Service
• Renew Subscription
• Manage Your Subscription
• Work at Nat Geo
• Sign Up for Our Newsletters
• Contribute to Protect the Planet

Copyright © 1996-2015 National Geographic Society Copyright © 2015-2024 National Geographic Partners, LLC. All rights reserved

Self-Paced Courses : Explore American history with top historians at your own time and pace!

• AP US History Study Guide
• History U: Courses for High School Students
• History School: Summer Enrichment
• Lesson Plans
• Classroom Resources
• Spotlights on Primary Sources
• Professional Development (Academic Year)
• Professional Development (Summer)
• Book Breaks
• Inside the Vault
• Self-Paced Courses
• Browse All Resources
• Search by Issue
• Search by Essay
• Become a Member (Free)
• Monthly Offer (Free for Members)
• Program Information
• Scholarships and Financial Aid
• Applying and Enrolling
• Eligibility (In-Person)
• EduHam Online
• Hamilton Cast Read Alongs
• Official Website
• Press Coverage
• Veterans Legacy Program
• The Declaration at 250
• Black Lives in the Founding Era
• Celebrating American Historical Holidays
• Browse All Programs
• Donate Items to the Collection
• Search Our Catalog
• Research Guides
• Rights and Reproductions
• See Our Documents on Display
• Bring an Exhibition to Your Organization
• Interactive Exhibitions Online
• About the Transcription Program
• Civil War Letters
• Founding Era Newspapers
• College Fellowships in American History
• Scholarly Fellowship Program
• Richard Gilder History Prize
• David McCullough Essay Prize
• Affiliate School Scholarships
• Nominate a Teacher
• Eligibility
• State Winners
• National Winners
• Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize
• Gilder Lehrman Military History Prize
• George Washington Prize
• Frederick Douglass Book Prize
• Our Mission and History
• Annual Report
• Contact Information
• Student Advisory Council
• Teacher Advisory Council
• Board of Trustees
• Remembering Richard Gilder
• President's Council
• Scholarly Advisory Board
• Internships
• Our Partners
• Press Releases

History Resources

Historical Context: The Global Effect of World War I

By steven mintz.

A recent list of the hundred most important news stories of the twentieth century ranked the onset of World War I eighth. This is a great error. Just about everything that happened in the remainder of the century was in one way or another a result of World War I, including the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, World War II, the Holocaust, and the development of the atomic bomb. The Great Depression, the Cold War, and the collapse of European colonialism can also be traced, at least indirectly, to the First World War.

World War I killed more people--more than 9 million soldiers, sailors, and flyers and another 5 million civilians--involved more countries--28--and cost more money--$186 billion in direct costs and another $151 billion in indirect costs--than any previous war in history. It was the first war to use airplanes, tanks, long range artillery, submarines, and poison gas. It left at least 7 million men permanently disabled.

World War I probably had more far-reaching consequences than any other proceeding war. Politically, it resulted in the downfall of four monarchies--in Russia in 1917, in Austria-Hungary and Germany in 1918, and in Turkey in 1922. It contributed to the Bolshevik rise to power in Russia in 1917 and the triumph of fascism in Italy in 1922. It ignited colonial revolts in the Middle East and in Southeast Asia.

Economically, the war severely disrupted the European economies and allowed the United States to become the world's leading creditor and industrial power. The war also brought vast social consequences, including the mass murder of Armenians in Turkey and an influenza epidemic that killed over 25 million people worldwide.

Few events better reveal the utter unpredictability of the future. At the dawn of the 20th century, most Europeans looked forward to a future of peace and prosperity. Europe had not fought a major war for 100 years. But a belief in human progress was shattered by World War I, a war few wanted or expected. At any point during the five weeks leading up to the outbreak of fighting the conflict might have been averted. World War I was a product of miscalculation, misunderstanding, and miscommunication.

No one expected a war of the magnitude or duration of World War I. At first the armies relied on outdated methods of communication, such as carrier pigeons. The great powers mobilized more than a million horses. But by the time the conflict was over, tanks, submarines, airplane-dropped bombs, machine guns, and poison gas had transformed the nature of modern warfare. In 1918, the Germans fired shells containing both tear gas and lethal chlorine. The tear gas forced the British to remove their gas masks; the chlorine then scarred their faces and killed them.

In a single day at the Battle of the Somme in 1916, 100,000 British troops plodded across no man's land into steady machine-gun fire from German trenches a few yards away. Some 60,000 were killed or wounded. At the end of the battle, 419,654 British men were killed, missing, or wounded.Four years of war killed a million troops from the British Empire, 1.5 million troops from the Hapsburg Empire, 1.7 million French troops, 1.7 million Russians, and 2 million German troops. The war left a legacy of bitterness that contributed to World War II twenty-one years later.

Stay up to date, and subscribe to our quarterly newsletter.

Learn how the Institute impacts history education through our work guiding teachers, energizing students, and supporting research.

Home — Essay Samples — History — Imperialism — Main Causes of World War 1: Discussion

Main Causes of World War 1: Discussion

• Categories: Imperialism Nationalism

About this sample

Words: 645 |

Updated: 16 November, 2023

Words: 645 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

The essay explores the causes of World War 1, which took place from 1914 to 1918. It begins with a brief overview of the war's timeline and the major countries involved, including the United Kingdom, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan, the United States of America, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire. The essay then delves into the four main causes of the war: Militarism, Nationalism, Imperialism, and Alliances.

Militarism is discussed as the policy of maintaining a strong military force and a readiness to use it aggressively for defense. The significant arms buildup and military spending by various countries, including Germany, are highlighted as contributing factors to the outbreak of the war.

Nationalism is described as the strong attachment to one's own nation and culture. It is explained how nationalism led to conflicts, including the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which triggered Austria's desire for revenge.

Imperialism, the expansion of a nation's power by dominating other countries, is presented as a factor due to the competition among European powers over control of African resources and territories.

Lastly, the essay discusses the role of Alliances, where countries formed partnerships to defend each other, often resulting in a domino effect of declarations of war.

Table of contents

• Causes of World War 1

Video Version

Causes o f world war 1, nationalism and imperialism.

A Good Hook Examples for WWI Essay

• A Glimpse into the Trenches: Step back in time and experience the chilling reality of life in the trenches of World War I. In this essay, we’ll immerse ourselves in the harrowing tales of soldiers who faced the horrors of the Great War.
• The War to End All Wars: Explore the monumental impact of World War I on global history. In this essay, we’ll dissect the events that led to the war, the key players, and the lasting consequences that continue to shape our world today.
• The Poetry of Conflict: World War I inspired a generation of poets to capture the raw emotions of battle. Join us as we analyze the powerful verses and poignant imagery that emerged from the trenches.
• Lessons from the Great War: As we commemorate the centennial of World War I, it’s crucial to reflect on the lessons learned from this catastrophic conflict. This essay delves into the war’s impact on diplomacy, technology, and the human spirit.
• Unsung Heroes of WWI: Beyond the famous generals and political leaders, there were countless unsung heroes in the Great War. In this essay, we’ll shine a light on the remarkable stories of bravery and sacrifice from the trenches to the home front.
• Strachan, H. (2014). The First World War: To Arms. Oxford University Press.
• MacMillan, M. (2013). The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914. Random House.
• Fay, S. B. (1928). The Origins of the World War (Vol. 1). The Macmillan Company.
• Gildea, R. (2003). Children of the Revolution: The French, 1799-1914. Harvard University Press.
• Kennedy, P. M. (1980). The Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism, 1860-1914. Allen & Unwin.

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Prof. Kifaru

Verified writer

• Expert in: History Government & Politics

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

3 pages / 1369 words

1 pages / 405 words

4 pages / 1595 words

1 pages / 1752 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Imperialism

Imperialism is defined as one country’s domination of the political, economic, and social life of another country. In the late 1800s, Europeans colonized countries, traded slaves, gold, and many other various resources. One of [...]

Imperialism, the policy of extending a nation's authority by territorial acquisition or by the establishment of economic and political dominance over other nations, has long been a topic of interest and debate among historians [...]

American imperialism, a historical phenomenon, has evolved and adapted to the changing dynamics of the modern world. In contemporary times, the United States continues to exert its influence globally, albeit through different [...]

American imperialism, the expansion of the United States' influence and territory beyond its continental borders, has been a defining feature of the nation's history. From the late 19th century to the present day, the United [...]

From the fifteenth century to the nineteenth century, only ten percent of Africa had been colonized by European powers. This ten percent of colonies were typically located on the coast of the continent in order to be used in the [...]

Imperialism in Africa has had a long-lasting and devastating impact on the continent and its people. The negative effects of imperialism in Africa are far-reaching and continue to be felt to this day. From the economic [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

• Divisions and Offices
• Grants Search
• Manage Your Award
• NEH's Application Review Process
• Professional Development
• Grantee Communications Toolkit
• NEH Virtual Grant Workshops
• Awards & Honors
• American Tapestry
• Humanities Magazine
• NEH Resources for Native Communities
• Search Our Work
• Office of Communications
• Office of Congressional Affairs
• Office of Data and Evaluation
• Budget / Performance
• Contact NEH
• Equal Employment Opportunity
• Human Resources
• Information Quality
• National Council on the Humanities
• Office of the Inspector General
• Privacy Program
• State and Jurisdictional Humanities Councils
• Office of the Chair
• NEH-DOI Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Partnership
• NEH Equity Action Plan
• GovDelivery

World War I Changed America and Transformed Its Role in International Relations

So why don't we pay more attention to it.

—Library of Congress

The entry of the United States into World War I changed the course of the war, and the war, in turn, changed America. Yet World War I receives short shrift in the American consciousness. 

Recruiting poster for the U.S. Army by Herbert Paus.

Detail of a recruiting poster for YWCA by Ernest Hamlin Baker.

The American Expeditionary Forces arrived in Europe in 1917 and helped turn the tide in favor of Britain and France, leading to an Allied victory over Germany and Austria in November 1918. By the time of the armistice, more than four million Americans had served in the armed forces and 116,708 had lost their lives. The war shaped the writings of Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos. It helped forge the military careers of Dwight D. Eisenhower, George S. Patton, and George C. Marshall. On the home front, millions of women went to work, replacing the men who had shipped off to war, while others knitted socks and made bandages. For African-American soldiers, the war opened up a world not bound by America’s formal and informal racial codes. 

And we are still grappling with one of the major legacies of World War I: the debate over America’s role in the world. For three years, the United States walked the tightrope of neutrality as President Woodrow Wilson opted to keep the country out of the bloodbath consuming Europe. Even as Germany’s campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare in the Atlantic put American sailors and ships in jeopardy, the United States remained aloof. But after the Zimmermann telegram revealed Germany’s plans to recruit Mexico to attack the United States if it did not remain neutral, Americans were ready to fight. 

In April 1917, President Wilson stood before Congress and said, “The world must be made safe for democracy.” With those words, he asked for a declaration of war, which Congress gave with gusto. For the first time in its history, the United States joined a coalition to fight a war not on its own soil or of its own making, setting a precedent that would be invoked repeatedly over the next century. 

“For most Americans, going to war in 1917 was about removing the German threat to the U.S. homeland,” says Michael S. Neiberg, professor of history at the U.S. Army War College. “But after the war, Wilson developed a much more expansive vision to redeem the sin of war through the founding of a new world order, which created controversy and bitterness in the United States.”

The burden of sending men off to die weighed on Wilson’s conscience. It was one reason why he proposed the creation of the League of Nations, an international body based on collective security. But joining the League required the United States to sacrifice a measure of sovereignty. When judged against the butcher’s bill of this war, Wilson thought it was a small price to pay. Others, like Wilson’s longtime nemesis Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, believed that the United States should be free to pursue its own interests and not be beholden to an international body. America hadn’t fought a war only to relinquish its newfound stature as a military power. 

As soldiers returned home and the victory parades faded, the fight over the League of Nations turned bitter. The sense of accomplishment quickly evaporated. “Then came the Depression (a direct result of the war) and another global crisis,” says Neiberg. “All of that made memory of World War I a difficult thing for Americans to engage with after about 1930.” 

Even as the world has changed, the positions staked out by Wilson and Lodge have not evolved much over the past one hundred years. When new storm clouds gathered in Europe during the 1930s, Lodge’s argument was repurposed by isolationists as “America First,” a phrase that has come back into vogue as yet another example of the war’s enduring influence. “The war touched everything around the globe. Our entire world was shaped by it, even if we do not always make the connections,” Neiberg says. 

Historian and writer A. Scott Berg emphatically agrees. “I think World War I is the most underrecognized significant event of the last several centuries. The stories from this global drama—and its larger-than-life characters—are truly the stuff of Greek tragedy and are of Biblical  proportion; and modern America’s very identity was forged during this war.”

A biographer of Wilson and Charles Lindbergh, Berg has now cast his eye as an editor across the rich corpus of contemporaneous writing to produce  World War I and America , a nearly one-thousand-page book of letters, speeches, diary entries, newspaper reports, and personal accounts. This new volume from Library of America starts with the  New York Times  story of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in July 1914 and concludes with an excerpt from John Dos Passos’s novel  1919 . In between, the voices of soldiers, politicians, nurses, diplomats, journalists, suffragettes, and intellectuals ask questions that are still with us. 

“What is America’s role in the world? Are our claims to moral leadership abroad undercut by racial injustice at home? What do we owe those who serve in our wars?” asks Max Rudin, Library of America’s publisher. With 2017 marking the one-hundredth anniversary of America's entry into the war, the moment seemed ripe to revisit a conflict whose ghosts still haunt the nation. “It offered an opportunity to raise awareness about a generation of American writers that cries out to be better known,” says Rudin. 

The volume shows off familiar names in surprising places. Nellie Bly and Edith Wharton report from the front lines. Henry Morgenthau Sr., the ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, files increasingly terrifying reports on the Armenian genocide. As Teddy Roosevelt leads the fight for American intervention, Jane Addams and Emma Goldman question the aims of the war. Writing from Italy, Ernest Hemingway complains to his family about being wounded. While Wilson and Lodge fight over American sovereignty, Ezra Pound expresses his disillusionment and grief in verse. 

We also meet Floyd Gibbons, a  Chicago Tribune  crime reporter. Before the war he covered plenty of shootings, but “I could never learn from the victims what the precise feeling was as the piece of lead struck.” He found out in June 1918 at Belleau Wood when a German bullet found him—“the lighted end of a cigarette touched me in the fleshy part of my upper left arm.” A second bullet also found his shoulder, spawning a large burning sensation. “And then the third one struck me. . . . It sounded to me like some one had dropped a glass bottle into a porcelain bathtub. A barrel of whitewash tipped over and it seemed that everything in the world turned white.” The third bullet had found his left eye. 

Stepping into an operating theater with Mary Borden, the Chicago heiress who established hospitals in France and Belgium, the smell of blood and death almost leaps off the page. “We send our men up the broken road between bushes of barbed wire and they come back to us, one by one, two by two in ambulances, lying on stretchers. They lie on their backs on the stretchers and are pulled out of the ambulances as loaves of bread are pulled out of the oven.” As a wounded soldier is laid out, “we conspire against his right to die. We experiment with his bones, his muscles, his sinews, his blood. We dig into the yawning mouths of his wounds. Helpless openings, they let us into the secret places of his body.”

When the American Expeditionary Forces shipped off to Europe, so too did approximately 16,500 women. They worked as clerks, telephone operators, and nurses; they also ran canteens that served meals to soldiers and offered a respite from battle. “These women often had complex motivations, such as a desire for adventure or professional advancement, and often witnessed more carnage than male soldiers, creating unacknowledged problems with PTSD when they returned home,” says Jennifer Keene, professor of history at Chapman University.

Of course, most women experienced the war stateside, where they tended victory gardens and worked to produce healthy meals from meager rations. They volunteered for the Red Cross and participated in Liberty Loan drives. As Willa Cather learned when she decamped from New York to Red Cloud, Nebraska, in the summer of 1918, the war could be consuming. “In New York the war was one of many subjects people talked about; but in Omaha, Lincoln, in my own town, and the other towns along the Republican Valley, and over in the north of Kansas, there was nothing but the war.” 

In the Library of America volume, W. E. B. Du Bois, who, in the wake of Booker T. Washington’s death, assumed the mantle of spokesman for the black community, provides another take. From the beginning, Du Bois saw the war as grounded in the colonial rivalries and aspirations of the European belligerents. 

Chad Williams, associate professor of African and Afro-American Studies at Brandeis University, says Du Bois was ahead of his time. “His writings also vividly illuminated the tensions between the professed democratic aims of the Allies—and the United States in particular—and the harsh realities of white supremacy, domestically and globally, for black people. Du Bois hoped that by supporting the American war effort and encouraging African-American patriotism, this tension could be reconciled. He was ultimately—and tragically—wrong.” 

Along with Du Bois’s commentary, there are reports on the race riots in East St. Louis and Houston in 1917. Such incidents prompted James Weldon Johnson to cast aside sentimentality and answer the question, “Why should a Negro fight?”

“America is the American Negro’s country,” he wrote. “He has been here three hundred years; that is, about two hundred years longer than most of the white people.” 

The U.S. Army shunted African-American soldiers into segregated units and issued them shovels more often than rifles. Some, however, fought alongside the French as equals, prompting questions about their treatment by their own country. African-American soldiers came home as citizens of the world with questions about their place in American society. “Understanding how the war impacted black people and the importance of this legacy is endlessly fascinating and, given our current times, extremely relevant,” says Williams.

To accompany its World War I volume, Library of America has launched a nationwide program, featuring scholars, to foster discussion about the war and its legacy. One hundred twenty organizations, from libraries to historical societies, are hosting events that involve veterans, their families, and their communities.

“There are veterans of recent conflicts in every community in America for whom the experiences and issues raised by World War I are very immediate,” says Rudin. “We all have something to learn from that.”

“Every war is distinct, and yet every war has almost eerie commonalities with wars past,” says Phil Klay, author of  Redeployment , a collection of short stories about his service in Iraq that won the National Book Award. “I don’t think veterans have a unique authority in these discussions, but our personal experiences do inevitably infuse our reading. In my case, I find myself relentlessly drawn to pull lessons for the future from these readings, as the moral stakes of war have a visceral feel for me.” 

For community programs, Library of America developed a slimmer version of its volume, World War I and America, while adding introductory essays and discussion questions. Keene, Neiberg, and Williams, along with Edward Lengel, served as editors. “There is truly not one part of the nation that was untouched by the war,” says Williams. “This project has the potential to remind people of its far-reaching significance and perhaps uncover new stories about the American experience in the war that we have not yet heard.”

Berg echoes the sentiment. “I hope audiences will appreciate the presence of World War I in our lives today—whether it is our economy, race relations, women’s rights, xenophobia, free speech, or the foundation of American foreign policy for the last one hundred years: They all have their roots in World War I.”

Meredith Hindley is a senior writer for Humanities .

Funding information

Library of America received $500,000  from NEH for nationwide library programs, a traveling exhibition, a website, and a publication of an anthology exploring how World War I reshaped American lives. For more information about the project, visit ww1america.org

SUBSCRIBE FOR HUMANITIES MAGAZINE PRINT EDITION Browse all issues   Sign up for HUMANITIES Magazine newsletter

• DIGITAL MAGAZINE

MOST POPULAR

World War 1 facts

Nat geo kids travels back in time to find out more about a conflict that rocked the world….

On  July 28th 1914 began the outbreak of the First World War, aka World War 1  or The Great War for Civilisation . Join us as we learn everything there is to know in our World War 1 facts …

World War 1 facts: Why did it start?

A hundred years might seem like a very long time ago, but it isn’t really. Your  great-great grandparents  were around then, and they would have lived through, and maybe even taken part in, this terrible conflict.

Lots of history books have been written on World War 1 facts and why it started. But it all boils down to the fact that Europe had split into two large families of countries. The Allies — the British Empire, France, Belgium, Russia and later, the USA — were in one family. And the Central Powers of Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey were in the other. On 4 August 1914 , Germany invaded Belgium, and so, standing by its promise to stick up for Belgium, Britain declared war on Germany. The world was at war…

Check out our magazine!

National Geographic Kids is an exciting monthly read for planet-passionate boys and girls, aged 6-13!

Packed full of fun features, jaw-dropping facts and awe-inspiring photos – it’ll keep you entertained for hours!

Find our magazine in all good newsagents, or become a subscriber and have it delivered to your door! Ask your parents to check out the ‘Subscribe’ tab on our website!

How long did World War 1 last?

When the First World War began that summer, most people thought it would be over by Christmas. Many believed that Britain was so powerful it could win very quickly. In fact, the First World War lasted four terrible years , not four months.

Life in the trenches in World War 1

By the winter of 1915, the opposing sides had both dug long ditches called trenches which faced each other, in some places just 30m apart! These lines of narrow trenches stretched from the Belgian coast to Switzerland, and were known as the Western Front . Over five million British soldiers spent time living in these muddy, miserable ditches, taking it in turns to be on the Front Line — the trench closest to the enemy.

Did you know that we have a FREE downloadable  First World War primary resource ? Great for teachers, homeschoolers and parents alike!

Day-to-day life there was smelly and grim. There were millions of giant rats, overflowing latrines (loos) and terrible lice infestations. Not to mention the dead bodies. Every so often, soldiers on the Front Line would be instructed to leave their trench and venture into dangerous No Man’s Land (the area between the sides) to try to push back the enemy.

A new type of war

This war was very different from conflicts of the past. For the first time, powerful new weapons and vehicles were used – at sea, on land and in the air – resulting in many people being killed or wounded. In Britain, you could sometimes hear what sounded like thunder coming across the English Channel from Europe . In fact, it was the huge boom of big guns, called artillery, being fired on the Western Front. 75% of all men who died in World War 1 were killed by artillery .

The largest battle of the World War 1 – the Battle of the Somme – is known as one of the bloodiest battles in history. It was fought by the French and British against the Germans on both sides of the River Somme in France , and lasted for more than five months . Over a million men were killed or wounded, and it was the first time that a tank was used in combat.

Animals during World War 1

Both on the battlefield and back at home, some incredible creatures helped to transport soldiers and goods – and save lives.

Almost a million horses were involved in the war. Soldiers on horseback were known as the  Cavalry  and horses also pulled some of the  gigantic guns ,  ambulances  and  supply wagons . Gas from horse droppings could even be used to power lamps!

British families gave their  pet dogs  to the army so they could carry messages in special tubes on their collars (see above). Dogs were fast, difficult to shoot at, and they also caught rats!  Pet pigeons  were drafted in to carry messages over long distances, often carrying news from the Front Line back to Britain — Germans trained  hawks  to kill any carrier pigeons they saw.  Goldfish  did their bit too — after gas attacks, the gas masks were washed and rinsed. And if the rinsing water killed a goldfish that was placed in it, that meant the masks still had poison on them!

Did you know that we have a FREE downloadable  War Horses: WWI primary resource ? Great for teachers, homeschoolers and parents alike!

What was life like in Britain during World War 1?

Just because you weren’t in the battle fields didn’t mean you weren’t in the danger zone. Back on the  Home Front ,  Britain  was under attack from all sides.

It was the first time in history that Britain had come under threat from the  sky . Gigantic German airships, known as  Zeppelins  (below), carried out 52 bombing raids on Britain during the war – killing more than 500. People were terrified of them! To avoid Zeppelin attacks, no lights could be used after sunset and loud noises were banned, too. Large scale bombing raids on British cities were carried out during the day by German biplanes called Gothas.

There were threats from the sea, too. Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby were the first seaside towns to be shelled by the German navy.  Battlecruisers , ships with huge guns, launched a surprise attack on 16 December 1914 – 137 people were killed and 592 injured that night alone.

But all these attacks on ordinary people only stirred up hatred against the enemy, encouraging more British men to  volunteer  and fight for their country against “The Beast”.  At the start of the war there were just 350,000 men in the British army. But by 1917, there were 3.5 million! Mind you, in 1916, conscription came in – a rule that said ALL healthy men aged 18 – 41 had to fight.

Women during World War 1

Women weren’t allowed to join the army, but the war still completely changed their lives – in some ways, for the better!

Before the war, a woman’s role was in the  home.  But with the men away at war, help was needed in the  workplace  – and so millions of women went to work in offices, factories, shops, transport and on farms. Many men were horrified by the idea of females working and, even worse,  wearing trousers ! But the women proved that they could do the work of men, and do it just as well. Without the women of Britain growing food and making weapons, the war could not have been won.

When the war was over and the soldiers came home, women were made to leave their new jobs and go back into the home. But not all of them wanted to do that anymore! Their experiences during the war eventually led to women getting more freedoms and rights – including the  right to vote !

Children during World War 1

Did you know that  Boy Scouts  and  Girl Guides  had a vital role on the  Home Front ? Girl Guides would make basic  medical equipment  for wounded soldiers, like bandages, swabs and slings. They also worked  growing vegetables  and  delivering milk . Boy Scouts  collected eggs  for injured troops,  protected roads  and  railway lines , and  delivered messages .

Children were even paid to  collect conkers  which could be turned into explosives! They also  wrote letters  to soldiers and helped to  knit socks and scarves  for the troops in the winter months. Some boys  lied about their age  and went off to fight. The youngest of these,  Sidney Lewis , was just 12 years old when he joined the army. He was sent home at the age of 13 after fighting in the  Battle of the Somme , one of the war’s bloodiest battles.

Children were also used to carry messages for  MI5 , the  British Secret Service . The Boy Scouts, who were MI5’s first choice for this work, apparently found it hard to keep sensitive secrets, so Britain’s agents turned to the  Girl Guides , instead!

Believe it or not,  Winnie The Pooh  has his roots in World War 1 Britain. At the time, a young bear cub called  Winnie  was one of the most popular attractions at London Zoo. He was a mascot belonging to the  Canadian Army,  who had been left there for safekeeping. The bear was seen by author  A. A. Milne ‘s son  Christopher Robin , who renamed his own toy bear Winnie – and it became the inspiration for his dad’s book,  Winnie The Pooh !

Armistice Day

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918 , World War 1 officially ended when an agreement (known as an armistice ) was signed by Germany and the Allies. This date is known as Armistice Day , and is still commemorated each year when people wear paper poppies to remember those who fought and died in conflicts around the world – the pretty red flowers were the only things that grew on the bloody battlefields of Western Europe.

Sadly, by the time World War 1 was over, more than 18 million people had been killed worldwide. It was hoped it would be the war to end all wars. But this wasn’t to be the case. Just 21 years later, World War 2  broke out.

Your connections to World War 1

What can you find out about  your family ’s involvement in World War 1? Ask your grandparents whether their parents, aunties or uncles ever talked about life during this time. Do you have any  postcards  or  photographs  from the war? Perhaps there are  campaign medals  belonging to a relative at home? Write in and tell us about it, we’d love to hear your family stories!

What did you make of our World War 1 facts? Let us know by leaving us a comment, below!

Leave a comment.

Your comment will be checked and approved shortly.

WELL DONE, YOUR COMMENT HAS BEEN ADDED!

I find this very interesting and I will definitly be using this website again. I love all the facts thank you vert much bye have a nice day

i really like this topic

Wow i am really interested now

that was so cool

We are actully learning about this Article, Today. In Remote Learning. Thursday 2nd of September.

That is some cool facts

Amazing facts

Amazing facts.

Wonderful facts!

Such great information and easy to understand - thank you so much!

LOL im glad i wasent there in that time.

this is so helpful because i have this assignment due tomorrow and it REALLY those help. Thanks!

SO IMFORMATIONAL CAN'T WAIT TO TEACH MY DAD

very helpful

thats horrible

My great grandpa fought in the war and he is still alive!... 97 and still going strong, he is an amazing man. Everytime i go there i see his medals on display.

I loved the World war History, thank you by Telling me

I salute my relatives

I'm loving it!

world war is interesting to learn about

i love facts about world war 1

Awesome Work

why can't so many people here spell properly :/

I salute my elders for their bravery

its good facts

These People Look so Familiar WoW thanks for sharing

This is very useful and I can understanding everything not like other website they are boring

Thank you for all the information you have given .It will really help when I go to school on Monday.

great for learning

Very interesting

These were so helpfull for my school homework

That's a very scary thing, the war. It would be terrible to have world war 3! Especially now when there's just so much more dangerous weapons!

Easy to understand. Brill thanks

very helpful for me and my students thank you

I really like history

This was very interesting to read and helped me with my homework!

This was very interesting my great grandpa Basil Weeks was in WW1

This stuff is really sad. I am going to read more this is interesting

wow this is so intresting

fantastic information

great story

WOW!!!! I love the facts and they are so interesting too!! I love the fact when they play football.

LOL HOW INTRESTING

Very Informative

lot of info for kids like me age 11

Freaken awesome

This website is absolutely amaze balls

I think its fascinating about some things in history

thanks for the info

not fun boring

that is not fun it was boring

it is so interesting this that the other pages

That is so terribly sad. Pray for all the lost souls. Amen.

Story is COOL AND AWESOME

it is totally wrong

gymnast , plus i love baby chickens

fdfdfdfdfdfd

the stroy was cool

hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

trollllllllll and on if class 6th

cool brooooooooo

hot dog hot dog hot dog hot dog pizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

this is cool even after months of learning ww1

I know many things about history and years of learning ww1 i enjoy this site. it is very cool.

hot dogs for life

sup everyone good morning red bird

trollllllllllllll and on

coooooooool!!!!!

you guy have a great website lol is so great i love it and blc miss.south said and i am so glad i did

very interesting and factual

Awesome!!!!

pathetic 18 millions died because of one man

pathetic 18 millions died because of 1 man

More info. I feel like this is hardly anything.

Really cool article.

I didnt learn about the first world war fully! But now I know much more!

Oh my cool an I the oly one who can see this!!

interesting.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

cool i love the information

I didnt know that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Really helpful

didnt really help soz

I want to learn more!

MY GREAT GRANDPA FOUGHT IN WORLD WAR 1

MY GRANDDAD FOUGHT THERE

What did they play football with ?

I like the plane! I wanna fly it!

m8 this is slick

ummmmmm blah RAW MEAT? mvcxzaqwertyioplmbvzzawetuinn

love the facts helps me with my homework

i a sorry for the soldiers that fought in the first world war I hope they are remembered LEST WE FORGET

It is sooo sad that many soldiers in the trenches were living in conditions as bad as that. But I thank them very much for saving us,and for making our future as good as it is.

Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That was good history.It was sad that some men and fathers died

soooooo cool

it must have been horribile

Really good history. its good they stopped fighting for a little bit.

cool and cool and cooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooollllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

i love history . cool

I have no clue how they could like each other for a few days and then hate each other again. I like learning about the wars

Thanks for information!

it is so cool

Ive leant a lot from this website its soooo cool

Really good. Ive always wanted to know more about world war 1

Can you believe it, they fought and then stopped for christmas by two days and then fought again!!!!!!!!!!!

good website

This is really interesting, I love how they all stopped fighting for a day or two (the truce) and decided to get along, sing together and even play football. It shows you how friendly people can be - even your enemies!

ITS NOT VERY NICE ONE BIT, ALL I CAN SAY IS IT WILL BE REMEMBERD!

The war wasn`t a very nice time to live.

Really good learning facts!

Cool facts!

Awesome, but i am learning about the celts it grosses me out. I do play minecraft with my brother also i play AJ but some times i dilike AJ because of the lag, boredism and mean people on AJ.

That did you know is very odd and interesting.

They called soccer football?

This taught me a lesson, not to be enemies.

They are all cool facts about the first world war.

i love animal jam but mine craft is good i like this website

history is good you can learn new things you did not know from a long time ago

Very intresting facts with puciation caption and fact points

Thanks for the information

it was intresting

this helped alot thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!

I learnt a lot about World War 1 today, I was surprised 9 out of 10 people survived.

Why stop fighting I for a day when it can be evey day

it rearly helped my brain!

this gave me sooooo much information on world war 1

it is astonishing

my topic is ww1 and I learned new things on this website I knew a lot already someone in my family fought in ww1 and ww2

i would not like to be in the war

helped alot

I would not like to be in war

i feel sorry for the family of people who died coz they would have been real upset

Learnt about this at school but not this much! Must have been terrible

I wouldnt like to be in the war.

Cant have been nice! We should remember :)

that is about the frest would war

i would have hated it if i had to live in these conditions:(

cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

These facts are AMAAAAAAAAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I like the fact that actully learning about this on NG kids is fun

It was nice that they played football at Christmas and stopped fighting.

Awesome information and very informative!!!!!!!!!!

great. Got a project about world war 1so AWSOME!

very interesting i didnt know they played football on chrismas

So informative

this is great

Lovely facts

really informative i like it

CUSTOMIZE YOUR AVATAR

More like general history.

10 facts about the Tudors!

10 facts about the Vikings

Satellite images hint at lost mayan city.

The life of Nelson Mandela

Sign up to our newsletter

Get uplifting news, exclusive offers, inspiring stories and activities to help you and your family explore and learn delivered straight to your inbox.

You will receive our UK newsletter. Change region

WHERE DO YOU LIVE?

COUNTRY * Australia Ireland New Zealand United Kingdom Other

By entering your email address you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and will receive emails from us about news, offers, activities and partner offers.

You're all signed up! Back to subscription site

Type whatever you want to search

More Results

You’re leaving natgeokids.com to visit another website!

Ask a parent or guardian to check it out first and remember to stay safe online.

You're leaving our kids' pages to visit a page for grown-ups!

Be sure to check if your parent or guardian is okay with this first.

The Final Solution: a Defining Moment in World War II History

This essay about the Final Solution explores the chilling depths of World War II, detailing the systematic genocide of six million Jews and millions of others by the Nazi regime. It traces the origins of this diabolical plan, its execution through extermination camps and Einsatzgruppen, and the legacy it leaves on human nature, morality, and the commitment to never forget and prevent such atrocities in the future.

How it works

The Final Solution remains one of the most harrowing and defining episodes of World War II, epitomizing the extreme cruelty and systematic genocide orchestrated by the Nazi regime. This diabolical plan aimed to annihilate the Jewish people, leading to the deaths of six million Jews, alongside millions of others deemed undesirable by Nazi ideology, including Romani individuals, people with disabilities, political dissidents, and more.

The roots of the Final Solution can be traced to the virulent anti-Semitic beliefs deeply embedded in the Nazi Party and its leader, Adolf Hitler.

While anti-Semitism had long existed in Europe, the Nazi version was unique in its intensity and the extent to which it became enshrined in state policy. Following Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, the persecution of Jews grew increasingly systematic. The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 codified racial discrimination, stripping Jews of citizenship rights and forbidding marriages or sexual relations between Jews and non-Jews.

As the war expanded, so did the measures against Jews. Initially, the Nazis explored various strategies to expel Jews from Germany and occupied territories, including forced emigration. However, with the continued conquest of Europe, Nazi leadership shifted from expulsion to annihilation. The infamous Wannsee Conference, convened on January 20, 1942, marked the formalization of the Final Solution. Senior Nazi officials, led by SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, discussed and coordinated the logistics of mass murder, transitioning from sporadic killings to a centrally orchestrated, industrialized process of genocide.

The execution of the Final Solution relied on the establishment of extermination camps. Unlike concentration camps, primarily used for forced labor, extermination camps were designed explicitly for mass murder. Camps such as Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Sobibor, and Belzec became death factories where Jews and other victims were systematically killed, predominantly in gas chambers. Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest of these camps, became a symbol of the Holocaust, with an estimated 1.1 million people murdered there, the majority of them Jews.

The Final Solution also involved the Einsatzgruppen, mobile killing units that followed the German army’s advance into the Soviet Union. These units were responsible for mass shootings, primarily of Jews but also of Romani people, communists, and others. They conducted operations across Eastern Europe, culminating in massacres like that at Babi Yar, where over 33,000 Jews were slaughtered in a ravine outside Kyiv.

The genocide enacted through the Final Solution was facilitated by widespread complicity and apathy. Local collaborators across Europe assisted in rounding up Jews, motivated by anti-Semitism, greed, or fear. The bureaucratic efficiency of the Nazi state, with its meticulous record-keeping and coordination, starkly contrasts the chaos and destruction it inflicted on its victims. Trains transporting Jews to death camps ran on schedule, reflecting a perverse sense of normalcy amidst the horror.

The world was slow to grasp the full extent of the Final Solution. Reports from escapees and resistance fighters were often met with skepticism or disbelief. The sheer scale and horror of the Holocaust were difficult for many to comprehend. However, as Allied forces advanced into Nazi-occupied Europe and began liberating concentration and extermination camps, the gruesome reality became undeniable. Soldiers, journalists, and the global public were confronted with images and testimonies of unimaginable suffering and death.

The legacy of the Final Solution is multifaceted. It serves as a stark reminder of the dangers of unchecked hatred, bigotry, and authoritarianism. The Nuremberg Trials, held after the war, brought many of the perpetrators to justice and established a precedent for prosecuting crimes against humanity and genocide. The Holocaust also profoundly impacted Jewish identity and the global Jewish community, contributing to the urgency of establishing the State of Israel as a homeland and refuge for Jews worldwide.

Educational and memorial efforts strive to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive, ensuring that future generations understand the gravity of the events and the importance of preventing such atrocities in the future. Institutions like Yad Vashem in Israel, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and numerous memorials across Europe serve as places of remembrance and education.

Yet, the Final Solution also poses enduring questions about human nature, morality, and the capacity for evil. How could such a meticulously planned and executed genocide occur in the heart of Europe, in the 20th century? What societal conditions and individual choices allowed for the systematic dehumanization and annihilation of millions? These questions continue to resonate, especially in light of ongoing conflicts and genocides around the world.

The Holocaust underscores the importance of vigilance against hate and the need for a commitment to human rights and dignity. It highlights the role of ordinary individuals in either perpetuating or resisting evil. Stories of resistance, from the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising to the efforts of individuals like Oskar Schindler and Raoul Wallenberg, illustrate the impact of courage and moral conviction.

In reflecting on the Final Solution, it is crucial to honor the memories of the victims and to learn from this dark chapter of history. The phrase “Never Again” encapsulates a commitment to preventing genocide and upholding the principles of justice and humanity. The Holocaust is not merely a historical event but a profound lesson on the consequences of hatred and the moral imperative to combat it in all its forms.

Cite this page

The Final Solution: A Defining Moment in World War II History. (2024, Jun 01). Retrieved from https://papersowl.com/examples/the-final-solution-a-defining-moment-in-world-war-ii-history/

"The Final Solution: A Defining Moment in World War II History." PapersOwl.com , 1 Jun 2024, https://papersowl.com/examples/the-final-solution-a-defining-moment-in-world-war-ii-history/

PapersOwl.com. (2024). The Final Solution: A Defining Moment in World War II History . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/the-final-solution-a-defining-moment-in-world-war-ii-history/ [Accessed: 6 Jun. 2024]

"The Final Solution: A Defining Moment in World War II History." PapersOwl.com, Jun 01, 2024. Accessed June 6, 2024. https://papersowl.com/examples/the-final-solution-a-defining-moment-in-world-war-ii-history/

"The Final Solution: A Defining Moment in World War II History," PapersOwl.com , 01-Jun-2024. [Online]. Available: https://papersowl.com/examples/the-final-solution-a-defining-moment-in-world-war-ii-history/. [Accessed: 6-Jun-2024]

PapersOwl.com. (2024). The Final Solution: A Defining Moment in World War II History . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/the-final-solution-a-defining-moment-in-world-war-ii-history/ [Accessed: 6-Jun-2024]

Don't let plagiarism ruin your grade

Hire a writer to get a unique paper crafted to your needs.

Our writers will help you fix any mistakes and get an A+!

Please check your inbox.

You can order an original essay written according to your instructions.

Trusted by over 1 million students worldwide

1. Tell Us Your Requirements

2. Pick your perfect writer

3. Get Your Paper and Pay

Hi! I'm Amy, your personal assistant!

Don't know where to start? Give me your paper requirements and I connect you to an academic expert.

short deadlines

100% Plagiarism-Free

Certified writers

1,737 Warplanes Destroyed: The Real Reason America Lost the Vietnam War

Summary and Key Points: Logan Nye's article revisits the restrictive rules of engagement (ROE) imposed on U.S. combat aviators by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the Vietnam War, which severely hampered their effectiveness.

-These rules prevented preemptive strikes against enemy anti-aircraft units, contributing to significant American losses.

-Under President Nixon, more aggressive tactics, exemplified by Operation Linebacker II, significantly shifted the war's dynamics.

-The lesson learned carried into the 1991 Persian Gulf War, where President George H.W. Bush allowed military leaders to conduct operations with minimal interference, resulting in the successful and decisive Operation Desert Storm.

A  somewhat recent article comments on the absolutely ludicrous rules of engagement (ROE) imposed on American combat aviators by Lyndon B. Johnson during the Vietnam War. 

The article in question , written by Logan Nye for We Are The Mighty, doesn’t offer a new premise. But seeing how this year marks the 50th anniversary of the official end of America’s involvement in the Vietnam War, his timing is certainly apropos.

Ceding the Initiative in Vietnam

In his bestselling 1995 mea culpa autobiography In Retrospect , Robert S. McNamara — secretary of defense under both JFK and LBJ — claimed that the latter president’s “instructions were clear: ‘Win!’” But the actions of McNamara and LBJ belied the expressed desire to win. 

The on-paper technological superiority of American warplanes like the F-4 Phantom — which garnered sixteen world speed and altitude records between 1959 and 1962 , and held five of those records until the advent of the F-15 Eagle in 1975 — was negated by arbitrary ROEs that gave a distinct advantage to the enemy and wasted the lives of American aircrews. How so? By allowing the North Vietnamese Communists to take the initiative during American air raids.

LBJ and McNamara dictated that our fighter and bomber crews couldn’t proactively hunt the Communists’ anti-aircraft units — their anti-aircraft artillery guns and surface-to-air missiles (SAM). Our flyboys couldn’t even attack the gun batteries and SAM sites until the enemy unit fired, or at least activated radar against them. In other words, never bleeping mind that we’re already actively engaged in a shooting war, we’re going to allow the enemy to fire the first shot every time.

Johnson even went so far as to brag that no single piece of ordnance could be placed on an American warplane in Vietnam without his personal approval.

Talk about micromanagement. And talk about murdering your own countrymen and wasting your material assets: A total of 1,737 U.S. fixed-wing aircraft were lost in combat during the war , including 40 percent of the total production of F-105 Thunderchiefs and one out of every eight F-4 Phantoms ever made. Two-thousand five-hundred eighty U.S. Air Force personnel lost their lives.

Along Came Kissinger and Nixon

LBJ’s White House successor, Richard M. Nixon , finally allowed American aviators to take the proverbial gloves off in their prosecution of the Vietnam War effort.

The difference became most glaringly obvious at the strategic level, specifically Operation Linebacker II, the so-called “Christmas bombing” of Hanoi in December 1972 that sent the North Vietnamese back to the peace table and nearly won the war for America .

But it applied at the tactical level as well, to fighter jocks as well as B-52 “BUFF” bomber drivers. This was thanks in no small part to U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. John D. Lavelle , then commander of the Seventh Air Force.

As Mr. Nye elaborates :

“Lavelle went to the Pentagon for permission…He says that approval came, with a caveat. Nixon was working on thawing relations with China in 1972. The Pentagon supported Lavelle coming up with his own ‘interpretation’ of the rules. ‘Secretary [of Defense Melvin] Laird told me he agreed, but the climate was just not right in Washington for any changes,’ Lavelle said. ‘He told me I should make a liberal interpretation of the rules of engagement in the field and not come to Washington and ask him, under the political climate, to come out with an interpretation; I should make them in the field, and he would back me up’…Lavelle came up with, ‘Yup, you can attack the guns under certain conditions,’ and his men destroyed 11 guns. They got a special thank you from the Thai prime minister on the same day Lavelle’s boss fired him.”

Lavelle may have been fired, but he still retired honorably from the Air Force with two stars on his shoulder boards. And soon enough, the official ROEs were changed for the better and made Operation Linebacker II possible.

Lesson Learned

Fast-forward to the 1991 Persian Gulf War, AKA Operation Desert Storm, and luckily America again had a POTUS in George H.W. Bush, who, like Richard Nixon, took to heart the need to let his generals fight the war as the latter saw fit — with minimal White House meddling. Thus, it was that Air Force Gen. Chuck Horner , commander of U.S. and coalition allies’ air assets during that war, was able to wage “Instant Thunder,” a refreshing contrast to the gradualism of LBJ’s “Rolling Thunder” — not only in semantics, but in terms of speed, intensity, ferocity, accuracy, and most importantly, freedom of decision-making, from Gen. Horner on down to the individual coalition fighter and bomber crews doing the actual fighting, killing, and dying.

The contrasting final results of “Instant Thunder” vs. “Rolling Thunder” speak for themselves.

Author Expertise 

Christian D. Orr is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch and The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security . Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the  Naval Order of the United States (NOUS) . 

Sunday's cricket match between India and Pakistan is more than just a game

India's captain Rohit Sharma, right, and partner Virat Kohli run between wickets to score against Ireland during Wednesday's cricket match with Ireland at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in Westbury. Credit: AP/Adam Hunger

For cricket's desi diehards, a T20 World Cup tournament thousands of miles from home has the allure of a Shah Rukh Khan blockbuster movie premiere — they wouldn’t miss it for the world.

But when the adversaries are India and Pakistan, it stirs up passions unparalleled in cricket — passions that have their roots outside the sport.

We see this regularly in athletics, where contests between national teams are fraught with geopolitical pressures. Most prominent were the many U.S. vs. Soviet Union showdowns in the Olympic Games during the Cold War.

India vs. Pakistan in cricket takes its place in that long legacy. The two nations have fought three bruising wars and share 77 years of simmering political hostility. The tension is such that India's team does not play cricket in Pakistan, and Pakistani players are barred from participating in India's lucrative professional cricket league.

That's the backdrop for Sunday’s India-Pakistan match at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in Eisenhower Park in East Meadow. It should be a riveting event for fans in the tristate area, home to a burgeoning South Asian population. On Long Island, more than 80,000 people identified as Asian Indian and more than 26,000 as Pakistani, according to 2020 census data, which makes Nassau an ideal marketing location for the match.

From our Editorial Board, get inside the local, city and state political scenes.

By clicking Sign up, you agree to our privacy policy .

The two teams boast some of the world’s best players — India’s Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma and Pakistan’s Babar Azam. Fans will draw on a history of more than 200 matches between the teams. But the two nations' shared history of conflict — not to mention a threat from ISIS to sabotage the contest — ensure that the match will be much more than just a game.

Pakistan's captain Babar Azam takes a catch to dismiss Aiden Markram of South Africa during the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023 match between South Africa and Pakistan on Oct. 27, 2023, in Chennai, India. Credit: Getty Images/Gallo Images

Back in the day, overzealous crowds caused havoc. In 1952, when Pakistan toured India for the first time and beat the home team in the city of Lucknow, angry Indian fans attacked their own players. India and Pakistan have not played a test match in over a decade.

Even today, violence erupts in India when people are accused of cheering the wrong side while an India-Pakistan match is televised — particularly in college hostels with Muslim students — behavior which is criticized especially by right-wing Hindus.

“It doesn’t have to be this way,” said Sukomol Chakraborti, 72, an Indian émigré who lives in Bellerose, Queens. India and Pakistan have so much in common — in art, music, literature and movies — that it's a shame to not foster deeper cultural ties and encourage more interaction, he said.

Belying the deep divisions is the warmth and affection sometimes shown by people of the two countries. In the 1980s, when Sunil Gavaskar’s Indian team toured Pakistan and visited a market in Lahore, shopkeepers reportedly would not accept money from Indian players, saying, “Aap hamarey mehman hai” (“You are our guests”).

That spirit of bonhomie is common among Indians and Pakistanis living overseas, including here on Long Island. Often, they work in the same offices and shop at each other’s stores.

Sometimes, their love of cricket has brought the two nations closer.

Pakistan’s former military dictator, President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, a graduate of Delhi’s elite St. Stephen’s College, visited Jaipur in north India in 1987 to watch a cricket match, engaging in what became known as “cricket diplomacy” to mend fences with India — reminiscent of the early 1970s “pingpong diplomacy” that helped ease tensions between the U.S. and China.

When India and Pakistan meet Sunday, the crowd will be thrilled. Whether national fences are mended remains to be seen.

Columnist Nirmal Mitra's opinions are his own.

Unlimited Digital Access Only 25¢ for 5 months

Advertisement

Biden Calls for End to Gaza War, Endorsing Israeli Cease-Fire Proposal

The president outlined a plan to try to get Hamas and Israel to break out of a monthslong deadlock that has resulted in the killing of thousands of Palestinians.

• Share full article

Biden Endorses Israeli Cease-Fire Proposal

President biden at the white house on friday outlining a new three-phase proposal from the israeli government that ideally would lead to a permanent cease-fire in gaza..

Israel has offered a comprehensive new proposal. It’s a road map to an enduring cease-fire and the release of all hostages. This proposal has been transmitted by Qatar to Hamas. This is truly a decisive moment. Israel has made their proposal. Hamas says it wants a cease-fire. This deal is an opportunity to prove whether they really mean it. Hamas needs to take the deal. For months, people all over the world have called for cease-fire. Now it’s time to raise your voices and demand that Hamas come to the table, agrees to this deal and ends this war that they began. At this point, Hamas no longer is capable of carrying out another Oct. 7. And the Palestinian people have endured sheer hell in this war. Too many innocent people have been killed, including thousands of children. It’s time to begin this new stage. The hostages come home, for Israel to be secure, for the suffering to stop. It’s time for this war to end, and for the day after to begin. Thank you very much.

By Zolan Kanno-Youngs and David E. Sanger

Zolan Kanno-Youngs reported from Rehoboth Beach, Del., where President Biden will be spending the weekend. David E. Sanger reported from Washington.

• May 31, 2024

Declaring Hamas no longer capable of carrying out a major terrorist attack on Israel, President Biden said on Friday that it was time for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza and endorsed a new plan he said Israel had offered to win the release of hostages and end the fighting.

“It’s time for this war to end, for the day after to begin,” Mr. Biden said, speaking from the State Dining Room at the White House. He also gave a stark description of Hamas’s diminished capabilities after more than seven months of Israeli attacks, saying that “at this point, Hamas is no longer capable of carrying out another Oct. 7.”

“This is truly a decisive moment,” Mr. Biden said. “Israel has made their proposal. Hamas says it wants a cease-fire. This deal is an opportunity to prove whether they really mean it.”

With that statement, Mr. Biden appeared to be revealing his true agenda: making public elements of the proposal in an effort to pressure both Hamas and Israel to break out of a monthslong deadlock that has resulted in the killing of thousands of Palestinians.

American officials have described Hamas’s leader, Yahya Sinwar , as interested only in his own survival and that of his family and inner circle, as they presumably operate from tunnels deep under southern Gaza. But officials have also said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has little incentive to move to a real cease-fire, because of the widespread belief in Israel that as soon as the surviving hostages are returned, and a last cease-fire begins, he will most likely lose his fragile hold on power.

Mr. Biden’s remarks came at a pivotal moment in his re-election campaign, a day after his rival, former President Donald J. Trump, was convicted of 34 felony charges. At the same time, he has been facing growing pressure at home over the bloodshed in Gaza, which has led to eruptions on college campuses and on the streets of American cities, and alienated many of his own supporters.

Mr. Biden described the three-phase Israeli plan as a “comprehensive new proposal” that amounted to a road map to an “enduring cease-fire.” But at several moments in the past few months, Mr. Netanyahu has directly contradicted Mr. Biden. And so far, Hamas has never accepted a comprehensive proposal, declaring in its public statements that fighting must end before major hostage releases or any agreement with Israel.

Hints of differences came almost as soon as Mr. Biden finished speaking. Following his speech, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said the Israeli government was “united in the desire to bring home our hostages as soon as possible.”

But it added that Mr. Netanyahu had stipulated to Israeli negotiators that they could not reach a deal that would end the war before all their goals were achieved, including the destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capacities in Gaza.

“The exact outline that Israel has offered — including the conditional progression from stage to stage — enables Israel to maintain that principle,” Mr. Netanyahu’s office said.

Hamas reacted positively to Mr. Biden’s speech in a statement on social media, saying that it was willing to deal “constructively” with any cease-fire proposal based on a permanent truce, the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, the return of displaced Palestinians to their homes and a “serious prisoner exchange.”

Many of the hard-liners in Mr. Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition did not immediately respond to Mr. Biden’s address because of the Jewish Sabbath, which began before his remarks. Mr. Netanyahu’s nationalist allies, like Itamar Ben-Gvir , the national security minister, have said they could leave the government if an agreement ended the war before Hamas’s complete destruction.

“I know there are those in Israel who will not agree with this plan and will call for the war to continue indefinitely,” Mr. Biden said, adding that some in Mr. Netanyahu’s government have made clear they want to “occupy Gaza.”

“They want to keep fighting for years, and the hostages are not a priority to them,” Mr. Biden said in what appeared to be a direct message to the far-right members of Mr. Netanyahu’s cabinet. “I’ve urged leadership of Israel to stand behind this deal.”

Mr. Biden has faced questions over how long he was willing to support Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, and particularly its most recent attacks in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The bloodshed in Gaza has left more than 36,000 people dead.

Israel’s national security adviser said this week that he expected the war to continue through at least the end of the year.

Global pressure to scale down the military operation increased after the International Court of Justice, an arm of the United Nations, ruled last week that Israel must halt its military offensive in Rafah. The court, however, has no means of enforcing the order.

Friday’s remarks were Mr. Biden’s first public comments about the war since an Israeli strike and subsequent fire on Sunday killed at least 45 people, including children, and wounded 249 in an encampment for the displaced, according to Gazan health officials. A visual analysis by The New York Times found that Israel used U.S.-made bombs in the strike, forcing the White House to face difficult questions over American responsibility for rising death toll.

Mr. Biden said on Friday that he saw the “terrible images” from the deadly fire.

“The Palestinian people have endured sheer hell in this war,” Mr. Biden said after describing the pain of those whose relatives were “slaughtered by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7” and the “anguish” of Israeli families waiting for hostages to be released.

Mr. Biden also said too many innocent people had been killed in Gaza, “including thousands of children,” and addressed the many Americans who are infuriated over the way his administration has handled the conflict.

“I know this is a subject on which people in this country feel deep passionate convictions,” Mr. Biden added. “So do I. This has been one of the hardest, most complicated problems in the world. There’s nothing easy about this.”

In describing the four-and-a-half page Israeli proposal, Mr. Biden said it would be broken into three phases. The first would begin with a roughly six-week cease-fire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from populated areas of Gaza and a release of elderly and female hostages held by Hamas, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian detainees. Mr. Biden said there were still details that still needed to be negotiated to move on to the next phase — apparently including how many Palestinians would be released in return for each freed Israeli hostage.

In the second phase, as described by a senior administration official who briefed reporters after Mr. Biden spoke, all the remaining Israeli hostages would be released, including male soldiers. All hostilities would end, and, the official said, all Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza. In the past, Mr. Netanyahu has publicly rejected a complete withdrawal, maintaining that would result in a resurgent Hamas, once again in control of the territory.

It is unclear, from the description given to reporters in the briefing, who would govern the territory, though in the past the United States has said that would most likely be the Palestinian Authority, which has struggled to run the West Bank.

In the third phase, the remains of hostages who have died would be exchanged, rubble cleared and a three- to five-year reconstruction period would begin, backed by the United States, Europe and international institutions. But that plan sounded almost aspirational, given the level of destruction and the near-famine conditions.

Mr. Biden, however, portrayed this road map as reasonable — if the terrorist group goes along. “As long as Hamas lives up to its commitments, a temporary cease-fire will become, in the words of the Israeli proposal, a cessation of hostilities permanently,” Mr. Biden said.

American officials said they believed that following the meeting in Paris last weekend between William J. Burns, the C.I.A. director, and David Barnea, the head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, Israel made significant concessions on the hostage talks. Those included reducing the number of live hostages they required to be released in the early phase.

Still, a person briefed on the matter said the negotiations were “on pause” while Israel conducts its operation in Rafah.

Mr. Biden has also been involved in the hostage talks, even though he has not traveled for any of the negotiating sessions. Mr. Biden’s role, officials said, has been most notable in the pressure he has put on Mr. Netanyahu to continue to negotiate and reduce Israeli demands.

But on Friday, Mr. Biden was clearly focusing his pressure on Hamas, arguing that taking this offer was their best shot at ending the war and moving toward a cease-fire.

“Everybody who wants peace now must raise their voices,” Mr. Biden said, adding that the public should let Hamas leaders “know they should take this deal. Work to make it real, make it lasting and forge a better future out of the tragic terror attack and war.”

Aaron Boxerman contributed reporting from Jerusalem, and Julian E. Barnes from Washington.

Zolan Kanno-Youngs is a White House correspondent, covering President Biden and his administration. More about Zolan Kanno-Youngs

David E. Sanger covers the Biden administration and national security. He has been a Times journalist for more than four decades and has written several books on challenges to American national security. More about David E. Sanger

Our Coverage of the Israel-Hamas War

News and Analysis

After a barrage from Hezbollah militants on northern Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened a “very intense”  military response.

Even as Hamas and Israel appear to be inching closer to a cease-fire agreement, analysts are skeptical that the sides will ever implement a deal  that goes beyond a temporary truce.

Some Gazans are urging Hamas to accept a cease-fire plan outlined by President Biden, but many remain deeply skeptical  that the United States, as Israel’s chief ally, would truly bring an end to the war.

Columbia Law School: The website of the Columbia Law Review was taken offline by its board of directors after its editors published  an article arguing Palestinians are living under a “brutally sophisticated structure of oppression” by Israel that is a crime against humanity.

A Debate at Holocaust Museums: The Israel-Hamas war has also forced Holocaust museums to confront one of the most emotional and divisive issues within the Jewish community: how to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict .

In the West Bank: Since the war in Gaza began, armed Jewish settlers in the Israeli-occupied territory, often accompanied by the army, have stepped up seizures of land long used by Palestinians .

A Fateful Encounter: In an Israeli prison infirmary, a Jewish dentist came to the aid of a desperately ill Hamas inmate. Years later, the prisoner became a mastermind of the Oct. 7 attack .

Israeli leader Netanyahu faces growing pressure at home after Biden's Gaza proposal

Israel’s prime minister faces growing pressure after U.S. President Joe Biden described a proposed agreement to end the fighting in Gaza

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel’s prime minister faced growing pressure Saturday after U.S. President Joe Biden announced a proposed agreement to end the fighting in Gaza, with many Israelis urging Benjamin Netanyahu to embrace the deal but far-right allies threatening to collapse his government if he does.

Netanyahu called a permanent cease-fire in Gaza a “nonstarter” until long-standing conditions for ending the war are met, appearing to undermine the proposal that Biden described as an Israeli one.

A huge demonstration in Israel on Saturday night, led by families of hostages held by Hamas , urged the government to act now. Mediators the U.S., Egypt and Qatar pressed Israel and Hamas, saying the proposed deal “offers a road map for a permanent cease-fire and ending the crisis” and gives immediate relief to both hostages and Gaza residents.

But far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir said they would break up the government if it takes the deal. That could expose Netanyahu to new elections, scrutiny over security failures that led to the war and — if he loses the prime minister post — prosecution on longstanding corruption charges.

GET CAUGHT UP Summarized stories to quickly stay informed

Arizona votes to put Texas-inspired immigration referendum on November ballot

Trump again suggests political opponents may face prosecution, too

Early fires in California could signal worse to come, officials say

He went viral for driving with a suspended license. The case isn’t so simple.

Cat roams university campus for 4 years, gets doctoral degree

Netanyahu’s statement said that “Israel’s conditions for ending the war have not changed: the destruction of Hamas’ military and governing capabilities, the freeing of all hostages and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel. Under the proposal, Israel will continue to insist these conditions are met before a permanent cease-fire is put in place.”

In a separate statement, Netanyahu accepted an invitation from U.S. congressional leaders to deliver an address at the Capitol, a show of support for Israel while top ally the U.S. shows frustration. No date has been set.

Biden on Friday asserted that Hamas militants are “no longer capable” of carrying out a large-scale attack on Israel like the one on Oct. 7. He urged Israel and Hamas to reach an agreement to release about 100 remaining hostages, along with the bodies of around 30 more, for an extended cease-fire.

Talks on a deal halted last month after a push by mediators in hopes of averting a full-scale Israeli invasion of Gaza’s southern city of Rafah. Israel says the Rafah operation is key to uprooting remaining Hamas battalions, even as the militants regroup elsewhere in the territory.

Israel on Friday confirmed its troops were operating in central parts of Rafah . Around 1 million Palestinians — almost half of Gaza’s population — have left Rafah, and the U.N. World Food Program has called living conditions “horrific and apocalyptic” as hunger grows.

Families of hostages said time was running out.

“This might be the last chance to save lives,” Gili Roman told The Associated Press. His sister, Yarden Roman-Gat, was freed during a weeklong cease-fire in November, but sister-in-law Carmel is still held. “Our leadership must not disappoint us. But mostly, all eyes should be on Hamas,” Roman said.

Families described an aggressive meeting Thursday with Israel’s national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, who told them the government wasn’t ready to sign a deal to bring all hostages home and there was no plan B.

Many hostages’ families accuse the government of a lack of will.

“We know that the government of Israel has done an awful lot to delay reaching a deal, and that has cost the lives of many people who survived in captivity for weeks and weeks and months and months,” Sharone Lifschitz said. Her mother, Yocheved, was freed in November but her father, Oded, is still held.

The first phase of the deal described by Biden would last for six weeks and include a “full and complete cease-fire,” a withdrawal of Israeli forces from all densely populated areas of Gaza and the release of a number of hostages, including women, older people and the wounded, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

The second phase would include the release of all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers, and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. The third phase calls for the start of a major reconstruction of Gaza, which faces decades of rebuilding from the war’s devastation.

Biden acknowledged that keeping the proposal on track would be difficult, with “details to negotiate” to move from the first phase to the second. Biden said if Hamas fails to fulfil its commitment under the deal, Israel can resume military operations.

Hamas has said it viewed the proposal “positively” and called on Israel to declare an explicit commitment to an agreement that includes a permanent cease-fire, a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, a prisoner exchange and other conditions.

In Deir al-Balah, where many Palestinians have fled following Israel’s assault on Rafah, there was some hope.

“This proposal came late, but better late than never,” said Akram Abu Al-Hasan.

The main difference from previous proposals is the readiness to stop the war for an undefined period, according to analysts. It leaves Israel the option to renew the war and diminish Hamas’ ability to govern, but over time, said Michael Milshtein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum in Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University.

“It was a very good speech ... it seems that Biden is trying to force it on the Israeli government. He was clearly speaking directly to the Israeli people,” said Gershon Baskin, director for the Middle East at the International Communities Organization.

Also on Saturday, Egypt’s state-run Al-Qahera News said officials from Egypt, the United States and Israel would meet in Cairo over the weekend about the Rafah crossing, a crucial aid entry point that has been closed since Israel took over the Palestinian side in May. Egypt has refused to open its side, fearing the Israeli control will be permanent.

Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7 killed around 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250. More than 36,370 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by Israel’s offensive, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Its count doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants.

Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip . David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, and Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war