CAUSES OF WORLD WAR I

The main causes of World War I, which began in central Europe in late July 1914, included many
factors, such as the conflicts and hostility between the great European powers of the four decades
leading up to the war. Militarism, alliances, imperialism, and nationalism played major roles in the conflict
as well. The immediate origins of the war, however, lay in the decisions taken by statesmen and generals
during the July Crisis of 1914 caused by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his
wife Sophie by Gavrilo Princip, an irredentist Serb and member of the Serbian nationalist organization,
[1]
the Black Hand.
The crisis came after a long and difficult series of diplomatic clashes between the Great
Powers (Italy, France, Germany, Britain, Austria-Hungary andRussia) over European and colonial
issues in the decade before 1914 that had left tensions high. In turn these diplomatic clashes can be
[2]
traced to changes in the balance of power in Europe since 1867. The more immediate cause for the war
was tensions over territory in the Balkans. Austria-Hungary competed with Serbia and Russia for territory
and influence in the region and they pulled the rest of the Great Powers into the conflict through their
various alliances and treaties.
Some of the most important long term or structural causes were the growth of nationalism across Europe,
unresolved territorial disputes, an intricate system of alliances, the perceived breakdown of the balance of
[3][4]
power in Europe,
convoluted and fragmented governance, the arms races of the previous decades,
[5]
previous military planning, imperial and colonial rivalry for wealth, power and prestige, and economic
and military rivalry in industry and trade e.g., the Pig War between Austria-Hungary and Serbia. Other
causes that came into play during the diplomatic crisis that preceded the war included misperceptions of
intent (e.g., the German belief that Britain would remain neutral) and delays and misunderstandings in
diplomatic communications.
The various categories of explanation for World War I correspond to different historians' overall methods.
Most historians and popular commentators include causes from more than one category of explanation to
provide a rounded account of the causes of the war. The deepest distinction among these accounts is
between stories that see it as the inevitable and predictable outcome of certain factors, and those that
describe it as an arbitrary and unfortunate mistake. In attributing causes for the war, historians and
academics had to deal with an unprecedented flood of memoirs and official documents, released as each
country involved tried to avoid blame for starting the war. Early releases of information by governments,
particularly those released for use by the "Commission on the Responsibility of the Authors of the War"
were shown to be incomplete and biased. In addition some documents, especially diplomatic cables
between Russia and France, were found to have been doctored.

Allied victory: summer 1918 onwards

Hundred Days Offensive
Main articles: Hundred Days Offensive and Weimar Republic

Aerial view of ruins of Vaux-devant-Damloup, France, 1918

The Allied counteroffensive, known as the Hundred Days Offensive, began on 8 August 1918, with
the Battle of Amiens. The battle involved over 400 tanks and 120,000 British, Dominion, and French
troops, and by the end of its first day a gap 15 mi (24 km) long had been created in the German lines. The
defenders displayed a marked collapse in morale, causing Erich Ludendorff to refer to this day as the
[124][125]
"Black Day of the German army".
After an advance as far as 14 miles (23 km), German resistance
stiffened, and the battle was concluded on 12 August.
Rather than continuing the Amiens battle past the point of initial success, as had been done so many
times in the past, the Allies shifted their attention elsewhere. Allied leaders had now realised that to
continue an attack after resistance had hardened was a waste of lives, and it was better to turn a line than
to try to roll over it. They began to undertake attacks in quick order to take advantage of successful
[126]
advances on the flanks, then broke them off when each attack lost its initial impetus.
Canadian Scottish advancing during theBattle of the Canal du Nord, part of the storming of the Hindenburg Line, September
1918

British and Dominion forces launched the next phase of the campaign with the Battle of Albert on 21
[127]
[128]
August;.
The assault was widened by French
and then further British forces in the following days.
During the last week of August the pressure along a 70-mile (113 km) front against the enemy was heavy
and unrelenting. From German accounts, "Each day was spent in bloody fighting against an ever and
[126]
again on-storming enemy, and nights passed without sleep in retirements to new lines."
Faced with these advances, on 2 September the German Oberste Heeresleitung (OHL) issued orders to
withdraw back into the Hindenburg Line in the south. This ceded without a fight the salient seized the
[129]
previous April.
According to Ludendorff "We had to admit the necessity ... to withdraw the entire front
[130]
from the Scarpe to the Vesle."
September saw the Allied advance to the Hindenburg Line in the north and centre. The Germans
continued to fight strong rear-guard actions and launching numerous counterattacks on lost positions, but
only a few succeeded, and then only temporarily. Contested towns, villages, heights, and trenches in the
screening positions and outposts of the Hindenburg Line continued to fall to the Allies, with the BEF alone
taking 30,441 prisoners in the last week of September. On 24 September an assault by both the British
[128]
and French came within 2 miles (3.2 km) of St. Quentin.
The Germans were now completely back in
the Hindenburg Line.

Close-up view of an American major in the basket of anobservation balloon flying over territory near the front line

In nearly four weeks of fighting beginning 8 August, over 100,000 German prisoners were taken, 75,000
by the BEFand the rest by the French. As of "The Black Day of the German Army", the German High
Command realised that the war was lost and made attempts to reach a satisfactory end. The day after
that battle, Ludendorff said: "We cannot win the war any more, but we must not lose it either." On 11
August he offered his resignation to the Kaiser, who refused it, replying, "I see that we must strike a
balance. We have nearly reached the limit of our powers of resistance. The war must be ended." On 13
August, at Spa, Hindenburg, Ludendorff, the Chancellor, and Foreign Minister Hintz agreed that the war
could not be ended militarily and, on the following day, the German Crown Council decided that victory in
the field was now most improbable. Austria and Hungary warned that they could only continue the war
until December, and Ludendorff recommended immediate peace negotiations. Prince Rupprecht warned
Prince Max of Baden: "Our military situation has deteriorated so rapidly that I no longer believe we can
hold out over the winter; it is even possible that a catastrophe will come earlier." On 10 September
Hindenburg urged peace moves to Emperor Charles of Austria, and Germany appealed to the
Netherlands for mediation. On 14 September Austria sent a note to all belligerents and neutrals
suggesting a meeting for peace talks on neutral soil, and on 15 September Germany made a peace offer
to Belgium. Both peace offers were rejected, and on 24 September OHL informed the leaders in Berlin
[128]
that armistice talks were inevitable.
The final assault on the Hindenburg Line began with the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, launched by French
and American troops on 26 September. The following week, cooperating French and American units
broke through in Champagne at the Battle of Blanc Mont Ridge, forcing the Germans off the commanding
[131]
heights, and closing towards the Belgian frontier.
On 8 October the line was pierced again by British
[132]
and Dominion troops at the Battle of Cambrai.
The German army had to shorten its front and use the
[citation needed]
Dutch frontier as an anchor to fight rear-guard actions as it fell back towards Germany.
When Bulgaria signed a separate armistice on 29 September, Ludendorff, having been under great stress
for months, suffered something similar to a breakdown. It was evident that Germany could no longer
[133][134]
mount a successful defence.
Men of U.S. 64th Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, celebrate the news of the Armistice, 11 November 1918

Meanwhile, news of Germany's impending military defeat spread throughout the German armed forces.
The threat of mutiny was rife. Admiral Reinhard Scheer and Ludendorff decided to launch a last attempt
to restore the "valour" of the German Navy. Knowing the government of Prince Maximilian of
Baden would veto any such action, Ludendorff decided not to inform him. Nonetheless, word of the
impending assault reached sailors at Kiel. Many, refusing to be part of a naval offensive, which they
believed to be suicidal, rebelled and were arrested. Ludendorff took the blame; the Kaiser dismissed him
on 26 October. The collapse of the Balkans meant that Germany was about to lose its main supplies of oil
and food. Its reserves had been used up, even as U.S. troops kept arriving at the rate of 10,000 per
[135]
day.
The Americans supplied more than 80% of Allied oil during the war, meaning no such loss of
[136]
supplies could affect the Allied effort.

Having suffered over 6 million casualties, Germany moved towards peace. Prince Maximilian of
Baden took charge of a new government as Chancellor of Germany to negotiate with the Allies.
Telegraphic negotiations with President Wilson began immediately, in the vain hope that he would offer
better terms than the British and French. Instead, Wilson demanded the abdication of the Kaiser. There
was no resistance when the Social Democrat Philipp Scheidemann on 9 November declared Germany to
[
be a republic. Imperial Germany was dead; a new Germany had been born: the Weimar Republic.

Formal end of the war

A formal state of war between the two sides persisted for another seven months, until the signing of
the Treaty of Versailles with Germany on 28 June 1919. However, the American public opposed
ratification of the treaty, mainly because of the League of Nations the treaty created; the United States did
not formally end its involvement in the war until the KnoxPorter Resolution was signed in 1921. After the
Treaty of Versailles, treaties with Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire were signed.
However, the negotiation of the latter treaty with the Ottoman Empire was followed by strife (the Turkish
War of Independence), and a final peace treaty between the Allied Powers and the country that would
shortly become the Republic of Turkey was not signed until 24 July 1923, at Lausanne.
Some war memorials date the end of the war as being when the Versailles Treaty was signed in 1919,
which was when many of the troops serving abroad finally returned to their home countries; by contrast,
most commemorations of the war's end concentrate on the armistice of 11 November 1918. Legally, the
formal peace treaties were not complete until the last, the Treaty of Lausanne, was signed. Under its
terms, the Allied forces divested Constantinople on 23 August 1923.

Peace treaties and national boundaries

After the war, the Paris Peace Conference imposed a series of peace treaties on the Central Powers
officially ending the war. The 1919 Treaty of Versailles dealt with Germany, and building onWilson's 14th
[147][148]
point, brought into being the League of Nations on 28 June 1919.
Germany was forced, despite its vehement protests, to admit guilt for starting the war back in 1914, and
therefore being liable for huge reparations. Specifically Germany had to acknowledge responsibility for
"all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been
subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her
allies". Similar clauses were included into the treaties signed by the other members of the Central
Powers. This clause later became known, to Germans, as theWar Guilt clause; the great majority of
Germans felt humiliated and resentful on this point, and it became a major campaign issue for the Nazis
in the 1920s. Overall the Germans felt they had been very unjustly dealt by what they called the "diktat of
Versailles." Schulze says, the Treaty placed Germany, "under legal sanctions, deprived of military power,
[149]
economically ruined, and politically humiliated."
Meanwhile nations liberated from German rule viewed
the Treaty as recognition of wrongs committed against small nations by much larger aggressive
[150]
neighbors. The Peace Conference required all the defeated powers to pay reparations for all the
damage done to civilians, but in practice this meant only Germany.
Greek refugees from Smyrna, Turkey, 1922

Austria-Hungary was partitioned into several successor states, including Austria,

Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia, largely but not entirely along ethnic lines. Transylvania was
shifted from Hungary to Greater Romania. The details were contained in the Treaty of Saint-Germain and
the Treaty of Trianon. As a result of the Treaty of Trianon, 3.3 million Hungarians came under foreign
rule. Although the Hungarians made up 54% of the population of the pre-war Kingdom of Hungary, only
32% of its territory was left to Hungary. Between 1920 and 1924, 354,000 Hungarians fled former
Hungarian territories attached to Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia.
The Russian Empire, which had withdrawn from the war in 1917 after the October Revolution, lost much
of its western frontier as the newly independent nations of Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania,
[151]
and Poland were carved from it. Romania took control of Bessarabia in April 1918.
The Ottoman Empire disintegrated, and much of its non-Anatolian territory was awarded to various Allied
powers as protectorates. The Turkish core in Anatolia was reorganised as the Republic of Turkey. The
Ottoman Empire was to be partitioned by the Treaty of Svres of 1920. This treaty was never ratified by
the Sultan and was rejected by the Turkish republican movement, leading to the Turkish Independence
War and, ultimately, to the 1923Treaty of Lausanne.