The Great War

“This war, like the next war, is a war to end the war.” -David Lloyd George

World War I, one of the most barbarous event ever to occur is still known as the Great War. WWI began in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. Convinced that Austria-Hungary was readying for war, the Serbian government ordered their army to mobilise and appealed to Russia for assistance. Archduke Franz Ferdinand's murder catapulted into a war across Europe that ended on the 11th day of November 1918.

During the conflict, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire (the Central Powers) fought against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan and the United States (the Allied Powers). By the time the war was over and the Allied Powers claimed victory, more than 16 million people lost their lives which included both soldiers and civilians. The Habsburgs of Austria-Hungary, the Hohenzollerns of Germany, the Sultanate of the Ottoman Empire, and the Romanovs of Russia all collapsed as a direct result of the war. The destabilization of European society laid the groundwork for World War II and the map of Europe was changed forever. The United States emerged as a world power, and new technology made warfare deadlier than ever before.

The instability in the world left by World War 1 set a series of international conflicts. World War 2 which broke out almost 2 decades later was even more devastating than World War 1. The rising power of Adolf Hitler in Germany and his ambition for revenge led Germany to sign strategic treaties for rearmament with Japan and Italy. Hitler’s invasion of Poland in September 1939 drove Great Britain and France to declare war on Germany, marking the beginning of World War II. The next six-year of the war took more lives and destroyed more land than any war that ever occurred. It was estimated that 50-60 million people died.

Though World War I ended on November 11, 1918, it was far from over and then began an era of misery.