War On Germany And The Central Powers example essay topic

The impact of the First World War is still with us. Adolph Hitler himself was a product of the First World War. World War I also gave Russian communists opportunity to overthrow the government in Russia and proclaim communism. The events that took place in "No Mans Land" definitely had an impact on the wars to come. The First World War had many causes. The spark of the Great War was the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, soon to be at the throne of Austria-Hungary, and his wife by a Serbian nationalist, while traveling through Sarajevo.

The Archduke was chosen as a target because Serbians feared that after he was at the throne, he would continue the persecution of Serbs living within the Austria-Hungary Empire. The Serbian terrorist organization, the Black Hand, had to carry out the assassination. The Arms Race is the second cause. Britain at that time was the largest empire in the world, and it also had the largest navy. The navy was so big and strong because the British needed to protect their empire and maintain the sea routes between the different colonies. Kaiser William of Germany hated and envied Britain for having a stronger navy than his.

He increased the German navy and built many warships. Britain responded with building more ships and increasing its navy too. This started a race for building more and better warships and it created tension and competition between those two countries. The systems of alliance were another major cause of the War.

There was a feud between France and Germany about controlling the colonies, which leads to a greater conflict, the Great War. Europe at that time was divided into two rival alliance systems: Triple Entente that included Great Britain, France, and Russia and the Triple Alliance, which included the Central Powers of Austria- Hungary, Germany, and eventually the Turkish Empire. In order to balance the power, France and Russia signed an alliance. Russia saw itself as the 'protector of Slavs' in the war, and immediately mobilized. When the war began, the German decision that if they were going to have to fight Russia and France, they would strike at France first according to the Schlieffen Plan, and then turn West to Russia. Germans believed that Russia at the time was unprepared for war, and that it will take a long time for Russia to mobilize its army.

So, on July 28, 1914, Austria declared war against Serbia. Russia responded by partially mobilizing against Austria as a 'protector of Slavs', and Germany insisted that Russia immediately demobilize. Russia refused to do so, and so declared war on Russia and France. When war was declared in August people involved on all sides felt that it would be a short war, and will be over by Christmas. In order for Germany to accomplish its Schlieffen Plan, Germany occupied Belgium. By August most of Belgium was under German occupation and the Schlieffen Plan appeared to be going well, but it brought Britain into the war because they had made a treaty with Belgium before, and Schlieffen Plan involved the invasion of Belgium.

One of the other major causes during the War was new weapons. In other words military commanders were not quite ready to the war with its modern weapons and new technologies such as machine guns, also the men built trenches that ran 500 miles. The First World War was the first war to use poison gas as a military weapon. Germans also had the first submarines and used them to blockade Britain by sinking British ships. The sinking of Lusitania is the famous example of sub-warfare during World War I. The Lusitania had civilians on board, where 100 passengers were American citizens. After sinking Lusitania a letter was sent to the German Government by President Wilson to warn the German government against killing Americans citizens.

The total war started when Germans used their first gas attack. Gassing was the start of total war. The dispute between the United States and Germany was more serious because, to me, it was a turning point in the war that would put an end to the stalemate warfare. In order to prevent food, munitions, and other supplies from reaching Great Britain, Germany in 1915 declared the waters surrounding Great Britain and Ireland a war zone in which German submarines would sink all enemy vessels without the visit or search ordered by international law. To avoid the possibility that uninvolved vessels might be sunk by mistake, or that uninvolved might be killed, Germany warned uninvolved ships not to enter the zone. They also advised citizens of uninvolved nations not to travel on ships of the Allied nations.

Germany remained intolerant in the face of U.S. protests against this declaration. In May 1915 a German submarine torpedoed the British passenger liner Lusitania off the Irish coast without warning, causing the deaths of 1198 people, of whom 128 were U.S. citizens. The Germans claimed that the Lusitania was carrying munitions to Britain, and later research has proven this to be true. But the American public was outraged by the sinking, and strong protests by the U.S. State Department brought a promise from Germany not to sink any passenger liners without taking precautions to protect the lives of civilians. However the conflict between Germany and the United States would come to an end just yet.

The Zimmermann telegram would be the "spark" that would ignite the tensions between Germany and the United States. The telegram was sent January 17, 1917 from Germany to Mexico. The telegram was received and inspected in London, England. As soon as the telegram was read by the English government, they sent the telegram to the United States government.

When President Woodrow Wilson received the telegram, he quickly declared war on Germany and the Central Powers. After a year of the United States Fighting in the war, World War One finally came to a close after four years of fighting. The Allied powers were the victors in this "Great War". The allied powers soon set up the Treaty of Versailles.

In the peace settlement Germany was forced to accept sole responsibility for causing World War I. This was a totally justifiable demand on the part of the victorious powers. The Treaty of Versailles was issued in June 1919 with Germany forced to accept sole responsibility for causing World War I. Since then there has been considerable debate concerning the war but even today historians still cannot fully agree upon the causes. Some support has been given to the theory that Germany was totally responsible for the war however substantial evidence does not support that view. Therefore the insistence by the victorious Allied powers to include in the Treaty that Germany accepts total blame cannot be justified. For example, the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand by Serbian terrorist groups was one event that led to actual war between Serbia and Austria-Hungary.

Another event could be when Russia starts to mobilize for war. So in other words, I believe that Germany should not have accepted full responsibility. However, Germany was weak and could not afford to go through another war. So since it was "cornered" it had to take full responsibility and sign. However there was another opinion and resolution which was much less harsher than the Treaty of Versailles. President Wilson believed that the Treaty of Versailles was too harsh for Germany.

In view of this, Wilson created fourteen points that he wanted accomplished in full as a result of the peace treaties. His fourteen points were his plan for a world peace and included plans for the end of secret treaties, freedom of the seas, free trade, arms reduction, the just settlement of colonial claims, the establishment of a League of Nations, and the evacuation of occupied territories and national self-determination. Many of his points were carried out in the Treaty of Versailles, although not all of them were successful or followed completely. Wilson's fourth point in his plan was the reduction of national armaments. He stated that there should be "adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments [would] be reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety". In the Treaty of Versailles, it was stated that the German army was to be limited to 100,000 and that Germany was not allowed to draft its citizens or to have an air force.

Also, Germany was no longer allowed to operate submarines because of the unrestricted submarine warfare that they had displayed during the war, and their naval ships were limited in size and in the amount that they were permitted to own. Furthermore, the Rhineland was to be permanently disarmed and occupied by the Allies for fifteen years to ensure that there would be no attacks against France that might start another war. In addition to this, it was stated that Germany would never be allowed to unite with Austria because they would form an incredibly strong fighting force. This resulted in much complaining by the Germans on the account that they believed they were being left without a military force significant enough to protect themselves. Also, the treaty did not require any of the other countries to perform even the slightest demilitarization. After a certain point, the Germans found ways to avoid the law, and when Hitler came to reign he defied them completely by beginning to draft citizens again, building the status of the navy and air force, and he also began the construction of submarines again.

He went so far in his power that he was even able to annex Austria. Even though Wilson's point had been made a part of the treaty, it was a failure because of Hitler's actions and because the rules were difficult to enforce. The result of the laws not being enforced was the beginning of World War Two. The fifth point of the president's was the just settlement of colonial claims. He stated that "a free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principal that in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the government... ". should be decided upon. It was decided in the settlement in Paris that Alsace and Lorraine would be given to France as they had lost these territories in 1871.

Eugen and Malm " edy would be given to Belgium as compensation for their sufferings that they went through during the war. Popular vote was to decide what would happen to Schleswig, just as a plebiscite was also to determine Upper Siberia's future. Some of Germany's eastern territory was moved in order to give Poland a direct route to the Baltic, as this was promised to Poland from Wilson's plan. Also, under the League of Nations, Danzig became a free city. Germany was also required to surrender all of its other colonies to place outside of Europe, which was not part of Wilson's 14 points. Although Wilson's wish to have the colonies distributed was granted, the results or reasons for how the colonies were dispersed were not what he had stated in his points.

For example, the parts of eastern Germany should not have been distributed because it diminished its self-determination and divided the country in two. In addition to this, many of the territories that were ceded to other places were done so in compensation or revenge against Germany. Furthermore, there were many German's who lived in Danzig and the Corridor. This led to arguments over these territories, which gave Germany sufficient reason to invade Poland, cutting off that country's access to the Baltic Sea. Since the welfare of the people living in many of the distributed territories was not considered before they were distributed, much unrest occurred and was another cause that eventually led to World War Two. The American president's fourteenth point was to establish a League of Nations, which would serve as an organization for international peacemaking.

He stated that "a general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike". It was agreed in the Treaty of Versailles that "the Covenant of the League of Nations 'promote international co-operation... peace and security. ' " The League was established but it did not have a large amount of power, and it didn't function well enough to prevent international problems from occurring, or to resolve them when they occurred. Also, the USA refused to join, which meant that the parliament went against the president's wishes because they did not want the country that they had fought so hard for to have independence to be bound internationally again. In this way, Wilson was successful in establishing a League of Nations; however, he was not successful in convincing his own country to join or in having the organization have a sufficient amount of power to be considered a strongly influential force internationally. Although Wilson wished to create a mild peace with Germany, the Treaty of Versailles twisted his points into forms of punishment and revenge against Germany.

Wilson wished to have all places go through an arms reduction, while the treaty required that only Germany's army was restricted, leaving them with almost no defense forces of their own. He had also wished that the colonies would be spread equally and with consideration for those who lived in them, however the lives of the people were not taken into consideration and the results were that Germany was divided into two while many territories were returned to their original owners, which created much unrest. In addition to this, he had wished to create a League of Nations to conduct mutual guarantees of politics and territory and to maintain international peace. He could not convince his own country to join this, and the League itself, even though it was formed, held no real power and could efficiently deal with international problems.

It was in this way that Wilson's fourteen points were compromised in the Treaty of Versailles, and many of the parts that were accomplished were not abide by or caused problems later on. France, England, and the other powers could not and did not agree to Wilson's fourteen points. They believed that they did not fight four years and lose so much to compromise with Germany. They wanted to see Germany suffer greatly. So they agreed to make Germany sign the Treaty of Versailles.

The effects of The Great War may still be in our and European countries today. Most of the immediate effects might have been resolved in the years passed The Great War. However, after about three decades after World War One ended, another world war was about to begin..