Causes of World War I
The First World War is among the most significant wars that have occurred in history. The battles took place in two tufts involving the allies and the central powers. The partners included the British and Russian empires and France, while the major powers included Germany and Austria-Hungary. This war was triggered by the assassination of the archduke of Austria, Franz Ferdinand.
The first cause of the war was the conflict between the imperialist countries (Gillispie, 2018). When the Europeans were expanding their territories in their colonies, there emerged tensions among them due to the need for them to want to develop more. The second cause of the war was the rise of nationalism in Serbia as they wanted to gain independence from Austria-Hungary; Serbia tried to gain control of Herzegovina and Bosnia in a bid to form a unified state (Keil, 2020). The assassination of Franz Ferdinand also led to the rise of the war. After the assassination, Austria-Hungary gave Serbia an ultimatum which Serbia declined, and this led to Austria-Hungary declaring war on Serbia and was backed by Germany. In Serbia’s defense, Russia chipped in and therefore officially instigated the First World War.
Another cause of the First World War was the creation of international anarchy (Benbow, 2018). This was characterized by a secret agreement between France and Britain, which allowed Britain to control Egypt while France took over morocco. This led to Germany opposing but ended up settling with a part of Congo. Also, militarism contributed mainly to the start of World War 1. This was the idea of creating solid armies in readiness to fight. This triggered the beginning of the war since strong armies represented a powerful country.
Nature of the World War I
The First World War was characterized by the use of weapons created to kill the soldiers more effectively so that the war could move fast. They employed machine guns, poisonous gas tanks that ended up killing very many soldiers on both sides. This stagnated the war as no side could win, thus making the war last long (Gillispie, 2018). Another characteristic of the war was the use of trench warfare. The soldiers fought in human-made trenches, which were supposed to protect them from enemy fire. However, this was not the case as there was massive loss of lives in the trenches. The war also occurred on two fronts where the rival was battled in two central regions.
This means that the war happened in East Germany and West Germany concurrently. The war was a total war; here, the government dictated what goods were to be manufactured in the factories and that all people worked to advance the war. Lastly, the war was characterized by propaganda where false information was spread to maintain the war.
Consequences of the World War I
There was a massive loss of lives that took place during the war. More than 16 million individuals lost their lives in the war. Soldiers died in the line of duty while other civilians lost their lives through hunger and disease outbreaks that rummaged the warring countries. The European nations had to start rebuilding factories that had been destroyed during the war. The war led to the discovery of modern surgery, which resulted from massive human decapitation in the war. The civil and military hospitals were used as theatres of experiments to create a medical intervention that would save the soldiers.
The war led to massive unemployment and famine as arable land was turned into land mines for explosives; lump-sum destruction of the property saw many people jobless during the war. The war also led to the emergence of the USA as a superpower. Since the U.S. had remained neutral during the war, it experienced minimal destruction after the war. This paved way for the United States to become a superpower as the other countries that participated in the war had been economically deprived. The war also resulted in the formation of the USSR in 1922 after the fall of the Russian empire in 1917.
Origins and evolution of the cold war
The cold war is termed as the situation whereby the global environment is characterized by persistent strains and conflicts between the capitalist world and the communist allies (Hager, 2019). The cold war takes place on national defense, economic growth, and development, diplomacy, and ideology. The cold war can be traced back to world war two when delays to open the second front in Europe occurred. This made the Russians suspicious of the motives of the western allies.
The start of the cold war can also be associated with the remarks made by Winston Churchill to an audience. He stated that there had descended an iron curtain across Europe that would separate the free nations that were democratic from the eastern countries, which were captives of communism (Mawdsley, 2019). The evolution of the cold war is explained through ideologies of the nations, state extensions, economic supremacy, and militarization.
Differences in ideologies created a divide among the soviet nations where and the United States, where the latter supported communism while the latter supported capitalism. The redrawing of the world map created power vacuums after the defeat of the Germans in Europe and the japans in Asia. The U.S. economic supremacy also fueled the cold war since it had experienced the minimal effect of the world wars. This was devastating for the European nations that had participated in the war as they fell into an economic depression resulting in borrowing from the fast-growing American economy.
References
Benbow, H. (2018). Languages and the First World War: communicating in a transnational war. First World War Studies, 9(2), 245-273. Web.
Gillispie, W. (2018). Colonialism in global conflict: Liberia’s entry and participation in World War One. First World War Studies, 9(1), 111-129. Web.
Hager, R. (2019). The Cold War and Third World revolution. Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 52(1), 51-57. Web.
Keil, S. (2020). Imposed unions and imperfect states: the State Union of Serbia-Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina in comparative perspective. Irish Political Studies, 35(3), 473-491. Web.
Mawdsley, S. (2019). Dóra Vargha, Polio across the Iron Curtain: Hungary’s Cold War with an Epidemic. Social History of Medicine. Web.