History Of The Most Brutal War Ever Fought — The World War 1

The Beginning

On 28 June 1914, a 19 year old student murdered The Prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire by shooting him on his ride to a place. And this event, led to a devastating and the most brutal war ever fought in the history of the World. A war that lasted for 4 years in which a whooping 2 crore (20 Million) people died! This war was fought by several countries and empires, which came to an end. And no wonder, today, this war is more popularly known to us as the Great War or the World War I. Don't think that this war happened just because of such a small reason. It clearly does not make any sense. For any such massive and brutal war to happen, there must be a number of complex reasons behind it. And we are going to see them. Lets explore.

The Map

Around 1914, European continent didn't looked like as it is today. Europe had several big fat empires which were always in a need for more and more land. The Kings always wanted to expand their empires. At that time, Europe's map kind of looked like this.

As you can see, there was this big Austro-Hungarian Empire which sat right in the middle of Europe and was way more greater than present day countries of Austria and Hungary. Because the Austro-Hungarian empire is now today divided into several countries like Czechia, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Belarus, Romania etc.

And then, you can also see some other empires and countries like the German empire, the Ottoman empire (present day turkey), France (After the French revolution, it became a democracy), the Russian empire and the Great Britain.

Countries like the Bosnia-Herzegovina (Bosnia), Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria formed what's called the Balkan countries in southern Europe. And these were the countries which were one of the most important for the World War I.

The Spark

The Austro-Hungarian empire was given the permission to administer Bosnia and Herzegovina with the agreement that Bosnia would still be a part of the Ottoman empire. But around 1908, the Austro-Hungarian empire annexed Bosnia and was kind off stolen from the Ottoman empire. Bulgaria also got independence from the Ottoman empire after such a long time. The Ottoman empire was in its own trouble due to internal revolutions taking place in Turkey.

Now, Bosnia was under the rule of the Ottoman empire for more than 400 years and it seriously wanted independence. But seeing it having no progress and instead they got a new ruler of the Austro-Hungarian empire, they weren't happy again. Another empire captured Bosnia again. Obviously, seeing this happen, people of Bosnia were enraged with this because they wanted freedom! Their neighboring country Serbia was also furious seeing injustice happening with Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The thing is, Serbians had a pretty close and friendly relationship with the Bosnians. So, they wanted to help Bosnia.

On the other side, the Austro-Hungarian empire already had taken permission from Russia for the annexation of Bosnia. The ministers of Russia confirmed Austro-Hungarians that they had no issues with their annexation because in return, they were getting Istanbul (Present near the Black sea) which was officially a part of the Ottoman empire. But the people of Russia opposed this idea as they were in support of Bosnia and Serbia. So Russia had to listen to its people.

Russia started supporting Serbia. But the Austro-Hungarian empire wanted to annex Serbia as well. So it asked help from Germany saying that "If Russia interferes us if we annex Serbia, then will you help us?" Germany agreed to Austro-Hungarians as they were old friends.

Now Russia also wanted support. Russia asked help from France saying that "The Austro-Hungarian empire first annexed Bosnia, then Serbia objected to them, so now Germany and Austro-Hungarian empire are planning to annex Serbia as well. And as we Russians are in a support for Serbia, we have to help them. So if they try to annex Serbia, will you help us France?" France didn't wanted to interfere in the matter of Bosnia. France didn't care for what was going on in the Balkans, so it denied. France's refusal silenced Russia. So gradually it had to accept the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Everything was calm and fine up till one day, the assassination of Ferdinand provoked the war.

Now, Bosnia-Herzegovina badly wanted freedom. They created revolutionary parties which was supported by Serbia. They protested and campaigned against the Austro-Hungarian Empire for freedom.

So, on 28th June 1914, the Prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Ferdinand, with his wife, visited the annexed territory in Bosnia. Now here comes the main revolutionary part. Six Bosnian revolutionaries planned to assassinate the Prince as they had captured their country, their land. For their own freedom, they decided to do it. Around 10 in the morning, a revolutionary threw a grenade bomb on to the car in which Ferdinand was riding. But to his luck, the bomb bounced off on the car and blew up in a street side which injured other 20 people! Ferdinand, with his car, escaped and ran away from there as quickly as possible. It may be looking like a fictional story, but trust me, it happened!

Ferdinand cancelled the meeting to which he was proceeding as he was terrified already. He was furious at the Bosnian Major so he cancelled the meeting and decided to go and meet the injured people to the hospital. While on their way to the hospital, the driver of their car takes a wrong turn mistakenly. When they tried to get back to the correct route, Ferdinand realized and saw that he was just 5 feet away from a Bosnian revolutionary. The revolutionary, Gavrilo Princip, was a 19 year old school student. He was the boy who shot Ferdinand and his wife on the spot on that road. Thus, assassinates the Prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Gavrilo was arrested for this but the thing is, according to the law he was 2 months shorter from the age of 20 to get hanged as he was just a student of 19. So he was jailed for 20 years because of this assassination. During the trial, he said that his only aim was to unite Yugoslavia and wanted freedom from Austria. He wanted to give freedom to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Ultimate War

The emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was enraged by his son's assassination. In anger, he declared a war on Serbia. Meanwhile, Russia sees this as an attempt to annex Serbia. And so, Russia went to save Serbia. Germany saw that Russia was taking arms against the Austro-Hungarian empire. As promised, Germany was on the Austro-Hungarian empire's side. And so, Germany went to save the Austro-Hungarian empire.

The crazy thing is, this time, France didn't stay behind. It had refused for the war before, but now it accepted and joined Russia and Serbia in support of them. Why did France step in here? Well, France had a military alliance with Russia since 1894, which was primarily designed to neutralize or stop the German threat to both countries. On the other side of the coin, Germany too had a military alliance with the Austro-Hungarian empire to support each other in times of trouble.

Now, to increase the heat in the war, there came the Ottoman empire in the game in support of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire as it had a bitter enmity with Russia. Now, the picture is still incomplete! Really. The Great Britain or The United Kingdom also joins the war! The thing is, Russia, France and the UK had an alliance treaty called the Triple Entente.

So, this way, all the above countries as you can see, were in for the ultimate war. The great war ensued in which all these countries were at war with each other.

Later, capitalists countries like the USA and Japan, also join the war in support of France and Britain.

Did you know?

India was also a part of the World War I. How and why? Well, obviously the countries which were under the rule of the British had to be a part of the war. Like India. British needed Indian soldiers for the war. They used people of the countries the British had colonized as soldiers. Thus, India also fought the World War I from the side of the Britain.

So this is how the World War I was started. This was the real reason and story.

Now, this war is said to be one of the most brutal war to be ever fought in the history. Do you think that the common man was interested in this war? Were the soldiers eager to fight this war? Well, the answer is mostly no as many soldiers were forced and were pushed into this war just because of their kings needs and greed. The king wanted more land, so he would sent poor and innocent soldiers who gave their lives for their greedy king. This is not fair!

This war was so blood washed and massively brutal that many people wanted to oppose and stop this war. Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the Bolsheviks party (ruling party in Russia at that time), in his April Thesis, demanded for the war to be stopped. There was a case in France where an entire battalion gave up their arms because they didn't wanted to fight the war anymore, any longer! And that's not all, in Russia, the soldiers waged a war against their own rulers itself!

But, the most heart winning and the most interesting thing that ever happened in the World War I, was the Christmas Truce of 1914. While the war was going on in 1914, the Christmas season arrived, and their were British soldiers on one side and the German soldiers on the other side. So, guess what happened? They were not fighting that day. Everyone was in a good mood to celebrate Christmas. So, they joined together, both the battalions came together, gathered and celebrated Christmas together joyfully on the battlefield. They were singing carols together, drinking and eating food together. They were really having a good time together.

Why? Because these common folks seriously didn't had any reason to fight this war. But eventually, their commanders ordered them to stop celebrating and to continue the war. They started punishing the soldiers and if they refused to fight, then they threatened them that they'll be shot down by their own troops. This was like either "Do" or "Die". This just clearly shows how people were forced to fight the battle even when they wanted peace. 

And thus, eventually, the World War I happened. So, now your question might be, how did the War end? Who won? Who lost?

Who Won?

The war was started on July 28, 1914 and got ended on November 11, 1918. The first World War was won by the Allies consisting of the United Kingdom, France, United States, Japan, Italy. They defeated the Central Powers consisting of Imperial Germany, Austro-Hungary Empire and the Ottoman Empire.

It lasted from 1914 and lasted until the signing of the Versailles Peace Treaty in 1919. World War I was a significant turning point in the political, cultural, economic, and social climate of the world.

This explains why we need to maintain peace all over the world and not fight. It will only cost destruction and loss of life. We should follow World Peace.

I hope you understood the World War I and its effects. Thank you for reading.

-------------------------