World War I

World War I began as a European quarrel, caused by rivalry between nations. It spread across the oceans, to the Middle East and to Africa. The war cost the lives of more than 8 million soldiers, many killed in awful trench warfare. The war so frightful that afterwards people said it had been the Great War and ‘the war to end wars’. It was not.

Between 1880 and 1907, the European powers had formed alliances and increased their armies and navies. On one side stood the Allied forces: Britain, France, Russia, Japan and, later, Italy. On the other were the Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Serbia. The spark that started the war was the assassination in Sarajevo of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serb in June 1914.

WAR PLANES

 World War I (1914-18) was the first war in which aeroplanes were widely used. They were first used to spy on enemy trenches and troop movements. Later, they were used in aerial combat and in bombing raids.

This led to a series of mobilizations (preparations for war), and, on 4 August, German armies invaded Belgium. This drew Britain, Belgium’s ally since 1837, into the war.

World War I was fought mostly on land (there was only one big naval battle, at Jutland in 1916). Both sides became bogged down in trench warfare, their armies unable to advance without huge losses. Soldiers had to go ‘over the top’ (leave the trench), scramble through their own barbed-wired defences, then cross open ground (‘no-man’s land’) to reach the enemy lines. So quick and powerful were the machines guns and heavy artillery guns that soldiers were killed in their thousands. In the Battle of the Somme alone (1916), there were over a million casualties.

By 1917, the Russian army was so weak that it began peace talks with Germany. For a while, Germany had an advantage, but in 1918 the arrival of more than a million soldiers from the United States boosted the Allies, who began to advance. There were food shortages and unrest in Germany, and emperor Wilhelm II abdicated. On 11 November, an armistice was signed between Germany and the Allies, ending the war.