THE GREAT WAR

" Listen up – no war will end all wars" – Haruki Murakami 

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Well, the above saying is correct but still, if we turn the pages of history we will found that the most intelligent creature in the world has done exactly opposite to the above quote. The Great War or most commonly known as World War 1 (WWI) is the biggest blunder in human history. It was supposed at that time - this war will end all the wars so it is also called the "war to end all wars" but unfortunately nothing like that happened. By the end of the war, over 17 million people had been killed. It was one of the deadliest conflicts in history. 

Belligerents: 

1. The Allied Powers - Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania (entered Aug. 1916), Japan, and the United States (entered April 6, 1917). 

2. The Central Powers - Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey (entered Nov. 1914), Bulgaria (entered Oct.1915), etc.

Causes of War: The four major causes that led to the First World War are remembered as “MAIN ".

• Militarism - As the world entered The 20th century, an arms race had begun, primarily over the number of each country's warships, and the increasing size of their armies. By 1914, Germany had nearly 100 warships and two million trained soldiers. This growth in militarism forced many nations to be part of WWI.
• Alliances - Mutual Defence Agreement & treaties between different countries pull them into battle. According to these treaties, if one country was attacked, the allied countries were bound to defend them. Before World War 1 following alliances existed :

            Russia & Serbia

            Germany & Austria-Hungary

            France an& Russia

            Britain, France & Belgium

            Japan & Britain

• Imperialism - At that time several European countries wanted to expand their colonization in Africa & Asia. Every country tried to capture these areas because of the richness of raw materials. This incident is also called as Scramble for Africa or Race for Africa. This led to bitterness & heart-burning.
• Nationalism - Nationalism in many of the countries throughout Europe contributed not only to the beginning but to the extension of the war across Europe and into Asia. As each nation tried to prove their dominance and power, the war became more complicated and prolonged.

Immediate Cause: The immediate cause of the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand who was the heir to the Austrian throne.

The assassination of Ferdinand led to Austria-Hungary declaring war on Serbia. When Russia tried to mobilize to defend its alliance with Serbia, Germany declared war on Russia & in that way First World War started on July 28, 1914, and lasted till Nov. 11, 1918.

By the fall of 1918, the Central Powers were unraveling on all fronts & were completely defeated by the Allied Powers and An armistice was signed on Nov. 11, 1918, followed by a Peace Conference at Paris. The war took millions of sacrifices and in return, it gave to the world nothing but pain, casualties & destruction