The beggining

World War I began in 1914, after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and lasted until 1918. During the conflict, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire (the Central Powers) fought against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan and the United States (the Allied Powers). Thanks to new military technologies and the horrors of trench warfare, World War I saw unprecedented levels of carnage and destruction. By the time the war was over and the Allied Powers claimed victory, more than 16 million people—soldiers and civilians alike—were dead.

Antecedents and main causes

Between 1900 and 1914 there had been three majors crisis between the great powers. These crisis exposed the differences between these countries and reinforced the hostility: the Marocan Crisis (1905), the Second Marocan Crisis and the anexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

One of the most relevant reasons was that Serbia was aggrandized due to the Two Balkan War (it lasted a year from 1912 to 1913), so the serbians turned their attetion to the idea of liberating the South Slavs of Austria-Hungary, that were their colonizers by the time. Serbia were getting stronger, it was a treath to Austria so they decided to destroy their growing power.

But what did that provoke? Well...

One day, the archiduke Franz Ferninand was about to visit Bosnia on a tour of military inspection, so Dragutin Dimitrijevic (head of Serbia's military intelligence) plotted his assesination.

The primer minister Nikola Pasicheard of the plot and warned the Austrian goverment, but the message wasn't understood.

Thats why on June 28, 1914, in Sarajevo (the capital of Bosnia), Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were shot dead by a Bosnian serb called Gavirilo Princip.

After this unexpected and shocking event, on July 23th the Austrian goverment started a preventing war agains Serbia, relying on Germany military power.

On July 25th, Serbia accepted the ultimatum (it means, the warning of a near war).

On July 28th, War terms were declined by Germany, so the Austria-Hungary artillery began to bombard and began to movilize on the Russian frontier. Also Russia ordered general movilization.

Germany, kinda afraid, asked France to keep neutral in the event of the war between them... but both countries ignored these demands.

Germany started to send trops to Luxemburg. Later, on August 3-4th, they invaded Belgium. Great Britain had to defend this territory because it was theirs, so they declared war against Germany.

Likewise, Austria-Hungary declared war against Russia on August 5th. Then Serbia against Germany on August 6th. Japan entered as well, and they declared war against them on August 28th.

Then the alliances surged: France and England joined and Italy confirmed the Triple Allianza on December 7th, 1912, among Russia, Great Britain, Japan and United States.

Trench Warfare

It was a warfare in which opposing armed forces attack, counterattack, and defend from relatively permanent systems of trenches dug into the ground. Each trench was dug in a type of zigzag so that no enemy, standing at one end, could fire for more than a few yards down its length.

 This kind of battle reached its highest development on the Western Front during the Great War, when armies of millions of men faced each other in a line of trenches extending from the Belgian coast through northeastern France to Switzerland. This was a way that France and Germany had to shatter against the deadly fire of the machine gun and other artillery. The sheer quantity of bullets and shells flying through the air in the battle conditions of that war compelled soldiers to burrow into the soil to obtain shelter and survive.

Chemical Warfare

This was a warfare that used toxic properties of chemical substances to kill, injure or incapacitate an enemy.

Three substances were responsible for most injuries and deaths during the Great War:

1.  Chlorine gas: this provoked a greenish-yellow cloud that smells of bleach and immediately irritates the eyes, nose, lungs, and throat; and in high doses could kill by asphyxiation.
2. Phosgene: it was colorless, and soldiers did not at first know they had received a fatal dose. After a day or two, victims’ lungs would fill with fluid, and they would slowly suffocate in an agonizing death. This was the worst chemical weapon.
3. Mustard gas: it had a potent smell and provoked victim’s eyes become bloodshot, begin to water, and become increasingly painful, some of them suffering by blindness. And it could be worst: skin begins to blister, particularly in moist areas, such as the armpits and genitals. As the blisters pop, they often become infected. This gas could also contaminate land where it had been deployed.

Consecuences

• WW1 caused the downfall of four monarchies: Germany, Turkey, Austria-Hungary and Russia.
•  WW1 largely marked the end of colonialism, as the people became more nationalistic, so that made people more open to other ideologies, such as the communism on Russia.
• The war changed the economical balance of the world, leaving European countries deep in debt and making the U.S. the leading industrial power and creditor in the world.
• Due to the using of toxic chemicals, the land became unusable for years.
• With troops travelling all over the world, influenza was spread easily and an epidemic started which killed more than 25 million people across the world.
• Due to the cruel methods used during the war and the losses suffered, the Great War caused a lot of bitterness among nations, which also greatly contributed to the Second World War decades later.
• Social life also changed: women assumed the role of workers by replacing men in factories and offices, so the countries gave them more rights after the war ended, including the right to vote.
• The need for an international body of nations that promotes security and peace worldwide caused the founding of the League of Nations.

Personal conclusion

The Great War was the deadliest and the most expensive war which involved many countries and left some in great debt, because their economies went down at the time the war concluded.

I think this event is a reflection of the lack of humanity and tolerance that existed between the great powers, because if it were not for small disputes that generated resentment, many people would have continued to live and have enjoyed their lives without being poisoned or killed brutally by the weapons that were created, both soldiers and civilians.

Seeing how the human began to advance in technology by creating of weapons of mass destruction, makes me reflect deeply on human motivations and how we tend in some way to evil.

Finally, it seems that everything was a strategy to revitalize the economy of those great powers that although they did not participate in the war, did finance it. This support was given with a purely economic interest: they exchanged money and privileges (also at a political level) for innocent human lives. In addition to the destruction they caused, they even left infertile lands that made life even harder for their own citizens.