A thing making the rounds on Twitter right now is someone going 'Nobody really knows why World War I happened,' with some people agreeing with them and some people trying very badly to put forward their ideas of how it started in a one-sentence summary.
But like, we totally do know why WW1 happened. We know in excruciating detail, it's just that it can't be neatly summarised in a few sentences.
But an extremely over-simplified version of it is:
-- The aftermath of the Industrial Revolution and the collapse of mercantilism as an economic doctrine ushered in an era of free trade between European nations.
-- This exacerbated rivalries between the major powers of Europe (along with the US and Japan), as they now competed to each establish themselves as the main economic powerhouse by pursuing policies of efficiently mass manufacturing products which could then be sold cheaply to undercut local markets. Britain was initially a clear frontrunner in this, but over time Germany and the US began to erode British hegemony.
-- This economic race required previously incomprehensible amounts of resources and manpower, prompting a new wave of imperialism in which multiple countries (chief among them Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Austria-Hungary, the US, and Japan) embarked on massive and brutal imperialist projects in Africa and Asia, ramping up tensions as each nation tried to carve out more land for itself.
-- This necessitated to some extent alliances between European powers to form blocs. This web of alliances was fairly complex, but the key points are that Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Italy were in a three-way alliance; Russia, France, and Britain in a three-way alliance; Germany in an alliance with the Ottoman Empire; the Ottoman Empire in an alliance with Serbia and Bulgaria, and Serbia and Bulgaria in an alliance with Russia.
-- Overlapping with this, the decline of the Ottoman Empire and rise of the German Empire would destabilise political relations in Europe. In the aftermath of the Russo-Turkish War, a war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire motivated in part by Russia's desire to reclaim territories lost in the Crimean War, Bosnia and Herzegovina would be placed under the administration of Austria-Hungary, while remaining nominally an Ottoman territory.
-- As the Ottoman Empire declined further, however, and began to fracture, Austria-Hungary would officially annex Bosnia and Herzegovina, see earlier point about imperialism and the desire for more resources, manpower, and markets. This would end up, for obvious reasons, causing considerable tensions within Bosnia and Herzegovina.
-- Overlapping with this was the rising popularity of Yugoslavism, the idea of a South Slavic Federation, a union of South Slavic countries, or a singular state of Yugoslavia, which would ostensibly counter the expansionist agendas of Germany and Austria-Hungry. The Serbian government was an active supporter of this political ideology, as a common feature of it was the idea that Serbia would act as the 'leader' of this new country.
-- The joint pressures of Yugoslavism and tensions arising from Austria-Hungary's annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina would eventually culminate in the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by a group of Bosnian Serbs who were members of a student revolutionary group. They were backed in this by the Black Hand, a secret society formed by Serbian army officers, and by Serbian military intelligence.
-- Austria-Hungary sought to respond to this with a military strike against Serbia to both demonstrate its strength and to try and dampen support for Yugoslavism. Except Russia was allied with Serbia, so Austria-Hungary sought support from Germany, who agreed on the condition that Austria-Hungary moved quickly before Russia could pull any of its allies in.
-- Austria-Hungary did not move quickly, being unwilling to attack without full mobilisation of its armies. In the intervening time, France and Russia reaffirmed their alliance and pledged to support Serbia.
-- Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.
-- Russia responds, in part because it views this as German pretext for increasing its military capability and reach. Germany is worried over a potential war, but military leaders within Germany urged it to attack Russia and France under the pretext of coming to the aid of its ally, but actually as part of a 'preventative war' plan meant to reduce Russia's military capabilities before the Russian Great Military Program -- oh yeah that's a thing that was happening too -- made it so that Germany could never risk mobilising its military without Russian reprisal.
-- Germany declares war on France, Russia, and Belgium. Britain, allied with France and Russia but more importantly fearing that a German conquest of France could endanger Britain, declares war on Germany.
So, like, that's pretty long and complex, and that's after I've left out almost everything that's not directly relevant. You can't sum it up in a pithy sentence. But we do know exactly why World War I happened.
amandla
areudirty
titsay
dailybridgerton
theartofmadeline
