The First World War (WWI)

The War to End all Wars, the War of Nations, the War to Make the World Safe for Democracy, are all names for the First World War. Trench Warfare with troops running over No Man’s Land with their rifles and bayonets attempting to conquer the enemy’s trench. The soldiers’ brothers in arms dying around them amongst the gunfire and hanging up in the barbwire as they fight for their countries. Whistles blow signifying a retreat or an attack. In the name of their countries, soldiers sleep in the wet, cold, mud in fear of the next attack or if the next cloud of mustard gas would flow through their trench. Comrades in arms shake hands with the dead and sleep on the very ground the fallen are buried in. Millions of men were sent to fight for their country …show more content…
Nations would sign treaties with other nations for a variety of political, strategical, and economical purposes that ended up with most of the world under two alliances: The Triple Alliance consisting of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, and the Triple Entente composed of Russia, Britain, and France. The Triple Alliance later became the Central Powers, along with the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria. The Triple Entente became the Allied Powers. These alliances would come in to play if any of the countries involved in the alliance were involved in a war. For World War I, the threat of war started between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, which wasn’t part of the Triple Entente alliance, but was allied with Russia separately. After the Balkan Wars and the Treaty of Berlin, which gave independence to Serbia, Bulgaria to the Ottoman Empire, Romania to Russia, and Bosnia, which was part of Serbia, to Austria-Hungary, was when the final straw was pulled for the nations of the world, which were already under tensions, and brought on the First World War. Serbia was angry that part of its country was taken from them and was given to Austria-Hungary. Because of this, a Serbian terrorist group, called the Black Hand, decided to act on their anger and planned an assassination attempt of the heir of Austria-Hungary, Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The archduke survived the first assassination attempt by the Black Hand, but was later killed by chance as his driver made a wrong turn and happened to run into a member of the Black Hand. The assassination of the archduke caused Austria-Hungary to declare war on the suspected Serbia. This Declaration of War caused all the alliances to cascade into effect and bring everyone into war. This is the day that started the first war in history to encompass the