war
WW1 (1914-1918)
Background: the khaki colour used on unifoms in the British army from 1848 to 2010, when it was replaced by the MTP.
Alliances and involved nations
Allied/Entente powers:
Initially, the Triple Entente was made up of France, British Empire, and Russia. Later, it also included the USA and Italy, while Russia withdrew from the war due to civil unrest (RUSSIAN REVOLUTION)
Central powers:
Germany/German Empire, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire, and initially Italy.
Causes of the war
Imperialism was extremely common, and the largest empire at the time was the British Empire, which occupied one quarter of the world. The French Empire also occupied a large amount of important African countries. This meant Germany wanted more power to rival the larger powers by having its own empire. The German leader at the time, the Kaiser, implemented the policy “Weltpolitik”, or “World Politics” to try and establish more colonies and global power. The scramble to occupy countries was called “The Great Game”.
The Weltpolitik policy also aimed for Germany to build a better navy to counter Britain's navy, which was the strongest in the world at the time. This is because of the militarism of the time that was causing heightened tension between countries in Europe.
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (of Austria-Hungary) was the first domino that led to war. He was assassinated on a trip to see the Empire’s armed forces of Bosnia (which was annexed by Austria-Hungary) by Serbian nationalists who wanted to unify southern Slavs. Serbia was blamed for the assasination and war was declared on them by Austria-Hungary. Serbia was allied with Russia, and Austria-Hungary with Germany. This involved these more powerful countries, and then those countries’ allies. Germany quickly declared war on Russia and two days later France, in a strategy called the “Schlieffen Plan” to knock France out of the war so that the focus could be on Russia and Serbia.
Timeline
28/06/14 Assassination of Franz Ferdinand (Austria-Hungary)
28/06/14 Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia because assasination of Ferdinand blamed on Serbian Nationalists
01/07/14 Germany (Central) delcares war on Russia (Entente) because of Russia mobilizing in Serbia
03/07/14 Germany (Central) delcares war on France (Entente) as a part of the Schlieffen plan. This lead to the formation of the western front
04/07/14 Germany (Central) invades Belgium (neutral) to gain advantage on France (Entente)
04/07/14 Britan (Entente) declares war on Germany (centeral)