The Epic Interactive Encyclopedia 1998/Epic Interactive Encyclopedia, The - 1998 Edition (1998)(Epic Marketing).iso/W/World_War_I/INFOTEXT

Text File | 1992-09-03 | 4KB | 87 lines

World War One (1914-1918) also known as the
great war, conflict, chiefly in Europe,
among most of the worlds great powers.
On one side were the allies (France, Britain,
Russia, and the U.S.A), on the other were the
central powers (Germany, Austris-Hungary, and
Turkey. Prominent among the wars causes were
the imperialist, territorial,and economic
rivalries of the great powers. The german
empire in particular was determined to
establish itself as the prominent power of
the continent. The germans were also intent
on challenging the naval superiority of
Britain. However it was rampant nationalism,
especially evident in the
Austro-Hungarianempire, that furnished the
immediate cause of hostilities. On June 28
1914, Archduke heir apparant to the
Austro-Hungarian throne, was assassinated
at Sarajevo by a serbian nationalist.
One month later, after its humiliating
demands were refused, Austria-Hungary
declared war on Serbia.
Other declarations of war followed Quickly,
and soon every major power in Europe
was in the war. On the Western Front, the
Germans smashed through Belgium, advanced on
Paris, and approached the English channel.
After the first battles of the marne
and ypres, however, the Germans became
stalled. Gruelling trench warfare and the use
of poison began all along the front, and for
the next three years the battle lines
remained virtually stationary despite huge
casualties at Verdun and the Somme.
On the Eastern front, the central powers
were more successful. The Germans defeated
(Aug-Sept 1914) the Russians at the
tannenberg and the masurian Lakes. Serbia
and Montenegro fell by the end of 1915. In
the south the italian campaigns were
inconclusive, though they benefited the
allied cause by keeping large numbers of
Austrian troops tied down there. In Turkey,
the allies ambitious Gallipolli Campaign
(1915) an attempt to force Turkey out of the
war, was a costly failure. In the middle
east, T.E Lawrence Arab revolted against
Turkey. U.S neutrality had been threatened
since 1915, when the British ship Lusitania
was sunk. By 1917 unrestricted German
submarine warfare had caused the U.S to enter
the war on the side of the allies. An
Ameriacan expeditionary force, commanded by
Gen pershing, landed in France and saw its
first action at chateau thierry (June 17) In
March 1918 the new soviet government signed
the treaty of brest-litovsk with the central
powers. The Germans were stopped just short
of Paris in the second battle of the maern,
and an allied counter offensive was
successful. The turkish and Austro-hungarian
empires diintergrating from within,
surrendered to the allies, as did Bulgaria.
After revolution erupted in Germany the
emperor surrendered on Nov11 1918. The
treaty of versailles and the other treaties
that ended the war radically changed the face
of Europe and the middle east. Four great
empires Germany, Austria-hungary, Russia and
Turkey had disapeared by the end of the war.
Replacing them were governments ranging from
monarchies and sheikdoms through
constitutional republics to the marxist
socialist state of the USSR. The war itself
had been one of the bloodiest in history,
without a single decisive battle. A total of
65 million men had served in the armies, an
estimated 10 million persons had been killed
and double that amount wounded. Such
statistics contributed to a general revulsion
against war leading many to put thier trust
in multinational disarmament pacts and in the
newly formed LEAGUE_OF_NATIONS.

Subject by: Vanessa Pike