June 2014 marked the centennial of World War I, prematurely and naively called “The War to End All Wars” by its instigators, or more aptly “The Great War”.
The bloody conflict pitted empires against empires as the European powers vied for superiority in the battlefield and, ultimately, victory.
It took four years for a victor to emerge from that conflict, four of the bloodiest years in history, where new technology ripped through the flesh and soul of men, literally and figuratively, and time stood still, at least for the men dying on the battlefields of Europe.
Let us look at some of the most important facts about The War to End All Wars.
The Spark
The nationalist fervor of Gavrilo Princip, a 19-year-old Serb bent on freeing his nation from the Austrian yoke, set off a deadly chain of events that led to World War I.
On June 28, 1914, Princip and his collaborators, having learned of a visit by Archduke Franz Ferdinand to Sarajevo, put into action a plan to assassinate the heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne.
Was the world just a wrong turn away from avoiding a global catastrophe?
After some missed opportunities by his colleagues, the Archduke’s car took a wrong turn and ended up in the proximity of Princip, who drew his pistol and fired two shots, killing the Archduke and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg.
The fuse had been lit.
The Belligerents
“The world must be made safe for democracy.”
Woodrow Wilson
Archduke Ferdinand’s assassination was the perfect pretext to mobilize forces and alliances.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire appealed to Germany, the Serbs to Russia.
War declarations ensued, Germany drew first blood by crossing into neutral Belgium and invading France, a British ally.
The first steps had been taken to form the warring parties: The Triple Entente and the Central Powers.
Diplomatic ties can escalate localized issues into global wars.
The names adopted, or given, belittle the scope of the war.
In fact, over 100 countries from Africa, America, Asia, Australasia and Europe were part of the conflict.
Although the level of involvement varied greatly, the fact that the belligerents were “empires”, automatically meant that the colonies were participants to the slaughter, unwillingly or otherwise.
The first truly global conflict had begun.
The Theaters
“All quiet on the Western Front.”
Erich Maria Remarque
The main theaters of operations in World War I were the Western Front, fought mainly in France and Belgium; the Eastern Front, which stretched from the Baltic Sea in the north, to the Black Sea in the south, including most of Eastern Europe and cut deep into Central Europe; the Italian Front, on the border between Italy and Austria; Gallipoli in Turkey and the War at Sea, fought mainly between Great Britain and Germany.
World War I was not just trenches; it sprawled across continents and seas.
Of course, there were many other fronts and campaigns in The Middle East, Africa and Asia.
Debuts
In what can only be classified as a clash between 20th century technology with 19th century warfare, World War I proved to be the ideal testing ground for new and effective forms of destruction.
Machines of death debuted alongside life-saving innovations. Was this humanity's twisted balance?
Many new and ingenious inventions made their debut in WW I: Tanks, with the British fielding their unreliable “Little Willie”, in an effort to break the trench stalemate; flame-throwers, a first for the Germans with their flamethrowers firing jets of flame as far as 130 feet (40 m); chemical weapons, a total of 100,000 tons were used; air warfare; submarines and the war of attrition, were all introduced during that global conflict and to devastating effects.
The only non-destructive innovation during the war was the blood bank and new blood transfusion techniques.
The Casualties
Although the figures vary, it is estimated that the total number of military and civilian casualties of WW I amounted to 37 million, with the breakdown being 16 million deaths and 20 million wounded; two-thirds of military deaths were in battle, a radical change from the 19th century when most deaths on the battlefield were caused by disease. However, a third of all deaths in WWI resulted from the deadly Spanish flu, which also made its debut in that period.
WWI's casualties are a grim reminder of the human cost of conflicts.
Though the figures are lower than those for its sister conflict, WW II, with between 60 and 85 million casualties, it still ranks as one of the deadliest conflicts in human history.
War is Over
The final days of WW I were preceded by the Allied push towards the German border on October 17, 1918. British, French and American troops advanced and the alliance between the Central Powers began to collapse.
Turkey signed an armistice at the end of October, Austria-Hungary followed on November 3. Faced with growing discontent and mutinies from its sailors, Germany began to crumble from within.
On November 9 the Kaiser abdicated, fleeing across the border into the Netherlands and into exile.
A German Republic was declared and peace extended to the Allies.
As the ink dried on the armistice, did the world truly believe it was the last of such global conflicts?
At 5 AM on the morning of November 11, an armistice was signed in a railroad car parked in a French forest near the front lines.
The terms of the agreement called for the cessation of fighting along the entire Western Front to begin at precisely 11 AM that morning.
After over four years of bloody conflict, the “War to End All Wars” was over.
The Aftermath
“The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born; now is the time of monsters.”
Antonio Gramsci
Four ruined imperial dynasties (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia and Turkey) collapsed at the end of the war and the revolutionary forces of Bolshevism began to take hold of Russia.
Drastic political, cultural, and social changes swept across Europe, Asia, Africa, and in countries that were not directly involved.
Empires crumbled, setting the stage for a new world order and heralding a period of unprecedented change.
New countries were carved out of the old ones, boundaries were redrawn, international organisations were established, and many new and old ideologies began to spread.
The uneasy peace brokered at Versailles in 1919, kept the peace in Europe and the world for less than two decades, before giving way to another devastating world war.
Lessons unlearned, history’s wheel keeps turning
World War I, the “War to End All Wars,” which ironically ended up being the prequel to an even more devastating sequel. It was a time when empires threw a global soirée of destruction, inviting everyone to partake in the “festivities” of trench warfare, chemical attacks, and the Spanish flu.
The world RSVP’d with 37 million casualties. New technologies made their debut, not to make life better, but to make death more efficient.
And when the dust settled, empires crumbled, maps were redrawn, and the stage was set for another round of global chaos.
In the future, when someone calls something “the ultimate,” remember WWI and think twice—history has a knack for outdoing itself.