background preloader

Causes of World War I

Causes of World War I
Germany, France, Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Britain attempting to keep the lid on the simmering cauldron of imperialist and nationalist tensions in the Balkans to prevent a general European war. They were successful in 1912 and 1913, but did not succeed in 1914. The crisis came after a long and difficult series of diplomatic clashes between the Great Powers (Italy, France, Germany, Britain, Austria-Hungary and Russia) over European and colonial issues in the decade before 1914 that had left tensions high. The various categories of explanation for World War I correspond to different historians' overall methods. Background In November 1912, Russia was humiliated because of its inability to support Serbia during the Bosnian crisis of 1908 or the First Balkan War, and announced a major reconstruction of its military. Both Wilhelm II and the Army leadership agreed that if a war were necessary it were best launched soon. "Moltke described to me his opinion of our military situation.

Front Line: Life in the Trenches of WWI If you were a soldier fighting in the First World War, what would you see? What would you hear? With only 20 WWI veterans left in the world, fewer and fewer people are able to answer these questions with certainty. For everyone else, there's Front Line. Trenches: In this page, you'll find information on the construction of trenches, their layout, the hygiene (or lack thereof) of trenches, the cold, and how burials were handled in trench warfare. Routine: On here, you'll find information on the day-to-day life of the soldiers in the trenches: for example, the food they ate, their various duties, and the ways they attempted to cope. Warfare: This page details the "warfare" part of "trench warfare." Traumas: Trench Warfare was a horrific experience for most of the soldiers. Game: This is a choose-your-own-adventure style game that attempts to recreate the experience of trench warfare. About Front Line 2008 marks the 90th anniversary of the Armistice that ended the First World War. Contact Me

World War I World War I (WWI or WW1), also known as the First World War, or the Great War, was a global war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history. Over 9 million combatants and 7 million civilians died as a result of the war (including the victims of a number of genocides), a casualty rate exacerbated by the belligerents' technological and industrial sophistication, and the tactical stalemate caused by trench warfare, a grueling form of warfare in which the defender held the advantage. It was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. Prelude

Origins and history The Constitution of the ILO was drafted in early 1919 by the Labour Commission, chaired by Samuel Gompers, head of the American Federation of Labour (AFL) in the United States. It was composed of representatives from nine countries: Belgium, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, France, Italy, Japan, Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States. Members of the Commission on International Labour Legislation to the Paris Peace Conference. Samuel Gompers in the first row, third from the left. The process resulted in a tripartite organization, the only one of its kind, bringing together representatives of governments, employers and workers in its executive bodies. The driving forces for the ILO's creation arose from security, humanitarian, political and economic considerations. Reflecting these ideas, the Preamble of the ILO Constitution states: Early years The ILO moved to Geneva in the summer of 1920, with France's Albert Thomas as its first Director. ILO staff at the port in Portugal. Going global

BBC Schools - Life in the trenches 31 October 2014Last updated at 15:07 Two British soldiers standing in a flooded communication trench during World War One On the Western Front, the war was fought in trenches. Trenches were long, narrow ditches dug into the ground where soldiers lived all day and night. There were many lines of German trenches on one side and many lines of Allied trenches on the other. In the middle, was no man's land, so-called because it did not belong to either army. Rest Soldiers in the trenches did not get much sleep. Dirty trenches The trenches could be very muddy and smelly.

Last Post (poem) "Last Post" is a poem written by Carol Ann Duffy, the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, in 2009. It was commissioned by the BBC to mark the deaths of Henry Allingham and Harry Patch, two of the last three surviving British veterans from the First World War, and was first broadcast on the BBC Radio 4 programme Today on 30 July 2009, the date of Allingham's funeral. The poem, named after the "Last Post" (the bugle call used at British ceremonies remembering those killed in war), makes explicit references to Wilfred Owen's poem from the First World War Dulce et Decorum Est. It imagines what would happen if time ran backwards and those killed in the war came back to life; their lives would still be full of possibilities and filled with "love, work, children, talent, English beer, good food. The poem takes its title from the bugle call used at British ceremonies remembering those killed in war, the "Last Post". The poem received a generally favourable critical reaction.

7 Novels Written About World War I by Dictionary.com Slideshow 7 Novels Written About World War I To commemorate the centennial of the Great War, we’re looking back at the novels written about and influenced by World War I. One of the only novels published about World War I during the war, Rebecca West’s 1918 The Return of the Soldier tells the story of a shell-shocked soldier returning from the trenches. John Dos Passos’s 1921 Three Soldiers is known for its bold realist depiction of war. Memoirs of an Infantry Officer, published in 1930, is the second book in a trilogy by British author Siegfried Sassoon. Like John Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway was a volunteer ambulance driver during the Great War. This 1929 book is an autobiography by Robert Graves, a British officer on the Western Front, who was gravely wounded in 1916. Dalton Trumbo’s dark 1939 novel Johnny Got His Gun chronicles a war veteran with injuries so extreme that he cannot communicate with the outside world.

In the trenches of 1914-1918 What were the trenches? Although most of us think primarily of the Great War in terms of life and death in the trenches, only a relatively small proportion of the army actually served there. The trenches were the front lines, the most dangerous places. Why were the trenches there? The idea of digging into the ground to give some protection from powerful enemy artillery and small arms fire was not a new idea or unique to the Great War. What were the trenches like? The type and nature of the trench positions varied a lot, depending on the local conditions. The bird's-eye view (below, from an official infantry training manual of March 1916) shows a typical but very stylised trench layout. Behind it is another line, similarly made, called a support line. The enemy had a very similar system of trenches. A typical trench system consisting of three main fire or support trenches, connected by communication trenches and with various posts, strong points and saps. Keep your head down!

Exit wounds: Poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy commissions war poetry for today Poets, from ancient times, have written about war. It is the poet's obligation, wrote Plato, to bear witness. In modern times, the young soldiers of the first world war turned the horrors they endured and witnessed in trench combat - which slaughtered them in their millions - into a vividly new kind of poetry, and most of us, when we think of "war poetry" will find the names of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon coming first to our lips, with Ivor Gurney, Isaac Rosenberg, Rupert Brooke ... What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? ... There's some corner of a foreign field ... British poets in our early 21st century do not go to war, as Keith Douglas did and Edward Thomas before him. In Times of Peace by John Agard That finger - index to be exact -so used to a trigger's warmthhow will it begin to deal with skinthat threatens only to embrace? Those feet, so at home in heavy bootsand stepping over bodies -how will they cope with a bubble bathwhen foam is all there is for ambush? Listen

Life in the Trenches Life in the trenches during the First World War took many forms, and varied widely from sector to sector and from front to front. Undoubtedly, it was entirely unexpected for those eager thousands who signed up for war in August 1914. A War of Movement? Indeed, the Great War - a phrase coined even before it had begun - was expected to be a relatively short affair and, as with most wars, one of great movement. The First World War was typified however by its lack of movement, the years of stalemate exemplified on the Western Front from autumn 1914 until spring 1918. Not that there wasn't movement at all on the Western Front during 1914-18; the war began dramatically with sweeping advances by the Germans through Belgium and France en route for Paris. So what was life actually like for the men serving tours of duty in the line, be they front line, support or reserve trenches? Daily Death in the Trenches Rat Infestation Rats in their millions infested trenches. Frogs, Lice and Worse The Trench Cycle

Radiohead: Harry Patch (In Memory of) | Review Radiohead's Thom Yorke ... a desolate lament for the late war veteran Harry Patch. Photograph: Mark Allan Those who tuned into Radio 4 this morning (Wednesday 5 August), received a nice surprise. At five to nine, Radiohead premiered their brand new song, a tribute to the late Harry Patch, the first world war veteran who died last month. The simply titled Harry Patch (In Memory of) was aired just days after the band finished recording it. It begins with Thom Yorke offering a desolate lament over bleak, circling strings that build as the song progresses. The final line comes from an interview given by a frail Patch to the Today programme in 2005: "The next world war will be chemical, but they will never learn." Considering the solemnity of the subject, the song finds Radiohead at their most understated and serene, a respectful and ceremonial contrast to the fury of Harrowdown Hill, the song Yorke wrote in tribute to Dr David Kelly.

Life In The Trenches | WW1 Facts There was nothing glamorous about trench life. World War 1 trenches were dirty, smelly and riddled with disease. For soldiers life in the trenches meant living in fear. In fear of diseases (like cholera and trench foot) and of course, the constant fear of enemy attack. Trench warfare WW1 style is something all participating countries vowed never to repeat and the facts make it easy to see why. Constructing WW1 Trenches The British and the French recruited manpower from non-belligerent China to support the troops with manual labour. 140,000 Chinese labourers served on the Western Front over the course of the First World War (40,000 with the French and 100,000 with the British forces). No Man’s Land The open space between two sets of opposing trenches became known as No Man’s Land because no soldier wanted to traverse the distance for fear of attack. The climate in France and Belgium was quite wet, so No Man’s Land soon became a mud bath. Hell on Earth

Related: