The Entente World War 1 Battlefields Windows 7' title='The Entente World War 1 Battlefields Windows 7' />World War I facts, information, pictures. The Oxford Companion to American Military History The Oxford Companion to American Military History 2. Oxford University Press 2. World War I 1. 91. Causes. Causes of U. S. Entry. Military and Diplomatic Course. Domestic Course. Postwar Impact. Changing Interpretations. World War I 1. 91. Causes Although the United States did not enter World War I until 1. Americas position both at home and abroad. The Entente World War 1 Battlefields Gameplay' title='The Entente World War 1 Battlefields Gameplay' />In the debate on neutrality and later on peace aims, much was made of European secret diplomacy, which was rejected on the U. S. side of the Atlantic, of militarism and the escalating arms race before 1. Undoubtedly, all these factors contributed to the origins of the European catastrophe, but they do not explain why the war broke out when it did. First World War. com A multimedia history of world war one. Get information, facts, and pictures about World War I at Encyclopedia. Make research projects and school reports about World War I easy with credible articles. Download The Entente Battlefields WWI ENGLISH PC ISO Windows Games The Iso Zone The Ultimate Retro Gaming Resource. World War I Clockwise from the top The aftermath of shelling during the Battle of the Somme, Mark V tanks cross the Hindenburg Line, HMS Irresistible sinks after. I. Introduction. World War I The Great War toppled empires, created new nations, and sparked tensions that would explode across future years. The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I was more than 41 million there were over 18 million deaths and 23 million wounded, ranking it. This question can only be answered more precisely by looking at the political and military decisionmaking processes in the last months, weeks, and days of peace in 1. After decades of debate about whether Europe slithered over the brink David Lloyd Georges phrase owing to general crisis mismanagement among all participant nations or because of the actions of a clearly identifiable group of people, the overwhelming majority consensus has emerged among historians that the primary responsibility rests in Berlin and Vienna, and secondarily perhaps on St. Petersburg. Judging from the documents, it has become clear that the German kaiser and his advisers encouraged Vienna to settle accounts with Serbia following the assassinations of the heir to the AustroHungarian throne, Archduke Ferdinand, and his wife at Sarajevo in BosniaHerzegovina on 2. June 1. 91. 4. By issuing a blank check to AustriaHungary on 5 July 1. German government took the first step in escalating a crisis that involved the risk of a world war among the great powers. This risk was high not only because these powers had been arming over the previous years, but also because they had regrouped into two large camps the Triple Alliance Germany, AustriaHungary, Italy and the Triple Entente Britain, France, Russia. World war i. updated january 2011. And when, after various diplomatic maneuvers, it became clear toward the end of July that such a world war might indeed be imminent, Berlin refused to deescalate although the decision makers there were in the best position to do so. The Czarist government, as Serbias protector, also had a role in this development but it was primarily a reactive one after Vienna had delivered a stiff ultimatum in Belgrade and subsequently began to invade its smaller Balkan neighbor. So, while the main responsibility for the outbreak of war is therefore to be laid at the kaisers door, the question of why he and his advisers pushed Europe over the brink continues to be a matter of debate. The German historian Fritz Fischer has argued that the kaisers government saw the Sarajevo crisis as the opportunity for aggressively achieving a Griff nach der Weltmacht Breakthrough to World Power Status, as the 1. German version of Fischers first, and highly controversial, book on the subject was entitled. The American historian Konrad Jarausch and others, by contrast, have asserted that Berlins and Viennas initial strategy was more limited. By supporting AustriaHungary against the Serbs, the two powers hoped to weaken Slav nationalism and Serb expansionism in the Balkans and thus to restabilize the increasingly precarious position of the ramshackle AustroHungarian empire with its many restive nationalities. The Entente World War 1 Battlefields Download' title='The Entente World War 1 Battlefields Download' />According to this interpretation, the assumption was that Russia and its ally, France, would not support Serbia, and that, after a quick localized victory by the central powers in the Balkans, any larger international repercussions could be contained through negotiation following the fait accompli. It was only when this strategy failed owing to St. Petersburgs resistance that the German military got its way to launch an allout offensive, the first target of which would be Russias ally, France. This was the sole military operations plan, the Schlieffen Plan, first developed by Gen. Alfred von Schlieffen, that the kaiser still had available in 1. The alternative of an eastern attack on Russia had been dropped several years before. Worse, since the German Army was not strong enough to invade France directly through AlsaceLorraine, Helmut von Moltke, chief of the General Staff, had further reinforced the right flank of the invasion force with the aim of reaching Paris swiftly from the north. However, this could only be achieved by marching through Belgium, and it was this violation of Belgian neutrality that brought Britain into the conflict, definitely turning it into a world war. In a further radicalization of his argument, Fischer asserted in his second book, War of Illusions 1. German decision to start a world war had been made at a War Council on 8 December 1. Berlin used the next eighteen months to prepare it. Microsoft Access Query Total Group By In R. However, this view has not been generally accepted by the international community of scholars. Unless new documents supporting Fischer emerge, possibly from the Russian archives, the most plausible argument seems to be the one developed by Jarausch and others of a miscalculated limited war that grew out of control. While diplomatic historians and political scientists have dominated the debate on the outbreak of World War I, social historians have more recently begun to examine the attitude of the masses in that summer of 1. The older view has been that there was great enthusiasm allround and that millions in all participant countries flocked to the colors expecting to achieve victory no later than Christmas 1. No doubt there was strong popular support, reinforced by initial serious misconceptions about the nature of modern industrialized warfare. But there have been recent challenges to this view, and it appears that divisions of contemporary opinion were deeper and more widespread than previously believed. French social historians have shown that news of the mobilization was received in some parts of the country with tears and consternation rather than joy and parades. In Germany, too, feeling was more polarized than had been assumed. Thus, there were peace demonstrations in major cities to warn AustriaHungary against starting a war with Serbia. And when the German mobilization was finally proclaimed, the reaction of large sections of the population was decidedly lukewarm. As one young trade unionist wrote after watching cheerful crowds around him near Hamburgs main railroad station on 1 August 1. Am I mad or is it the othersConsidering the unprecedented slaughter that began shortly thereafter in the trenches of the western front as well as in the east, this was certainly a good question, and further research may well open up new perspectives on the mentalities of the men and women in 1. United States as a participant. Bibliography Fritz Fischer, Germany War Aims in the First World War, 1. Konrad Jarausch, The Enigmatic Chancellor, 1. Volker R. Berghahn, Germany and the Approach of War in 1. Fritz Fischer, War of Illusions, 1. James Joll, The Origins of the First World War, 1. John W. Langdon, July 1. The Long Debate 1. Samuel R. Williamson, Jr. AustriaHungary and the Origins of the First World War, 1. Volker R. Berghahn. World War I 1. 91. Causes Of U. S. Entry Like the origins of World War I itself, the causes of U. S. entry on 6 April 1.