Monday 31 October 2011

World War I 1914-1918

Introduction to World War I


The assassination by pro-Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip on 28 June 1914 of Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria sparked the anger of Austria-Hungarians who argued that the Serbian government was involved.

Austria-Hungary issued Serbia an ultimatum in which they demanded the assassins be brought to justice effectively. Serbia rejected the severe terms on 23 July, causing Austria-Hungary to declare war against Serbia. Russia mobilised on 30 July because it had a mutual defence alliance with Serbia, triggering Germany which had a defence alliance with Austria-Hungary, to send an ultimatum to Russia and France on 31 July. On 1 August Germany declared war against Russia and France, thus France mobilised.


On 3 August, Germany invaded Belgium pulling Britain into the war as Britain, France and Belgium had a defence alliance. By 1914, Europe had divided into two camps, The Triple Alliance: Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary and The Triple Entente: Britain, France and Russia.


A total of 331 781 Australians fought in the Great War, 64.58% of them being casualties.








Causes of The Great War


Imperism


· Desire and competition amongst European countries for greater empires
· Rise of industrialism causing countries that provided raw materials to need additional territories
· Status, power and wealth


Militarism
 
· 20th century- countries building military forces, arms and battleships
· 1914 Germany -greatest increase in military build up
· Germany and Britain- navies greatly increased

Nationalism


· Desire of Slavic peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina to be part of Serbia instead of Austria Hungary
· Trying to prove dominance and power


 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
http://americanhistory.about.com/od/worldwari/World_War_I.htm http://www.skwirk.com/p-c_s-14_u-43_t-50_c-148/soldiers/nsw/soldiers/australia-between-the-wars-1920s/australians-between-the-wars-1920s

3 comments:

  1. Dear Sangami and Linda
    Nice vocabulary. Very precise and informative. Nice layout.

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  2. Hey,
    We like how you have listed your sources and the info was good too. We like your background.

    ReplyDelete
  3. A very good first post. Your use of dates was particularly good. Providing the dates show how fast everything moved after the ultimatum was rejected by Serbia. It was good that you commented on imperialism, nationalism and militarim, though the connections between them are not clear (I understand it is difficult when you only have 250 words). Good use of map and nice reference to Australia. (VH)

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