The war was determined by the concurrence of numerous elements, the main one being the conflicting interests of the great European powers. On the one hand Great Britain and France , which had vast colonial empires from which they drew resources at low cost and in almost unlimited quantities and which constituted a huge market; on the other, Germany , which had enjoyed a very rapid rate of technological and industrial development, but which could only access the marginal markets of Central and Eastern Europe.
Numerous other crisis situations contributed to the outbreak of the conflict:nationalistic ferments, in particular in Italy and in the Balkans , which the Austro-Hungarian Empire was no longer able to control; Russia , which aimed at an expansion into southeastern Europe at the expense of the decaying Ottoman empire; the desire for revenge of France on Germany after the defeat of 1870 and the consequent loss of Alsace and Lorraine.
IT WAS THE ATTACK OF SARAJEVO THAT MADE TENSIONS EXPLODE THAT OTHERWISE COULD HAVE KEPT LATENT
On June 28, 1914, a Bosnian student named Gavrilo Princip killed the heir to the throne of Austria with two shots , Archduke Francesco Ferdinando , and his wife, while driving through the streets of Sarajevo in an uncovered car , capital of Bosnia . The bomber was part of an irredentist organization which had its base of operations in Serbia .
Austria made the first move by sending a tough ultimatum to Serbia on 23 July. The second step was taken by Russia by assuring its support for Serbia, its main ally in the Balkans.
Strong of Russian support , the Serbian government only partially accepted the ultimatum, rejecting in particular the clause that provided for the participation of Austrian officials in the investigation of the perpetrators of the attack.
Austria he judged the response insufficient and, on 28 July , declared war on Serbia . The reaction of the Russian government was immediate and the following day ordered the mobilization of the armed forces.
The 31 July Germany sent an ultimatum to Russia ordering the immediate suspension of war preparations. The ultimatum received no response and was followed, twenty-four hours later, by the declaration of war. The same day ( August 1st ) France , linked to Russia by a treaty of military alliance, he mobilized his own armed forces. Germany he responded with a new ultimatum and the subsequent declaration of war on France ( 3 August ).
THEREFORE WAS THE INITIATIVE OF THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT, WHICH ALREADY IN THE FIRST PHASE OF THE CRISIS HAD ENSURED ITS UNCONDITIONAL SUPPORT TO AUSTRIA, TO PRECIPITATE THE SITUATION DEFINITELY.
Essential prerequisite of the German war strategy was the speed of the attack on France .
For this purpose, German troops were expected to pass through Belgium , despite the fact that its neutrality was guaranteed by an international treaty also signed by Germany .
This would have allowed the enemy to hit its weakest point and aim directly at Paris .
On 4 August, the first German contingents invaded Belgium to attack France from the northeast.
The violation of Belgian neutrality not only deeply shocked European public opinion, but also played a decisive role in determining British intervention in the conflict. Great Britain , already worried about the possibility of a German success, she could not tolerate aggression against a neutral country on the coast of the Channel.
Thus, on August 5, England declared war on Germany.
IN AUGUST 1914 GERMANY DEPARTED ON THE WESTERN FRONT ONLY ONE AND A HALF MILLION MEN AND FRANCE AGAINST MORE THAN A MILLION , WITHOUT COUNTING THE ENGLISH AND BELGIAN QUOTAS.
TO HAVE A TERM OF COMPARISON, WE THINK THAT THE LARGEST ARMY EVER PUT INTO THE FIELD SO FAR, THE ONE SET UP BY NAPOLEON FOR THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN, DID NOT REACH THE 600,000 UNITS .
The Germans achieved a series of resounding initial successes.
In the last two weeks of August, the armies of the Reich swept through the north-east of France, forcing their opponents into a hasty retreat. In early September they settled along the course of the Marne, a few tens of kilometers from Paris.
The French government, together with half a million civilians, hastened to leave the capital, where they could now be heard distinctly the shots of the artillery.
Meanwhile, on the eastern front, the German troops, commanded by General Hindenburg , stopped the Russians trying to penetrate East Prussia, defeating them between August and September in the great battles of Tannenberg and the Masuri Lakes .
The Russian offensive, however, put the Austrians in serious difficulty and worried the German commands themselves, inducing them to transfer over one hundred thousand men from the western front to the eastern one, while the French army, commanded by General Joffre, was hastily reorganizing on this side of the Marne.
On 6 September the French launched a sudden counterattack that took the Germans by surprise.
After a week of furious fighting, the invaders were forced to fall back on a more rearward line, at the Anne and Somme rivers.
With the arrest of the offensive on the Marne, the project of the German war could essentially be said to have failed.