Writing paper now. Will fix this later.

BTW, it's beautiful out today and I can't enjoy because of said paper. Only 5 more days of class. And 5 "finals" and I'm free. 

Oh. P.S. if you wanna read my history paper that I wrote in an hour and a half and is probably really crappy but I don't care because I'm getting an a in that class anyway, I posted it under the more thing for you to read.

War In Europe

The history of mankind is filled with wars. There have been long wars, short wars and everything in between. War occurs, usually because one group of people wants to change something. The first war in Europe is no exception to this but it involves more than a desire for change. Nationalism is the desire to rule over oneself or to have control over their country. This was one thing that the Slav territories did not have and were beginning to want. This was the desired change. Another factor came into play though, and that was the factor of the alliance system of Europe that made it prone to a large scale war. These were the two things that caused the outbreak of war in 1914.

In it's simplest form, the first world war was about nationalism and then about alliances. In the years before the first world war broke out, Austria-Hungary was started to lose influence over it's land in the Balkan territory. The Pan-Slavic nationalist movement was starting to grow. People were starting to think that maybe the Pan-Slavic nations should govern themselves instead of Austria-Hungary governing them. Out of this a group called “Young Bosnia” grew. The most famous member of this group was Gavrilo Princip. He was the one who would fire the shot that started the ball rolling on this war. On June 28, 1914 the archduke of Austria-Hungary, Franz Ferdinand, was visiting Sarajevo with his wife. Unknown to him, the Young Bosnia group had been plotting his murder since they first found out about him visiting in April. He was to travel by motorcade through the town and the path he would travel was involved in the murder plot. They were conived [sic] in Sarajevo all the twenty-two conspirators were in their allotted positions, armed and ready. They were distributed five hundred yards apart over the whole route along which the Archduke must travel from the railroad station to the town hall. ¹ The first grenade that was thrown at the car missed, and the motorcade hurried to the Town Hall where they were urged to leave the town quickly. As he was leaving, he passed Gavrilo Princip. Princip saw the opportunity he had and he took it. He fired shots at the motorcade, the first of which killed Ferdinand's wife and the second killed the Archduke himself. Princip was quite proud of himself, despite that when he was caught he was almost killed immediately. He said “My life is already ebbing away. I suggest that you nail me to a cross and burn me alive. My flaming body will be a torch to light my people on their path to freedom.” ² He, and the rest of the Young Bosnians truly believed that this was the only way to get freedom for their country, which may have been true even if it did lead to a destructive war.

The death o the Archduke caused Austria-Hungary to issue an ultimatum to Serbia. If they did not fulfill all parts of it, they would go to war. Unfortunately for Serbia, the ultimatum was made to be impossible to fulfill. Austria-Hungary had made it that way because they wanted war with the Balkan territories in order to squash the nationalist feelings in the country. Because Serbia could not fulfill everything from the ultimatum Austria-Hungary declared war on them on July 28^th. This would have ended in disaster for Serbia and for all the rest of the Slavic nations in the Balkans except for the involvement of Russia. Russia was a supporter of the Pan-Slavic movement. They also got involved because the control of the Black Sea was at stake. The Ottoman Empire was also involved because of this. These were the only four countries that should and would have been involved in the conflict if not for the alliance system.

The alliance system was an old system in Europe where countries would go to war if a country they were in alliance with was threatened and needed assistance. This was a good idea, except that it made it possible to declare war on another country just because of who they were in alliance with. This is what happened in 1914. Since Russia was involved in the conflict, France and Britain were also involved because of their alliance with Russia. On the side of Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire were the Germans and Italians. On August 1, Germany declared war on Russia and then on August 3^rd on France. Germany invaded Luxembourg and Belgium in order to get to France. The invasion of Belgium triggered Britain's involvement and on August 4^th Britain declared war on Germany. This was the point of no return for Europe.

This war would be termed the Great War until war broke out again in 1937. The Great War started out as a small conflict because of the strong feelings of nationalism that the Young Bosnia movement felt. Austria-Hungary declared war in response to the archduke's death and to crush this nationalist spirit. Russia and the Ottoman Empire got involved, on different sides, because they both had interests in control of the land and, in Russia's case, the Pan-Slavic movement. If it had stopped there, this wouldn't have been as bad as it was. However, because of alliances, Germany, Italy, France and Britain all got involved. Edward Grey, the British foreign secretary, had it correct when he said, “Today it is that the peace of Europe cannot be preserved. The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.” Grey could not have been more correct in his statement. Because of this conflict, real peace would not come back to the European nation for the next thirty odd years. All because, what should have been a small conflict between a few nations was blown out of proportion by the involvement of these other countries.

Posted by: Jacqueline at 03:11 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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