The First World War: A Very Short Introduction
Abstract
The First World War: A Very Short Introduction is a concise history of the ‘Great War’, focusing on why it happened, how it was fought, and why it had the consequences it did. It examines the state of Europe in 1914 and the outbreak of war; the onset of attrition and crisis; the role of the USA; the collapse of Russia; and the weakening and eventual surrender of the Central Powers. It also investigates the historical controversies surrounding the causes and conduct of war, and describes how peace was ultimately made and the potent legacy of resentment left to Germany.
... World War I began in 1914 due to a complex web of political, economic, and military tensions among Europe's great powers, compounded by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary (Howard, 2007). Nationalism, imperial competition, and a system of entangled alliances (Triple Entente: France, Russia, Britain vs. Triple Alliance: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy) created a volatile environment. ...
This manuscript examines Greece’s transformative journey from the Treaty of Bucharest (1913) to the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), highlighting the interplay of military pedagogy, the evolution of the Greek army, and the role of diplomacy. Following its significant territorial gains in the Balkan Wars, Greece sought to consolidate its position through diplomacy and later navigated the challenges of World War I, including the National Schism between Eleftherios Venizelos and King Constantine I. The Treaty of Neuilly (1919) and the Treaty of Sèvres (1920) marked the apex of Greece’s territorial ambitions, driven by Venizelos’s diplomatic acumen. However, the Asia Minor Campaign (1919–1922) exposed the limits of military overreach and internal division, culminating in the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), which redefined Greek sovereignty and population demographics. This study explores how military modernization, strategic leadership, and diplomatic resilience shaped Greece’s national trajectory, offering broader insights into state-building and regional influence in a volatile era.
... The death toll of the war cannot not be ignored, millions died, either in the trenches, or at home due to deprivation and disease. 137 While the death toll and societal impact of World War I are tremendous, and should not be ignored, war can bring about cultural and technological advancements. 138 One area which seems to have advanced due to the tragedy of World War is marketing. ...
World War I was a global conflict produced blood filled trenches, battlefields of dead, and mangled soldiers. Some may feel that this war has little to do with the field of marketing. However, marketing played a key role in the war. Despite the important role of marketing in the war, scholars have not fully explored the impact of promotion and propaganda on the war effort. Marketing efforts related to World War I may not have had the impact as the millions of soldiers who took active part in the conflict. It did however play an important role in the filling the ranks of the armed forces of the nations involved in the war. The United States, and other nations, during the war developed increasingly more sophisticated marketing, public relations, and propaganda campaigns in order to culturally mobilize the home front, and to recruit additional fresh troops into the conflict in those nations which did not engage in conscription. Efforts to market World War I helped develop marketing tactics used today to brand and publicize products and services. A key figure in the efforts to market World War I to the American public was George Creel. Creel was the head of the Committee on Public Information. Creel was a successful promoter and champion of many of the reform causes of the early part of the 20th Century. Creel’s marketing efforts impact on America’s role in World War I was indeed significant. The topic of this paper is the impact of World War I on the development of marketing related tools and techniques. Many of the techniques and tools developed during the Great War are still used today to sell products, in the United States and in the rest of the world presently. Much of this paper will focus on the efforts of George Creel and the Committee on Public Information efforts to promote World War I, and how this organization impacted the development of marketing during its short existence.
... The conflict between Habsburg-Austria and Serbia was the trigger for a major war that would last four years. Long before the July Crisis, Europe had experienced conflict in the Balkans since 1908 (Howard, 2002). Germany and the Ottoman States have allied to prevent Russia's expansion into the Bosphorus and the East Mediterranean. ...
The outbreak of World War 1 in 1914 had a major effect on global interactions during the early 20th century. Travel from one country to another to conduct trade, study, research, and religious pilgrimages become disrupted. Hajj (pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca) is one of the areas affected by the outbreak of this great war. The number of pilgrims from the Dutch East Indies dropped dramatically. Hajj ships also ceased operations. Besides, many Dutch East Indies pilgrims in Mecca were unable to return home and suffered life misery during World War I. This article investigates the impact of World War I (1914-1918) on Dutch East Indies pilgrims. The purpose of this article is to find out how Dutch East Indies Muslims responded to hajj during World War I. In this study, the researcher used historical methods that emphasised the exploration of the sources of Early 20th century Malay and Dutch newspapers. The researcher argues that in line with the events of World War I, the Dutch colonial government still intervened against religious practices in the Dutch East Indies, especially the hajj, thus worsening the situation of the Dutch East Indies pilgrims in Mecca. Opponents of this policy, such as R.A.A. Djajadiningrat, Hasan Mustapa, Cokroaminoto, Tafsir Anom, and Rinkes, formed the Hajj Assistance Committee to help pilgrims return to the Dutch East Indies.
Straipsnyje keliama mintis, kad istoriografijoje Pirmojo pasaulinio karo genezės tema įsigalėjęs kaltės dėl karo aiškinimosi motyvas turėjo tris negatyvias pasekmes. Pirma, tyrimo objektu faktiškai tapo didžiųjų imperinių valstybių kovos dėl galios arena; toks tyrimo rakursas savaime patrauklus, bet neteikiantis galimybių vienareikšmiškai atsakyti į klausimą, kas gi yra tikrasis kaltininkas, ir „kaltininko“ įvardijimas tapo priklausomas nuo politinės konjunktūros. Antra, orientacija į prieškarinės sistemos pagrindinių veikėjų tarpusavio sąveiką objektyviai vedė į esamos europinės struktūros išsaugojimo paieškas; prieškarinis europinis koncertas faktiškai sutapatintas su europine civilizacija. Trečia, už tyrimo dėmesio ribų liko tautų apsisprendimo principo veiksnys, padaręs esminę įtaką transformuojant europinę sistemą demokratizacijos linkme. Apžvelgus Pirmojo pasaulinio karo genezei skirtą istoriografiją daromos išvados, kad ji visų pirma savo apimtimi liudija apie to karo ypatingą svarbą Europos, ir ne tik, istorijai. Neginčytina, kad po to karo pasidėjo nauja epocha, kurią įvairiai galima ženklinti, tačiau palyginus su ankstesnėmis epochomis nenuneigiamas jos šuolis demokratizacijos linkme. Bet aptartoje Pirmojo pasaulinio karo genezės istoriografijoje centrinę vietą užima kaltės dėl karo motyvas. Taip objektyviai – o kai kuriais atvejais ir subjektyviai – aptartos istoriografijos dėmesys telkiamas ne į minėto vertybinio šuolio genezę ir reikšmę, o į savotišką apologetiką iki karo egzistavusios sistemos, kurios pagrindiniai bruožai – europocentrizmas ir didžiųjų valstybių bei didžiųjų tautų viešpatavimas. Kaltės dėl karo motyvas aptartoje istoriografijoje paprastai orientuotas į techninius-operatyvinius sprendimus, vedusius arba galėjusius vesti į karą; už dėmesio ribų lieka eksplikacija konkretaus santykio tarp karo kilmės motyvų ir tautų apsisprendimo principo. Be to, istoriografijos raida nuo XX a. trečiojo dešimtmečio iki XXI a. trečiojo dešimtmečio leidžia pastebėti pasireiškusią interpretacijų priklausomybę nuo tarptautinės politinės konjunktūros. Panašu, kad istoriografijos raidoje pasireiškęs interpretacinis vingis nėra vien akademinių diskusijų apraiška. Apžvelgtoje istoriografijoje dominuojanti tendencija ieškoti alternatyvos pasauliniam karui liudija apeliaciją į karo aukų beprasmiškumą. Bet kartu tai liudija nostalgiją ikikarinės sistemos atžvilgiu. O radikali tokios alternatyvos paieška reiškia nuostatą retrospektyviai konfliktą apriboti pangermanistinių ir panslavistinių galių kovos kontekstu. Apžvelgta Pirmojo pasaulinio karo kilmės istoriografija patvirtina koncepciją, pagal kurią nuo Apšvietos laikų Vakarai traktuoja Rytus (šiuo atveju Rytų Europą) kaip savo vaizduotės ir interesų produktą.
بعد أن أرسلت الحكومة البريطانية إنذارها النهائي إلى ألمانيا ولم تجد لاحترام حياد بلجيكا قبولًا لدى الحكومة الألمانية، أبدت استعدادها للانضمام إلى فرنسا والقيام بعمل عسكري مشترك ضد ألمانيا؛ للدفاع عن حياد بلجيكا وصيانة استقلالها، فأعلنت الحرب على ألمانيا في 4 آب 1914؛ للتصدي للقوات الألمانية الزاحفة داخل الأراضي البلجيكية بالاشتراك مع القوات الفرنسية. ولذا سيتناول هذا البحث رغبة بريطانيا في الحفاظ على حياد بلجيكا، ومن ثم إعلان بريطانيا الحرب على ألمانيا، ومحاولة بريطانيا التصدي لألمانيا داخل الأراضي البلجيكية، التي أصبحت مسرحًا للمعارك بين القوى الكبرى أثناء الحرب العالمية الأولى، كما سيناقش تحليل الدوافع البريطانية لحماية بلجيكا، ثم تقييم المزاعم الألمانية لاختراق حياد بلجيكا واستقلالها، ثم الدور البريطاني والفرنسي في تحرير بلجيكا، والذي تم باستسلام ألمانيا في 11 تشرين الثاني 1918.
In the restoration of Hungarian sovereignty after the First World War, the Hungarian officers of the Austro-Hungarian Army (K. und k. Leger) played an important role. They were generally trained at the Austro-Hungarian Military Academy, the Theresianum in Wiener-Neustadt, Austria, where they were required to participate in a course to become a teacher of military fencing and gymnastics. These military fencers made a significant contribution to the reconstruction of Hungarian state institutions after the First World War. This article argues that a delegation of Dutch military fencers led by one of the most promi-nent fencers of his time Adriaan Egbertus Willem ‘Arie’ de Jong (1882-1966) established close contact with the Hungarian fencing elite and that these fencing contacts were part of a broader Dutch diplomatic offensive to re-involve the coalition of the Central Powers and their successor states in European political relations. The fencing activities of Arie de Jong and his team and in the background the sports diplomatic activities of Olympic fencer and sports director George van Rossem (1882-1955) were of decisive im-portance in regaining Hungary a position in international sports organizations in post-war Europe.
"Siasayt Cinema Samaj" offers a comprehensive examination of world cinema spanning from World War I to the Cold War era. Rooted in Gramsci's theory of Hegemony and Ideological State Apparatus, the book provides a nuanced analysis of how cinema has been utilized as a powerful tool for narrative construction throughout history.
The first chapter sets the stage by delving into the role of cinema as a vehicle for shaping narratives, emphasizing its significance in shaping societal perceptions and ideologies.
In the second chapter, the focus shifts to an in-depth analysis of cinema during World War I, exploring how films reflected and influenced the cultural and political landscape of the time.
Moving forward, the third chapter scrutinizes the role of cinema in the pre-World War II period, shedding light on its evolving influence on society and politics leading up to the global conflict.
The fourth chapter offers a comparative analysis of cinema under various political regimes, including Nazi, Fascist, British, French, and Hollywood productions. This section unpacks how different cinematic cultures were employed to propagate distinct ideological agendas.
Finally, the fifth chapter examines the Cold War era, highlighting the use of cinema as a battleground for narrative construction between the Soviet and capitalist blocs. It explores how films were wielded as ideological weapons in the geopolitical struggle for dominance.
Through its synoptic exploration, "Siasayt Cinema Samaj" provides valuable insights into the intersection of cinema, politics, and ideology during some of the most tumultuous periods in modern history, offering readers a deeper understanding of the role of cinema in shaping collective consciousness and societal discourse.
This book provides in-depth coverage and analysis of the international law, rules and principles that govern the use of force. Through a unique intra-disciplinary perspective, it examines how the law on the use of force functions within the international legal system and how it interacts with other relevant areas of the law. This includes arms control law, the law governing the use of the international commons, the law of armed conflict and human rights law, and the law of international responsibility. It offers an accessible guide to the law on the use of force to students and practitioners, alongside providing a unique perspective on the place and function of the law on the use of force within the wider legal landscape which will appeal to both academic professionals and others interested in how law regulates the use of force.
This chapter first analyzes the tensions between China and the West in relation to granting tax incentives. Subsequently, it explores the origins of the differences between China and the West from a historical, economic, and cultural perspective. Afterwards, it looks for the possibilities of creating a common platform for both China and the West under the WTO’s subsidy framework.
تأتي اهمية تناول جزء من تاريخ فرنسا مرتبط بالجانب الزراعي لأهميته في منح فرنسا القوى الاقتصادية، كونه النشاط الذي يمارسه القسم الاكبر من الشعب الفرنسي، لأسباب ارتبطت بالعوامل الجغرافية والمناخية المتنوعة، مع قيام الحرب العالمية الاولى(1914-1918)م عمدت الحكومة الفرنسية الى اعلان التعبئة العامة لتامين متطلبات الحرب، ترك ذلك القرار اثاره الواضحة منذ الايام الاولى لتنفيذه على انخفاض اعداد المزارعين في فرنسا، حينما تم تعبئة ما يقرب من (1,532,941) مزارعا من مجموع عدد القوى العاملة بحسب احصائيات عام 1913م والبالغة (3,703,192) رجلا موزعين على مختلف النشاطات الاقتصادية ، ولأجل معالجة تلك المسألة، عمدت الحكومة الفرنسية طوال سنوات الحرب الى اتخاذ عدد من الاجراءات، توزعت بين الاعتماد على المحليين، والتي ظهرت بنشاط مكتب العمل الوطني الذي تمكن من توفير ما يقرب من (13,794) مزارعا، والعمل المشترك بين وزارة الزراعة والحرب بهدف تنظيم الاجازات للمزارعين واصحاب المهن المرتبطة بالزراعة وفق مدد محددة بمواسم الحرث او الحصاد او تأجيل التعبئة لمواليد معينة التي يتزامن تجنيدها بمواقيت خاصة بالزراعة، فضلا عن تأهيل المعاقين من المزارعين بهدف امكانية عودة ممارستهم للزراعة او اشراك طلبة المدارس في نشاطات زراعية، في حين كان القسم الاخر من تعويض نقص المزارعين بالاعتماد على المزارعين الاجانب، من خلال تنظيم الهجرة من الدول المجاورة وفي مقدمتها اسبانيا والبرتغال لأسباب تتعلق بسهولة الانتقال وتوفر اليد العاملة في الزراعة، والاتجاه الى المستعمرات الفرنسية وفي مقدمتها الجزائر، والعمل على استغلال اسرى الحرب في النشاطات الاقتصادية ومنها الزراعة. مع الجهود الواضحة التي بذلتها الحكومة الفرنسية لمعالجة نقص اعداد المزارعين، فان النتائج المرجوة منها كانت من الناحية العملية غير جيدة في معالجة حجم المشكلة الكبيرة – نقص اعداد المزارعين - التي عانت منها الزراعة خلال سنوات الحرب، وبالتالي كان انعكاس قرار التعبئة ذا تأثير سلبي كبير على مستويات الانتاج الزراعي والحيواني، والدافع الاهم في توجه الحكومة الفرنسية وبنشاط تجاري خارجي لتامين منتجات الزراعة الاساسية بعد عدم امكانية الانتاج المحلي لتامين تلك المنتجات الزراعية.
Was the outcome of the First World War on a knife edge? In this major new account of German wartime politics and strategy Holger Afflerbach argues that the outcome of the war was actually in the balance until relatively late in the war. Using new evidence from diaries, letters and memoirs, he fundamentally revises our understanding of German strategy from the decision to go to war and the failure of the western offensive to the radicalisation of Germany's war effort under Hindenburg and Ludendorff and the ultimate collapse of the Central Powers. He uncovers the struggles in wartime Germany between supporters of peace and hardliners who wanted to fight to the finish. He suggests that Germany was not nearly as committed to all-out conquest as previous accounts argue. Numerous German peace advances could have offered the opportunity to end the war before it dragged Europe into the abyss.
An innovative account that brings together cognitive science, ethnography, and literary history to examine patterns of “mindreading” in a wide range of literary works.
For over four thousand years, writers have been experimenting with what cognitive scientists call “mindreading”: constantly devising new social contexts for making their audiences imagine complex mental states of characters and narrators. In The Secret Life of Literature, Lisa Zunshine uncovers these mindreading patterns, which have, until now, remained invisible to both readers and critics, in works ranging from The Epic of Gilgamesh to Invisible Man. Bringing together cognitive science, ethnography, and literary studies, this engaging book transforms our understanding of literary history.
Central to Zunshine's argument is the exploration of mental states “embedded” within each other, as, for instance, when Ellison's Invisible Man is aware of how his white Communist Party comrades pretend not to understand what he means, when they want to reassert their position of power. Paying special attention to how race, class, and gender inform literary embedments, Zunshine contrasts this dynamic with real-life patterns studied by cognitive and social psychologists. She also considers community-specific mindreading values and looks at the rise and migration of embedment patterns across genres and national literary traditions, noting particularly the use of deception, eavesdropping, and shame as plot devices. Finally, she investigates mindreading in children's literature. Stories for children geared toward different stages of development, she shows, provide cultural scaffolding for initiating young readers into a long-term engagement with the secret life of literature.
Erschienen in: Berichte zur Polar- und Meeresforschung = Reports on Polar and Marine Research , 721, S. 1-31.
The main topic of this scientific work is technical and technological
emergencies as a segment of security threats with special emphasis on industrial
emergencies. During the development of this work mainly methods that are used are
explicative, descriptive and statistical analysis, and content analysis. There is described
and explained classification of emergencies as well as technical and technological
emergencies. Special emphasis is given to industrial emergencies. There were described
and explained industrial production aspects. Especially, there were described industrial
emergencies – emergencies related to hazardous materials and mining emergencies.
Additionally, there are presented some diagrams and maps related to technical and
technological emergencies and industrial emergencies. The aim of this scientific work is
to highlight the risk of industrial emergencies, as an important segment of security
threats.
Cyberspace is among the four global commons of the human race including, high seas, outer-space and Antarctica. The weaponization of the cyber domain is relatively a new phenomenon in war and warfare. Due to the pivotal need of connectivity and reliance on computers, computer components and internet to transmit, disseminate and communicate data – the cyberspace is used by almost every military force. This dependence on computers and internet has resulted in the vulnerability of certain weapon systems, fire control mechanisms and command and control platforms to cyber-attacks in the form of hacking, malware, spyware and disruptive and destructive viruses. North Korea is among those countries in the world that possesses a considerable capability to launch, disrupt, paralyze and render temporary or permanent loss of such platforms which assist in command and control of military forces. This article is a concentrated effort to analyse the cyber and electronic warfare strategy of North Korea and their possible use against United States Forces Korea (USFK) and United States Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM).
This essay aims to read Shaw’s
“Common Sense About the War” (1914) within the context of the British and
German intellectual’s public declarations on the war. Both British and German
governments demanded their intellectuals to defend their war to the public and
to the world. Declarations made by significant figures of both nations affirm
the narrative told by the political body. This is a Gramscian reading which
takes Gramsci’s observation on the role of intellectuals: “intellectuals play a
major role in the struggle for hegemony”. Shaw’s “Common Sense About the War”
was just that act “in the struggle for hegemony.” Challenging the “common
sense” views of his times, Shaw attempted to urge the public to be more
critical and questioning about their patriotic and ethnocentric positions on
most vital issues such as war. In Gramscian terms, he invites the public to use
“good sense” rather than the taken for granted “common sense”. Shaw uses the phrase “common sense” in his title to
invite the public to “common sense” leaving aside their romantic, idealised
views on the war and its causes. Despite their ideological differences, British public figures such as Kipling, Bennett, Wells,
Christabel Pankhurst and Doyle among others seemed all to be united at that
time of war under the banner of patriotism. Shaw’s text in this sense contests
the hegemonic discourse of the time.
Keywords: “Common Sense About the War”, Bernard Shaw, First
World War, Propaganda, Gramsci
There are persistent myths about every aspect of the Great War of 1914–1918: how it began, how it was won, how it was lost, and how the peace was made. I consider and reject the arguments that the war broke out inadvertently, that the Western front saw needless slaughter, that Germany was starved out of the war by the food weapon, and that the peace treaty that ended the war was the cause of another war.
The African campaigns of First World War should be thought of as more than ‘sideshows.’ Rather, historians should research local, ordinary African experiences of the war in order to better understand African perspectives on the war, and also to generate narratives that can be integrated into more inclusive histories of the global war. This essay suggests several different vantage points which could prove generative for a new historiography of the war in Africa.
We argue for a course in which students analyze writing about a common topic—in this case World War I—from multiple genres (e.g., poetry and technical manuals). We address the divide between instruction in pragmatic and literary writing and calls to bridge that gap. Students working in disparate areas of English learn the strengths and the limitations of their fields, and how text represents and promotes different interpretations of reality. Such written representations do not neatly line up along a utilitarian-literary binary but are more closely interwoven in the presence of a profound subject such as war.
Recent scholarship in just war theory has challenged the principle of symmetrical application of International Humanitarian Law (IHL). This revisionist work, which is increasingly dominating the field of contemporary war ethics, rejects the idea that the rules of conduct of war (jus in bello) should be agnostic about the justice of the decision to go to war (jus ad bellum). Just wars are perceived to be inherently at odds with the principle of symmetrical application of IHL, which appears to create a hard choice between justice and legality. I show that this challenge to IHL is misplaced. It derives from a widespread view among just war theorists according to which only one side in a just war can be justified in using force. By looking closely at the nature of adjudication of just causes of war, I show that there can be cases of war in which both sides are justified in using force, and cases in which, though not objectively justified, both sides may be excused for fighting. On the basis of this understanding of jus ad bellum, I argue that the principle of symmetrical application of IHL in fact best reflects the uncertainty and complexity that should characterize the practical doctrine of jus ad bellum.
Waltz's neorealist theory has been charged with falsely separating geopolitical from social and economic processes. Yet Waltz's critics themselves have failed to show how sociological and geopolitical phenomena can be explained in a unified international theory. Such a theory, says Waltz, would have to pass three tests. It must delimit a field of specifically international phenomena. It must identify structured (and hence theorizable) effects within this field. And it must furnish ‘a brilliant intuition’, which reveals the causal relations that explain these effects. This article argues that the idea of ‘uneven and combined development’ (U&CD) can pass these tests. The article delimits ‘the international’ as those phenomena arising from the interactive multiplicity of societies. Next, it uses Gerschenkron's theory of backwardness to identify internationally structured effects arising from societal multiplicity. And finally, by considering the debate on the First World War, it explores how the causal mechanisms identified by U&CD can be used to construct a unified sociological and geopolitical explanation.
The experience of the Napoleonic wars in the live and thought of Carl von Clausewitz before 1815
This study investigates the life of Carl von Clausewitz to 1815 and analyses impact of the Napoleonic Wars era and its relevance to On War. The idea for this article stems from the fact, that the overall image that emerges from the Polish literature in this field is incomplete. Above all it lacks a proper understanding of his life as well as it omits most of his minor historical and political writings. To better illustrate the complexity of the issue in question, the article is divided into eight separate sections, each one describing particular period in Clausewitz’s life, especially the importance of Prussia’s defeat in the twin battles of Jena and Aüerstedt, the process of restoration of the state that took place in following years and his participation in campaigns of 1812 in Russia and of 1815 in France. This study also tries to illustrate and explain how Clausewitz’s experience contributed to the formation of his theory of war.
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