World War 1

World War 1

Introduction

The world war (World War 1 or the Great War) was the first major war of the world in which almost all of the continents engaged. It began on July 28th, 1914 and lasted on November 11th, 1918. The four year war caused a lot of destruction to the world. It started in Europe and involved all of the great powers of the world. Two opposing alliances were formed: The Allies and the Central Powers. The Allies were based on the alliance of the United Kingdom, France and Russia. The Central Powers were formed by the alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy but Italy did not enter the war and later backed out (Evans, 2004).

More than seventy million military personnel were mobilized in one of the largest wars in the history of the world. Out of the 70 million, more than 60 million were Europeans. New technology was introduced in the war, leading to the death of more than nine million combatants.

Discussion

The reason why the war is called a 'world war' is because it engulfed all of the major countries of the world including all of Europe, United Kingdom, Asia and the USA. The USA did not participate until the later stages but never the less; they were also an important part of this war.

In 1917, just one year before the War was over USA decided to join the battle. Initially, they did not get involved because of reasons such as keeping their collateral damage to a minimum and keeping trade open across the Atlantic with Europe. The country did not show much interest in the War and preferred to stay neutral for the first three years. Although different historians have different opinions about the entry of USA into the World War, mostly it revolves around ...