The negative impacts of the 20th century World Wars are known to us. The loss of lives in both the World Wars was over 70 million. These World Wars saw a great loss of infrastructure and caused a lot of suffering to the people. But have we ever wondered why exactly these wars happened?
Most of us would know that the Second World War happened mainly because of the disappointment of Germans because they were not included in the drafting of the Treaty of Versailles which happened as a consequence of the First World War. The Germans also felt that the Treaty was very harsh as it stated that Germany had to give up territory to Belgium, Czechoslovakia and Poland, return Alsace and Lorraine to France and cede all of its overseas colonies in China, the Pacific and Africa to the Allied Nations. Germany also had to drastically reduce its armed forces and accept the demilitarization and Allied occupation of the region around the Rhine River. The treaty also placed all blame for inciting the war squarely on Germany and forced it to pay several billion in reparations to the Allied Nations.
It is not very commonly known what the cause for the First World War was. While there were many causes for the start of the First World War, the immediate cause was the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife.
On 28th June 1914, the Archduke had traveled to inspect the Austro-Hungarian army in Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina, annexed by Austria-Hungary in 1908. This annexation in 1908 had angered Serbian nationalists, who believed the territories should be part of Serbia. And so a group of Serbian nationalists called the Black Hand hatched a plot to assassinate the Archduke during his visit to Sarajevo.
The Archduke had been first attacked by Nedeljko Cabrinovic, who had thrown a bomb at their car. However, the bomb detonated behind them, injuring the officers that were following him. They had then gone to the Governor’s residence and after a short rest, the Archduke and his wife insisted on seeing all the officers who had been injured by the bomb. However, no one told the drivers that the route to the hospital had been changed which led to them taking a wrong turn. When the error was discovered, the drivers had to turn around to go back to the residence. But as the cars backed down Gavrilo Princip, one of the assassins was sitting at a cafe across the street. He instantly seized his opportunity and walked across the street and shot the royal couple.
This assassination of the Austrian Archduke set off a rapid chain of events, as Austria-Hungary blamed the Serbian government for the attack. Austria-Hungary asked Germany for help and Serbia asked their ally Russia, which in turn was an ally of France, which in turn was an ally of Great Britain. However, Great Britain joined the war much later. On July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia which led to a conflict between the European powers beginning the devastating conflict now known as World War I.
– Neilay Agarwal, 10D