NationStates Jolt Archive

God damn why did someone have to start a thread on who started WWII on the same day as I was going to ask this question?

Anyways, I'm always confused about this subject. I know Arch-Duke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, but I don't know where or by whom. I get stories from in Serbia, to in Romania, by a Serbian Anarchist, to the Serbian military. I just want things to be straightened out. Also, I would like to know who's alliances caused other people to join the war.

Franz Ferdinand was murdered by a Serbian Nationalist. This caused Austria to mobolize for war against Serbia, however because of the central powers,entente alliance systems Germany,Russia,France mobolized for war as well(eventually Britain mobolized for war too)

And there you have WWI

God damn why did someone have to start a thread on who started WWII on the same day as I was going to ask this question?

Anyways, I'm always confused about this subject. I know Arch-Duke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, but I don't know where or by whom. I get stories from in Serbia, to in Romania, by a Serbian Anarchist, to the Serbian military. I just want things to be straightened out. Also, I would like to know who's alliances caused other people to join the war.

If you're lazy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_war_I

If you really want details, read this:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/ba/Guns_of_august.gif
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/034538623X/sr=8-1/qid=1147619205/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-5366630-8487853?%5Fencoding=UTF8

He was killed in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip. I'm not sure if he was payed by the Black Hand or actually part of it, though.

Christ, GCSE History has been a while. Lets see; it was a combination of long-term alliances, Serbian desires for independece, German antagonism in the naval race with Britain as the two tried to outdo each other, for a start. Kaiser Wilhelm II's desire for a 'Place in the Sun' helped to give the Austrians the 'Blank Cheque' military support to go after the Serbians, who in turn dragged in the Russians as their allies, who wanted Serbia as a province again after Pan-Slavism and the such. France joined in, Belgium when it was invaded by Germany. Eventually Britain, although it had no real reason to; the Belgium Treaty could have been ignored.

Franz Ferdinand was murdered by a Serbian Nationalist. This caused Austria to mobolize for war against Serbia, however because of the central powers,entente alliance systems Germany,Russia,France mobolized for war as well(eventually Britain mobolized for war too)

And there you have WWI
Welll, austria sent an ultimatum to Serbia, backed up by Germany. Serbia accepted in the most part, but the parts that it did not accept lead to Austria invading Serbia. Germany, beliving that Russia would jump in soon, decided to head things off and attack Russia first. The Germans believed that the French would get involved if Russia did, and so jumped into belgium to go through it to france, bringing Britian into the war.

It started because a fellow named Archie Duke shot an ostrich because he was hungry.

It started because a fellow named Archie Duke shot an ostrich because he was hungry.

Oh, shut up Baldrick.

Oh, shut up Baldrick.

Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom...

Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom...

Boom, Boom, Boom?

It leads back to before that. The Germans took the French territory of Alcase-Lorraine in the Thirty-years' war (IIRC) and the French were mildly displeased about this, to say the least. Their aggression was influenced by that (they had a plan in the same style as the Schlieffen Plan, called Plan 17).

The Germans had a plan made by a guy called General (or possibly Major, or even Count von, I don't really know) Schlieffen, which involved a high-speed attack on France, going through Belgium, so as to avoid attacking the French defensive line by the border of Alsace-Lorraine, which was incredibly strong.

The plan was to take out Paris very quickly, whilst avoiding a war on two fronts, as Schlieffen assumed (incorrectly) that the Russians would be slow to mobilise. After France was taken, Germany would then move onto Russia if it was attacked. This never happened, but it was the plan.

There were also crises in Morocco, when Wilhelm challenged France's authority in the region. Britain and France didn't react to the first one, Britain sent a couple of warships out to the second. This increased tensions.

Talking of warships, the Germans and British had entered a "Naval race" to see who could build the most Dreadnoughts, ships which were vastly better than anything else in the period. You could probably compare that to the US and the USSR's nuclear build-up in the Cold War, but this is on a smaller scale.

There were also a couple of wars in the Balkans between 1912 and 1914, which didn't help the world's state of affairs.

On both sides, there were three main powers - the Triple Entente of Britain, France and Russia, and the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and also Italy (although the Italians were bribed onto the Entente's side very soon into the war).

Britain had an alliance with Belgium, Russia had one with Serbia (at least those are the two really important ones for the causes of the World War one).

As you can imagine, tensions were already extremely high in Europe.

When Franz Ferdinand was assassinated on the day he was inspecting the troops in newly-annexed Bosnia, things got out of hand. Serbia shelled by the Austro-Hungarians after it refused to give in to an ultimatum, Russia then declared war on Austria-Hungary, Germany declared war on Russia, France declared war on Germany, and I presume that Italy declared war on France.

When Germany went into Belgium, Britain then declared war on Germany, and sent over the British Expeditionary Force (essentially the British Army, all of which were volunteers) to try and stop them.

What happened after that is rather long-winded, and this isn't a short post.

If you're lazy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_war_I

If you really want details, read this:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/ba/Guns_of_august.gif
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/034538623X/sr=8-1/qid=1147619205/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-5366630-8487853?%5Fencoding=UTF8

Markreich - Wiki is an outstandingly poor information source. I wouldn't give it out as a "source of information".

Boom, Boom, Boom?

How did you know, sir?

Markreich - Wiki is an outstandingly poor information source. I wouldn't give it out as a "source of information".

Note I said "if he were lazy". :D

And actually Wiki isn't bad a a low-level primer. I'd say that some of the opinion pieces are bad or misleading, but it gets the big topics as well as most major newspapers.

Markreich - Wiki is an outstandingly poor information source. I wouldn't give it out as a "source of information".

For a quick shuftie it isn't bad as a layout. Obviously it isn't an academic overview source, but for your average joe it suffices in the basics.

How did you know, sir?

Ok... I'm stopping here. I'm not hijacking this into a "BlackAdder Goes Fouth" recitation thread. :)

Ok... I'm stopping here. I'm not hijacking this into a "BlackAdder Goes Fouth" recitation thread. :)

Heh...only in NS General...


*Official Voice*


"And now, back to your scheduled thread..."

Somebody slept with Serbia's woman. WWI was a crime of passion.

archie duke shot an ostritch because he was hungry.

archie duke shot an ostritch because he was hungry.
One hour and 12 posts too late, Baldrick ;)

Yeah, basically all of europe was a giant powder keg (as it is often put) of alliances and treaties. These treaties were built up and built up for many various reasons amongst many different countries (If I get attacked, then you must help me, I f help them, then you must help me too..). When a serbian nationalist assasinated the nephew of the Emperor of the Austro-Hungarian empire, he inadvertantly created the spark that set off the entire powder keg.

This is why the reason seems obscure for such a large and historically important war. There was no defining reason, or rather, everyone had their own reason/obligation to be in the war. For example: Australia was in WWI because the British were, the British were in the war because the French were invaded and the Kaiser had stolen the word 'twenty' from the Americans, the Germans invaded the French because...because the Kaiser had a mustache, and the Kaiser had a mustache because Austria invaded Serbia, Austria invaded Serbia because Franz Josef was pissed about the assasination of his nephew and Serbian rejction of his hat/treaty, and the Serbian contempt for Austro-Hungarian hats goes back a long way...

It leads back to before that...
Whoa, you might want to go into more detail.
*Insert "All of Human History" Here*
Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.

Exactly...

The Germans took the French territory of Alcase-Lorraine in the Thirty-years' war (IIRC) and the French were mildly displeased about this, to say the least.

In 1648? Well, 1618 to 1648. That's the only one I know

the British were in the war because the French were invaded

Wasn't it the invasion of Belgium (which the Germans did en route to France) that cause the British declaration of war?

the Germans invaded the French because...because the Kaiser had a mustache

LOL

In 1648? Well, 1618 to 1648. That's the only one I know
Germany - as a state - didn't exist then. *smack*
Wasn't it the invasion of Belgium (which the Germans did en route to France) that cause the British declaration of war?
Among other things.

Germany - as a state - didn't exist then. *smack*

Yes, I know. I was trying to suggest that the event of the thirty years war were in no way responsible for the outbreak of world war one nearly three centuries later, and that the incident in question probably happened in a later war