World War One?

Question

If WWII was about Hitler, then What was World War One? We are learning about Anne Frank in school, and it got me confused about what WWI was then.

Answer 1

It is easy to say Hitler was the main reason for WW II, it was more than that. I believe it would not have been Hitler it would have been someone else.

Wars usually start because their our two groups; the have and have-nots.

World War I
Causes

World War I was immediately precipitated by the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary by a Serbian nationalist in 1914. There were, however, many factors that had led toward war. Prominent causes were the imperialistic, territorial, and economic rivalries that had been intensifying from the late 19th cent., particularly among Germany, France, Great Britain, Russia, and Austria-Hungary.

Of equal importance was the rampant spirit of nationalism, especially unsettling in the empire of Austria-Hungary and perhaps also in France. Nationalism had brought the unification of Germany by "blood and iron," and France, deprived of Alsace and Lorraine by the Franco-Prussian War of 1870—71, had been left with its own nationalistic cult seeking revenge against Germany. While French nationalists were hostile to Germany, which sought to maintain its gains by militarism and alliances, nationalism was creating violent tensions in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy; there the large Slavic national groups had grown increasingly restive, and Serbia as well as Russia fanned Slavic hopes for freedom and Pan-Slavism.

Imperialist rivalry had grown more intense with the "new imperialism" of the late 19th and early 20th cent. The great powers had come into conflict over spheres of influence in China and over territories in Africa, and the Eastern Question, created by the decline of the Ottoman Empire, had produced several disturbing controversies. Particularly unsettling was the policy of Germany. It embarked late but aggressively on colonial expansion under Emperor William II, came into conflict with France over Morocco, and seemed to threaten Great Britain by its rapid naval expansion.

These issues, imperialist and nationalist, resulted in a hardening of alliance systems in the Triple Alliance and Triple Entente and in a general armaments race. Nonetheless, a false optimism regarding peace prevailed almost until the onset of the war, an optimism stimulated by the long period during which major wars had been avoided, by the close dynastic ties and cultural intercourse in Europe, and by the advance of industrialization and economic prosperity. Many Europeans counted on the deterrent of war's destructiveness to preserve the peace.

World War II

The immediate causes of World War II are generally held to be the German invasion of Poland, and the Japanese attacks on China, the United States, and the British and Dutch colonies. In each of these cases, the attacks were the result of a decision made by authoritarian ruling elites in Germany and Japan. World War II started after these aggressive actions were met with an official declaration of war, armed resistance or both.


Hideki Tojo of Imperial JapanThe Nazi Party came to power in Germany by democratic means, although after acquiring power they eliminated most vestiges of Germany's democratic system. The reasons for their popularity included their renouncement of the Treaty of Versailles (particularly Article 231, known as the "Guilt Clause"), which had placed many restrictions on Germany since the end of the World War I; staunch anti-communism; the Dolchstosslegende; and promises of stability and economic reconstruction. They also appealed to a sense of Germanic identity, superiority and entitlement, which would play an important role in starting the war, as they demanded the integration of lands they considered to be rightfully belonging to Germany. Hitler was portrayed by himself, his party, and his book Mein Kampf as an almost otherworldly savior for the German people.

Imperial Japan in the 1930s was largely ruled by a militarist clique of Army and Navy leaders, devoted to Japan becoming a world colonial power. Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 and China in 1937 to bolster its meager stock of natural resources and extend its colonial control over a wider area. The United States and the United Kingdom reacted by making loans to China, providing covert military assistance, pilots and fighter aircraft to Kuomintang China and instituting increasingly broad embargoes of raw materials and oil against Japan. These embargoes would potentially have eventually forced Japan to give up its newly conquered possessions in China or find new sources of oil and other materials to run their economy. Japan was faced with the choice of withdrawing from China, negotiating some compromise, developing new sources of supply, buying what they needed somewhere else, or going to war to conquer the territories that contained oil, bauxite and other resources in the Dutch East Indies, Malay and the Philippines. Believing the French, Dutch and British governments more than occupied with the war in Europe, the Soviets reeling from German attacks and that the United States could not be organized for war for years and would seek a compromise before waging full scale war, they chose the latter, and went ahead with plans for the Greater East Asia War in the Pacific. [1]

The direct cause of the United States' entry into the war with Japan was the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Germany declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941.

Answer 2

World War One was far more important historically than WWII, although less people died. The Great War was about the death of a pre-technological Western Civilization.

Chew on that. Suffice to say, that WWII is predicated on the unfinished business of WWI, and everything the US, Britain and Australian forces are dealing with now is involved with the closing of WWIII (aka Cold War, a result of unfinished biz from WWII) and the fall of the Ottoman Empire back in the early 1900's.

WWI history is crucial to understanding the state of the world today. Unfortunately, it is often ignored.

Answer 3

WWI was based on imperialism, alliance systems, nationalism and an increase of military. Basically, all the nations were trying to obtain the most colonies and little wars started. Nations began taking sides (creating the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente) and it became one giant war between all of the involved nations (Germany, Italy, France, Russia, Austria-Hungary, United States, Great Britain)

Answer 4

WWI is a tough one, because it kind of took everyone by surprise. It started in Yugoslavia, very much like what happened there in the 1990's. But it turned out that all of the nations were ready for a war in Europe: they'd developed all sorts of new artillery and battleships, and they'd formed secret alliances with each other, so that nobody quite knew whose side anyone was on.

Unfortunately, nobody knew how much trouble they were about to get into. Germany invaded Belgium, for no particular reason, and dared England to do something about it. So England sent its soldiers over, thinking that they'd be home by Christmas. They marched right up to the German lines, with their bagpipers and all, and got mowed down by machine gun fire.

The machine gun scared everyone so much that they all dug trenches, hid in them, and tried to blast each other out of existence with artillery. At some battles, they sent over a million shells per day, and the landscape still shows the shell holes. Everyone was pinned down, and nothing worked to relieve the stalemate.

The fighting was as vicious as anyone has seen before or since: they used poison gas, they bombed each other's cities from blimps, they died in droves from disease, and sunk passenger liners and hospital ships with submarines.

By the time they were done, Europe was in utter ruin, everyone was broke, an entire generation of men on both sides was dead, and yet it took them another war to finally figure it out and stop fighting in Europe for good.

Answer 5

Hello, you can check out this playlist of a 10 part documentary on WW1
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4rXQPgripyY3V8mY8CR_Rcxf_tDJbGgV
Hope it is usefull.