History was always a boring topic for me and I really don’t understand why they wrote such amazing events in such a mundane way. Why not get a big chunk of information in a fun way via a 2 min read. Here goes my attempt to entertain.
It has been 20 years into a new century and the society today does not look like they will make this one as exciting as the 20th century. It was 1914, a time of modern culture, technology and amazing inventions; the world was already picking up speed in terms of making a ton of discoveries in the century which was about to follow. But, as perfectly demonstrated by most of the human race throughout the ages, we must create some mess from time-to-time. So, Lets have a War. But, also let’s make it the underrated one and call it the ‘Great’ War.
The year is 1914, all of Europe is going nuts with France wanting some land back from Germany, Germany wanting land (more land) from everyone in Europe and the whole of Eastern Europe wanting the land where they live for themselves. The Austro-Hungarian empire and the Ottoman Empire considered themselves as very powerful parties. But, around 6 nations in between them were declaring independence with the help of Russia. Another factor weighed in heavily with new advancements on warfare technology not being tested on the actual battlefield. So, pretty much everyone missed a war and wanted to really beat someone up.
A particularly angry place, Sarajevo, where some Bosnians and Serbians hate living in the Austro-Hungarian empire, are making a ruckus. So, Archduke Franz Ferdinand visits the place in an open car with no rooftop. Obviously, its assassination time. Only the assassin failed in every way possible by forgetting the 10-second delay on the bomb and blew up someone else. Then he also failed to kill himself. But naïve Franz isn’t really about the wits, because instead of fleeing to safety he goes to visit the injured officers, and by chance happens to cross one of the assassins who fled. This one kills him in his car.
Austria and Hungary were really angry and blamed Serbia, so with their super-powerful friend Germany, they declare war against Serbia. Now, Serbia is friends with Russia and Russia is friends with France. So, they declare war on Germany and Austria, too. Following the trend, France went to Britain and asked them if they’ll back them up, to which Britain’s response was ‘maybe’ and they decided to be neutral.
Germany meanwhile, hatched a plan. It took Russia time to reach Germany’s East border due to the large distance. The Schlieffen Plan was to attack and conquer France then move all troops to the east and conquer Russia. The Germans never fail to amuse with a spectacular plan which is about to fail. Germany decide to move into France through Belgium, which they figure, will surrender as its small and helpless. Surprise! Britain is here as the Belgians and British defend well against the German troops. Germany, though pushed on inside Belgium and committed some classic German atrocities along the way. Surprise (part 2)! Russians come knocking on the East border way too early than Germany expected.
Austria and Hungary are on it as they try to defend the borders with the help of some German forces. But the Austrian commanders disregard Germany’s strategies and start losing battles. The Germans however are strong as they successfully hold off two waves of Russian troops.
The Germany and Austro-Hungarian alliance are like a double’s team with an expert veteran player and an egoistic newcomer who overestimated himself. While Austria struggles to beat a weak Serbia, Germany fights on two fronts and manages to nearly reach Paris. But they are fighting Britain, Belgium and France and this starts the tunnel warfare. This battle moves northwards and soon tunnel channels are formed from the northern coast of France to Switzerland. The war has now reached a stalemate and everyone knows that this is more about wearing the opponent out rather than using brute force.
In the meantime, you must be wondering: ‘Wasn’t this a World War? This seems to be awfully confined to Europe.’ The World War was a really long war and I simply had to cover all the craziness in this one. I wrote this as one article but it does seem too long to be in just one post. So this was Part 1 of the War. In the next part, this War will be booming into the rest of the World! See you then.