Download Samenvatting Geschiedenis The great war Europe has always been

Samenvatting Geschiedenis The great war
Europe has always been divided, because some countries dimply hated each other.
There had been several conflicts before 1914 which had caused Europe to split up
between the Triple Alliance ( Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy) and the Triple
Entente (Britain, Russia and France). When Archduke Franz Ferdinand of
Austria-Hungary was assassinated by the Serbian Nationalist Gavrilo Princip in
Sarajevo on the 28th of June 1914 a direct cause for war was given. Europe was soon at
war. In 1914 things were different, people were excited by the idea of war- they wanted
to show how powerful their country was.The Germans were the first to declare war,
they wanted to use ‘The Schlieffen Plan’ to launch a surprise attack on France through
Belgium. The invasion of Belgium caused nothing but Britain declaring war to
Germany. All the major powers in Europe were now at war.
The British army didn’t have a big army (unlike German) so they made pamphlets for
men to join the army, a lot of men had volunteered to fight. Britain didn’t have the
money to train and cloth all new recruits, so many men went to war without the right
equipment. The experience of war was not what the young men in the army had signed
up for. They had to fight in the trenches that ran in zigzag lines from the North Sea to
Switzerland - a horrible experience. It was deadly. The worst place to be killed was in
No Man’s Land (the area between the trenches of both sides). The worst thing was that
the war lasted longer than anyone had expected. Propaganda was used to promote the
war, encourage the troops and persuade men to join the army. Often in propaganda the
enemy was made to be seen really bad. The problems of the war were not being told in
propaganda, they tried to minimize it and to tell only the good things about the war. It
was designed to mislead people.
In 1918, large numbers of American troops helped the Allies on the Western Front (in
the Trenches) to drive the Germans back. At 11 A.M. on the 11th of November
1918 the Fighting stopped. Now they had to negotiate the peace treaty. The German
Government expected that the treaty would be based on a peace treaty announced by the
president of the US- Woodrow Wilson. They were wrong. The German had Allies
governments did not negotiate together to draw up the peace treaty that ended the first
world war. The Allied governments (not including Germany) drew up the peace treaty
themselves and insisted that the Germans accept it. (the treaty of Versailles).
The main things objected in the treaty were:
<ol>
<li>The Diktat</li>
<li>War guilt and reparations</li>
<li>The loss of territory</li>
<li>Disarmament</li>
</ol>
One of the main aims of the peace treaties that ended the First World War was to set up
an international organisation to prevent further wars. This League of Nations, as it was
called, was set up by a Covenant, which was written into the peace treaties. The
Covenant included the rules for the League and a statement of its aims. The aims were
to prevent further wars and to help to solve economic and social problems. The League
had 18 members when it first met in 1820. Many countries did not join, some of the
most powerful countries were not allowed to join or did not join. The first members
were the countries that had signed the peace treaties at the end of the war, plus other
countries that were invited to join. Russia, The USA and Germany did not join- which
were the major world powers!
The decisions of The League were made by its General Assembly and its council. Each
member was represented in the General Assembly, which met at least once a year.The
League’s aims mostly did work well, the only aim that didn’t really work out was the
aim of stopping further wars. During the 1920s, the League managed to stop some
fighting between smaller countries, but in the 1930s, it was increasingly ignored.A
British plan was accepted to promote international co-operation and achieve
international peace and security. The League did not prevent a second world war within
20 years