Download World War I

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World War I
World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War and the War to End All Wars
was a global military conflict which took place primarily in Europe from 1914 to 1918.
The immediate cause of the war was the June 28, 1914 assassination of the Archduke Franz
Ferdinand. The retaliation by Austria-Hungary against Serbia activated a series of alliances that set
off a chain reaction of war declarations. Within a month, much of Europe was in a state of open
warfare.
The war was propagated by two major alliances.
The Entente Powers initially consisted of France, the United Kingdom, Russia and their associated
empires and dependencies. Numerous other states joined these Allies, most notably Italy in April
1915, and the United States in April 1917.
The Central Powers, so named because of their central location on the European continent, initially
consisted of Germany and Austria-Hungary and their associated empires. The Ottoman Empire
joined the Central Powers in October 1914, followed a year later by Bulgaria.
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By the conclusion of the war, only The Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain and the Scandinavian
nations remained officially neutral among the European countries, though many of those provided
financial and material support to one side or the other.
The fighting of the war mostly took place along several fronts that broadly encircled the
European continent.
The Western Front was marked by a system of trenches, breastworks, and fortifications separated
by an area known as no man's land. These fortifications stretched 475 miles (more than 600
kilometres) and precipitated a style of fighting known as trench warfare.
On the Eastern Front the vast eastern plains and limited rail network prevented a trench warfare
stalemate, though the scale of the conflict was just as large as on the Western Front.
The Middle Eastern Front and the Italian Front also saw heavy fighting, while hostilities also
occurred at sea, and for the first time, in the air.
The war was ended by several treaties, most notably the Treaty of Versailles signed on June 28,
1919, though the Allied powers had an armistice with Germany in place since Nov. 11, 1918.
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One of the most striking results of the war was a large redrawing of the map of Europe. After
the war, the League of Nations was created as an international organization designed to avoid future
wars by giving nations a means of solving their differences diplomatically. World War I marked the
end of the world order which had existed after the Napoleonic Wars, and was an important factor in
the outbreak of World War II.
Casualties
The number of World War I casualties, both military and civilian, was over 40 million — 20 million
deaths and 21 million wounded. This includes 9.7 million military deaths and about 10 million
civilian deaths. The Entente Powers (also known as the Allies) lost more than 5 million soldiers and
the Central Powers about 4 million.
All Quiet on the Western Front
Erich Maria Remarque was born in Osnabruik, Germany, in 1898 into a lower-middle-class
family. In 1916, he was drafted into the German army to fight in World War I, in which he was badly
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wounded. Ten years after the war ended, he published Im Westen Nichts Neues, translated into
English a year later as All Quiet on the Western Front, a novel about the experiences of ordinary
German soldiers during the war.
After Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in Germany in the early 1930s, the fiercely nationalistic Nazi
regime attacked All Quiet on the Western Front and Remarque as unpatriotic. Remarque made no
attempt to resist the Nazis’ attacks on his reputation because he feared retaliation. Despite Nazi
hostilities toward him, in 1931 Remarque published a sequel to All Quiet on the Western Front,
entitled The Road Back, which details the postwar experience of German citizens. This work
provoked further Nazi opposition, and Remarque fled to Switzerland with his wife, Jutta Zambona,
in 1932. In 1933, the Nazis banned Remarque’s two novels and held a bonfire to burn copies of the
books.
Most of Remarque’s novels deal with political and social upheaval in Europe during the First and
Second World Wars. Several of his novels were adapted to film. However, All Quiet on the Western
Front remains his masterpiece; none of his other works approaches its critical acclaim and
popularity. The novel and its first film adaptation are still influential as antiwar works and important
chronicles of World War I. One of the remarkable aspects of the book’s success in England and
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America is that, unlike most other works dealing with World War I, All Quiet on the Western
Front deals with the experiences of German Soldiers -- detested enemies of the English and
Americans during World War I and World War II. That American and English reception of the book
was so positive from the outset testifies to its ability to speak for all soldiers who suffered through
the horrors of World War I.
All Quiet on the Western Front is narrated by Paul Baumer a young man of nineteen who fights in
the German army on the French front in World War I. Paul and several of his friends from school
joined the army voluntarily after listening to the stirring patriotic speeches of their teacher, Kantorek.
But after experiencing ten weeks of brutal training at the hands of the petty, cruel Corporal
Himmelstoss and the unimaginable brutality of life on the front, Paul and his friends have realized
that the ideals of nationalism and patriotism for which they enlisted are simply empty clichés. They
no longer believe the war is glorious and honorable, and they live in constant physical terror.
Themes & Motifs from All Quiet
Themes
 The horror of war
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 The effect of war on soldiers
 Nationalism and political power
Motifs
 The pressure of patriotic idealism
 Carnage and gore
 Animal Instinct