Origins of WWI

Работа посвящена истокам Первой мировой войны по трудам Michael Howard’s The First World War: a very short introduction и Thomas Otte’s The July Crisis: Peace in War, Summer of 1914. Работа выполнена грамотным английским. ...

Статья

Now more than ever, a clear historical understanding of the conflicts that have engulfed the world is essential. In The First World War, one of the most respected historians of his generation offers a brief but hugely readable narrative account of WWI, its causes and consequences, and the many historical controversies surrounding the origin and conduct of the war.
Karl von Clausewitz wrote that war is a trinity composed of the policy of the government, the activities of the military, and the passions of the people. Michael Howard argues that "each of these must be taken into account if we are to understand both why the war happened and why it took the course it did."
When we are studying any international conflict, especially such large-scale and catastrophic as the First World War, it is important first of all to understand the origins of the conflict, the interests of the parties involved in it and their driving forces. Now we should only understand the points of view, wich were presented in Michael Howard’s The First World War: a very short introduction and Thomas Otte’s The July Crisis: Peace in War, Summer of 1914.
The key link between these two works is what both authors guess that decisive factor in the unleashing of this conflict was not the arms race, not the assassination of Franz Ferdinand or even the ambitions of the participating countries, if it was England with its aspiration to control the political situation on the continent to ensure the security of the process of strengthening their positions in the colonies, the German wanting to expand housing space and so on, but the actions, decisions, calculations and mistakes of the governments of these countries. Both historians believe that it is the human factor that should be considered as the primary cause of the outbreak of war, and not at all economic, political and social problems.

Thus, the author concludes that in fact, on the eve of the war, all the main participating countries (perhaps, with the exception of the Russian Empire) claimed for dominance in Europe because of their economic and social development. This is what determines the "arms race" that began in the early 20th century, which, rather, was not directly the cause of the outbreak of war, but rather a consequence of its origins. Speaking of the race, Howard notes that in itself it has become an extremely important event in the history of the “Great War”. He concludes that Germany is the first of the participating countries who drew attention to the lessons of the Russo-Japanese War of 1905 and created, in fact, a new tactic of conducting battles - fortification and trenches. In many respects, the delay of the First World War in the period of trench battles, as well as the massiveness of the armies, all of that will lead to the disastrous and catastrophic consequences that it has turned for Europe.Of course, speaking of the reasons for the outbreak of this war, both authors could not ignore the Balkan crisis, which caused a number of serious contradictions between Serbia, Russia and Austria-Hungary, but these events are not given much attention. On the contrary, the authors emphasize the sentiment, telling about Serbia, which aspired to free itself from the oppression of the Ottoman Empire, Russia, considering it its sacred duty and moral responsibility to help the Orthodox Balkans in gaining independence, as well as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which not only could not admit such strengthening of Russia, but, first of all, tried to protect itself from the growth of nationalist movements of the Slavs in both parts of the empire. Thus we see the Balkan crisis from a new perspective - as the struggle of individuals and peoples for their own interests and ideals.As Otte summarizes, "War had come as a result of individual decisions and a rapid series of moves and countermoves by the chancelleries of Europe, and set against the backdrop of recent shifts in the international landscape and anticipated further changes in the years to come”. In the end autor gives a clear and impressive re-telling of the events that led up to the First World War.First theme that are reverberated through this work is that "personality mattered". Whether it was the indecisiveness of Bethmann Hollweg, the highly emotional inflammations of Wilhelm II, the conflictions of Sazanov, or the intentional miscommunications of Tschirschky or Paléologue, personality mattered. The other theme was how clear-eyed so many players were that these actions would bring about "a war of which will destroy for decades to come the culture of all Europe", and yet they blazed on to that end.