The Age
Celebrating 48 years of Anzac's
Causes of World War I
The main causes of World War I were Nationalism, Alliance System, Imperialism and Militarism.
Nationalism: is a deep loyalty to one's nation. Gavrilo Princip from Serbia was the person who triggered WWI by killing Archduke from Austria-Hungary, because Austria-Hungary controlled Serbia at the time.
Alliance System: it is the formal agreement of support among countries in the event of an attack. This caused WWI because the conflict originally involved between two countries were likely to involve many more countries due to there alliances. For example, Germany was an ally of Austria Hungary, if they were at war, then Germany would be automatically at war.
Imperialism: The building of power by controlling over colonies. Countries were arguing over colonies and this caused them to war. this is shown when the struggle for Africa had taken place.
Militarism: It is the preparation for war. At the time, Britain had the most powerful navy and Germany was trying to expand theirs. This established strong navies and prepared them for war.
Militarism
The building up of an armed force.
Alliance systems
An Alliance System was a group of nations and/or people that worked together to achieve a certain goal.
Imperialism
A policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force.
Australia's Involvement in the war
Australia only had a population of less than 5 million at the time and we sent 324,000 people overseas. We lost 61,720 and 155,00 were wounded. Our involvement is closely linked with the ANZAC legend, which stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. It was our first military engagement where significant numbers of Australians fought and died as Australian nationals.
The significant battles of World War I for Australian's
The battles
The casualties suffered in the First World War were of a scale never before experienced. Great Britain and her Empire lost over 1,000,000 combatants; France, 1,300,000; Russia, 1,700,000; Germany and its allies, 3,500,000. Losses in life per day of the war exceeded 5,500.
Although each soldier would have been involved in some form of conflict whilst serving on the front-line (e.g. trench raids, snipers, shelling), it is possible to distinguish major battles whose names have gone down in history as some of the bloodiest conflicts ever. Some of the battles were:
- The battle of Verdun 1916
- The battles of the Marne 1918
- The battle of Ypres 1915
- The battle of Somme 1916
the impact of the Great War on Australian's at home
- the soldiers families: the families were affected by not having a steady pay coming in all the time, so they lived in poverty
- businesses couldn't find employees to work for them, so they didn't have anyone running their companies.
- families could loose their main supply of money.