When the First World War began, and how it ended

The horrors of the planetary massacre of 1939-1945 forced us to think about the previous, First World War, as a relatively small conflict. Indeed, the losses among the armies of the belligerent countries and their civilian population were then several times smaller, although they were calculated in multimillion-digit numbers. However, it should be remembered that the combatants used active chemical agents, and participation in the combat operations of underwater, surface and air fleets, as well as tanks indicates that the nature of the First World War is as close as possible to modern ideas about strategy and tactics.

June 28, 1914 in the Bosnian city of Sarajevo, there was a terrorist attack, which resulted in the death of members of the August Austrian-Hungarian family Archduke Ferdinand and Sophia, his wife. The perpetrators were subjects of the empire, but their nationality gave rise to accusing the Serbian government of supporting terrorists, and at the same time to blame the country for inflating separatism.

When the First World War began, even those who started it, did not expect that it will drag on for four years, cover vast expanses from the Arctic to South America and lead to such large-scale losses. Serbia, experiencing an internal political crisis and weakened by two successive Balkan wars, was a virtually defenseless victim, and victory over it was not a problem. The question was which countries and how they would react to this attack.

Despite the fact that the Serbian government accepted almost all the conditions of the ultimatum, it was not taken into account. When the First World War began, the Austrian-Hungarian government announced mobilization, enlisting the support of Germany and assessing the combat readiness of possible enemies, as well as the degree of their interest in territorial redistribution. As further events showed, not all factors were taken into account.

Exactly a month after Sarayev's murder, hostilities began. At the same time, the German Empire informed France and Russia of its intentions to support Vienna.

In the days when the First World War began, the population of both Austria-Hungary and Germany was embraced by a single patriotic impulse. Do not lag behind in the desire to "teach" the enemy and the subjects of the enemy countries. The mobilized soldiers were flooded with flowers and treats on both sides of the border, which soon became the front line.

When the First World War began, the general staffs planned plans for rapid offensives, seizures and encirclements of enemy army groups, but soon the fighting became clearly positional. For all the time, there was only one breakthrough in the echeloned defense, it was named in honor of General Brusilov, who commanded this operation. The winners in such conditions were determined not so much by the quality of the equipment or the talents of the command staff as by the economic potential of the belligerent countries.

The Austro-Hungarian and German empires were weaker. Exhausted by a four-year confrontation, despite the favorable Brest-Litovsk peace with Russia, they were defeated, resulting in the Treaty of Versailles. The heroes of the First World War and in Russia, embraced by the flame of the revolution, both in Germany and in Austria proved to be an unnecessary human material rejected by society.