Ww1 Arm Race

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The World War I, a global war centered in Europe, began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11th November 1918. During the WWI, soldiers had to fight in the terrible condition and other weapons such as machine gun, gas and tanks were newly introduced. After the WWI, “the victorious Allies forced the defeated Germany to sign the ‘war guilt’ clause” (Walsh 12). Because of this, Germany and other countries those did not get enough colonies as they wanted were upset with the result. As a result of this unfair treatment, the tragedy once more happens later with a name of World War II. If the judgment was fair, the WW II might not have been evoked. Considering the situation of major countries before the WW1, the imperialism, militarism and the tangled …show more content…
To achieve that, the major countries began to grow their arms, gradually leading entire Europe to be involved in an arm race. This arm race, however, strengthened countries such as Germany and France for making them to be able to fight in the war. The amounts of armies have rapidly increased in major countries in Europe from 1870 and especially between 1910 and 1914, France have increased her armies by 10%, Britain by 13%, Russia by 39% and Germany by 73% (“Militarism”). Even if Germany developed its army the most, the evidence proves that generally all of the countries tried to enlarge their power, which also means that most of the countries were getting ready for the war. This atmosphere triggered arm race between countries, especially the naval arms race between Britain and Germany. Rooting from arm race, Britain launched the mighty battleship “Dreadnoughts” and also did Germany start to make the ship. By 1914, Britain built 29 Dreadnoughts and Germany built 17 of them (Walsh 8). As they have prepared a lot for the war, they were very confidential about the war. Grant says that “the majority of the people in all the fighting nations supported the war, and cheering, flag waving crowds filled the centers of major cities across Europe (9).” In addition, the government encouraged their citizen to volunteer for the war by making propaganda. According to those evidences above, most of the …show more content…
However, in WWI, the effect of alliance turned out in unexpected way and aggravated the local conflict and developed it into a world war. The alliances in that time worked as shackle pulling all the countries to be involved in war. After the murder of Archduke Franz on June 1914 in Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Russia got involved to defend Serbia. Germany saw Russia mobilizing, declared war on Russia because the military chiefs like Moltke had long believed that war with Russia was inevitable and sooner was better (Massie 871). France was then drawn in against Germany and Austria-Hungary. Germany attacked France through Belgium pulling Britain into war. Then Japan entered the war; Italy and the United States would enter on the side of the allies. Thus, it can be said that one of the crucial reason of the WWI is the alliance. Then, why would they have made those alliances? As mentioned before, the allies were based on the arm race. However, it can be said the arm race and alliance have started with the atmosphere which has been made throughout the Europe because of the diplomacy. The original purpose of diplomacy was to balance the power of the countries that none of the countries can rule over one (Allan 20). However, throughout the relationship, there were some secret message between each other and made tensioning atmosphere which made all the countries to look for the allies. Thus, the formation of alliance is
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