4 PHASES of the First World War

The first World War, also called the Great War, is one of the most important wars in the history of mankind, being the first time that a conflict was considered worthy of the recognition of war by the entire world. Being a warlike conflict with such relevance for the history of humanity, it is necessary analyze its importance and its evolution and, therefore, in this lesson of a Teacher we must speak about the phases of the First World War.

Index

1. What was the First World War?
2. War of Movements, the first phase of the First World War
3. Trench warfare, the second phase
4. The Crash of 1917
5. The end of the First World War

Before talking about the phases of the First World War we must briefly talk about the war itself, to understand its importance and the reasons why there was such a conflict magnitude.

The First World War occurred between July 1914 and November 1918, being a war on a scale never seen before, in part because of the enormous military advances that had taken place shortly before the war and during it. This scale brought serious consequences for all of Europe and the world in general, since the new weapons caused many more deaths, breaking all possible records in terms of deaths by war.

The enormous scale of the war is demonstrated by the large number of countries that participated, as they were up to 32 the nations that participated in the war, while others had minor roles either as allies or neutrals to negotiate with. Among all these nations we must mention:

• allies: formed by France, United Kingdom, United States, Italy or Russia
• Central Powers: made up of Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire.

the war had important consequences for the world, as the Central Powers bloc practically disappeared after the war, except for a Germany that remained booming and that years later would start the Second War World. The end of the Ottoman Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia was a consequence of the war, changing the whole world forever.

We already started talking about the phases of the First World War talking about the first: called War of Movements. It was part of the conflict that was based on the troop movement by all active members of the war, placing their soldiers in strategic positions, and hoping to end the war with it. This first phase of the war took place in 1914, being the beginning of the conflict.

The first action plan of the Central Powers was started by Germany carrying out a plan known as Schlieffen. The idea behind this plan was for German troops to relinquish East Prussia, leaving it to their enemies, to instead focus all his forces on the French side, the idea being to take France quickly and effectively, being one of the main objectives of the war.

The Germans made a rapid incursion into Belgium and Luxembourg, since from these areas it was easier to reach French soil. After defeating the British and French on the border, the Germans came within 40 kilometers of Paris, but at the Battle of the Marne the French managed to stop the German advance.

In the eastern part, the Germans achieved a great victory against the Russians, but the soil of the region was still the biggest problem in any war, and the Germans were barely able to advance due to the complicated Russian climate.

All areas, both in the western and eastern parts, were occupied by the Germans, who carried out great reprisals against the local population, as a way of provoking France and Russia.

With neither the Allies nor the Central Powers advancing, the war had a big change, since it stopped being a war of advance, becoming a conflict that focused on the trenches, and, therefore, was much slower.

The second phase of the First World War is the best known. happened between 1915 and 1917 and received the name of Trench Warfare, since the trenches are where the conflict was centered during most of the war.

After taking their positions and stabilizing the conflict, the contenders reinforced their positions with the construction of the trenches. The idea of ​​both sides was to dig deep trenches in the ground to be able to take shelter during the long days in which nothing happened, being protected from enemy attacks and, at the same time, prepared in case someone decided attack.

In just one year of conflict countries had realized that the war was going to last and that the economic costs of sustaining the conflict for a long time could lead to the collapse of their nations and the loss of the war. For this reason, both sides decided on trench warfare, which was much cheaper and paused the war in order to supply the army with peace and quiet.

It is estimated that during the war more than 2000 kilometers of trenches were created. The most outstanding was that of Hindenburg, being a 700-kilometer trench that separated the French and German troops.

Seeing that the situation was totally blocked, both sides began to negotiate with other countries for them to enter the war and thus have enough soldiers to unblock the situation. The two nations that most influenced the war and entered this stage were:

• Italy by the Allies
• Bulgaria by the Central Powers

Although the situation was slow and with little progress, sometimes this changed. Therefore, in this phase of the Great War we can find the battles of Verdun and Somme, in which the French and British faced the Germans, in battles where More than one million eight hundred thousand people died.

The third of the phases of the First World War is the so-called Crisis of 1917. And, as its name suggests, it took place in 1917 when both sides decided that they had to go one step further to end a conflict that had dragged on for too long.

• On the one hand, there was the confrontation in the eastern zone between the Russians and the Germans. In the Russian country had begun the Bolshevik Revolution, causing that Russia could not maintain an external conflict at the same time that it had a Civil War within. In this situation, Russia and Germany reached a peace pact so that Russia could get out of the war, so the Germans could focus all their strength on fighting France and the United Kingdom.
• In the western part, the Germans began to use submarine warfare, that they considered essential to ending the war. But the submarines wrecked American ships, causing The United States entered the war sending troops and weapons to the Allies.

The entry of the United States was not effective at first and the nations began to suffer internally, with almost all of them experiencing some internal crisis. The United Kingdom and France had continuous strikes by workers and soldiers, Germany was divided into those who supported the war and those who were against, the Austro-Hungarians saw how the riots took over the country, and Russia began a change that would end the nation as such.

This phase known as the Crisis of 1917 is so named because all nations in the conflict found themselves in crisis this year, because such a long and hard war was unsustainable for everyone.

To conclude this lesson on the phases of the First World War, we must talk about the last of these phases, being the end of the armed conflict, happening in 1918 and causing the end of hostilities. At this stage, the war was only individual battles separated in time, caused by the tension by war was increasing and the population of the nations was at a point close to revolution.

In 1918 the final clash between the Allies and the Central Powers took place, in which the former, with the help of the United States, were able to defeat the latter. The Allies first defeated the Austro-Hungarians and the Turks, who were much weaker than the Germans, and who were in a crisis in every way possible. The situation would end with the Austro-Hungarian Empire dividing.

after being alone, Germany sought a final attack at the Second Battle of the Marne, but the Allied troops were more numerous after the entry of the United States and managed to stop the German attack. German troops began to provoke strikes and riots, calling on their own government to end the confrontation, at the same time that the workers stopped working and to think about a possible strike general. It was then that Germany was afraid of a revolution similar to what had happened in Russia and he had no choice but to surrender, under the threat of losing everything.

Kaiser Wilhelm II, monarch of Germany and Prussia, abdicated due to the situation, passing to the Republic of Weimar, which was in charge of signing on November 11, 1918 the armistice that ended the war. Germany had to suffer serious consequences and payments for the war, causing an extremely decadent climate that would lead to the entry of Hitler to the political plane and to the Second World War a few years later.

If you want to read more articles similar to Phases of the First World War, we recommend that you enter our category of History.

• Renouvin, P., & Translator, V. (1972). The first World War. Oikos-tau.
• Renouvin, P. (1990). The European crisis and the First World War (Vol. 18). Akal Editions.
• Gilbert, M., & Devoto, A. (2005). The first World War. Book Sphere.