THE POLITICAL GREAT WAR By: Aedan H. The war ignited in the Powder Keg of the Balkan states when Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austria-Hungarian throne, and his wife Sophia were shot in broad daylight by Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, Bosnia. This led to the members of old alliances, two major sides, to go to war. It pitted the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire) against the Allied powers (Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, and Japan), who were joined by the United States in 1917. The Great War ravaged Europe and its people, which has killed almost 9 million men, and wounded 21 million. Kaiser Wilhelm the second backed up his alliance with Austria-Hungary and within a week from July 28, 1914, war broke out in Europe. The Germans held the Russian front and tried to pull off the Schlieffen Plan, devised years earlier. On the Western front, the Germans tried to invade Belgium and get to Paris. This brought in the British and French to come to their aid, which began the years of trench warfare.
Meanwhile, the Germans held the Eastern front as the Russians tried to invade. 2 years passed and Russia’s failed assaults caused citizens to doubt the government. This led to the Russian Revolution (1917) led by Vladimir Lenin. The Russians reached an armistice with the Central Powers and left the war. Important political leaders of this time include; Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Wilhelm the second, David Lloyd George, Horatio Herbert Kitchener, Winston Churchill, Raymond Poincare, Georges Clemenceau, Franz Joseph, Charles the first, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, Tsar Nicholas the second of Russia, Leon Trotsky, Peter the first of Serbia, Gavrilo Princip, Albert the first of Belgium, Mustapha Kemal, and Enver Pacha. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, which started the war. The German Emperor, or Kaiser, Wilhelm was the grandson of Queen Victoria of Britain and after the war was exiled to the Netherlands. David Lloyd George was behind the war effort and eventually became Prime Minister during it. Horatio Kitchener was the British war minister until 1916, when his boat hit a mine off of Scotland. Churchill was Prime Minister during WW2, but first led the failed Gallipoli Campaign against the Ottomans in WW1. Poincare was the French Prime Minister and President who had very anti-German ideas. Clemenceau aka “The Tiger”, became Prime Minister of France in 1917 and was one of the three major writers at the Treaty of Versailles. Franz Joseph was the Emperor of Austria-Hungary and died during the war in 1916. Charles the first became the Austria-Hungary Emperor in 1916. Woodrow Wilson was the President of the United States during the war and was against the whole thing. The US was brought in because of British and German trade blockades and the sinking of the Lusitania. Tsar Nicholas was the last Tsar of Russia and the last of the Romanov dynasty and was executed by revolutionists in 1917. Leon Trotsky helped lead the Russian revolutions and became part of the Council of People’s Commissars. Peter was the Serbian leader, but gave the throne to his son by the time war broke out. Gavrilo Princip assassinated the Archduke and was considered a hero in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Tito’s Yugoslavia, but died of tuberculosis in prison in 1918. Albert was the former Belgian king and helped the allies fight against the Germans. Mustapha Kemal aka Ataturk is the father of Turkey today and after winning Gallipoli, drove the Greeks out of Asia Minor. Enver Pacha led revolutions in Turkey in 1908, and helped found the Ottoman-German alliance.