Wednesday, August 14, 2019

World War 1 †Was this an “unnecessary war”?

There are conflicting views on this topic as the subject is a complex one. However, it is true that it was a war that could have been avoided. It can be argued that WW1 was inevitable in the circumstances, but if we look at the very root cause of the war was limited and could have been controlled. It was a series of events that triggered a massive, global war. The organ of the conflict was disagreement between Austria-Hungary and Serbia’s on how to handle the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. No other countries were involved in the matter connected with the assassination.Russia and Germany got involved simply because of their objectives to safeguard Austria-Hungary and Serbia, respectively. Other countries like Britain, France, and the Ottoman Empire had almost no interest in the matter. Thus, if Russia and Germany had kept out of the matter, in simple words, the war could have been avoided. The Series of Incidents The First World War was definitely an unnecessary conflict. What began as a local conflict over a political assassination soon turned into an unbelievable bloodbath.The minor conflict between Austria-Hungary and Serbia soon had Americans fighting in France, Indian troops fighting in Mesopotamia, and Australians fighting in Gallipoli. The fight was now mainly about Germany for the Allied Powers, and not Austria-Hungary. The prime cause of original conflict, Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination, however,still remained unresolved. Those who were still fighting in 918, were doing so because halting the war could lead to unacceptable losses.With nationalism spreading its roots fast through southern and Eastern Europe, was the major cause of mutinies in the Austro-Hungarian army and led to their collapse. Soon, Germany was isolated and this ushered in the war’s end (Brussels journal. 2008). Opaqueness Of Diplomacy Although diplomacy plays a major role in preventing armed conflicts from happening, in case of World War I, we find it playing an opposite role, whether intentionally or not. Few of the warring nations in World War I were directly interested or least involved in the conflicts between Austria-Hungary and Serbia.They became involved only because of treaties forcing them to protect other countries. Many of these treaties were publicly known while some were secret. The unclear diplomacy objectives were perhaps the main factors that led to Germany making some aggressive moves. The Germans thought that Britain would never go into war against them. Russia has its own secret treaties and agreements to take care of. Italy is believed to do some research of its own to decide which side will offer higher potential benefits.Hence, it were these diplomatic maneuverings that soon accelerated the war, leading it to catastrophic levels. The potential enemies were unclear of the consequences of their actions. It was the tragedy of the diplomatic crisis that led the fighting in August 1914 to swell into the four-y ear tragedy. Perhaps, if potentialities of radio and telephone were exploited to the maximum to break the obstacles to communication, the destruction of the continent and a dialogue of the deaf could have been avoided (Keegan, 1999).Conclusion World War 1 was unnecessary as the train of events could have been intervened at any point, before the first clash of arms happened. Millions of lived were lost and tortured. There are some views that Was World War 1 inevitable that the Nationalists and the militarists had been playing war games for more than four decades now and the time was just ripe for a real war. Conflicting ambitions and real tensions played a major role in the war’s escalation, what with the naval arms race on between Britain and Germany.With German colonial ambitions intensifying and a destabilizing Europe make some observers and strategists feel that was inevitable. However, WW1 had nothing to do with the root cause of the conflict -assassination of the Archduk e. It seems the tensions were already high in Europe and the rest part of the world for a number of different reasons. The assassination just gave these countries an excuse to settle their own scores.

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