The Bloody War Of 1914 Essay

The historical year of 1914 carries significant recognition in the European history. Many authors can term it as a revolution that caused a lot of tension in the neighboring countries of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Austria and other seven nations. The war lasted four years claiming many lives and property, damaging the economies of the participating countries. The allies that had indifferences later involved their colonies all-around the world with the fights occurring in selected regions.

Causes of the 1914 war

The bloody war started after the assassination of King Ferdinand by a Serbian student known as Princip. King Ferdinand and the wife Sofia were on their way to a hospital in the morning hours of June 28 when he met his death at a railway station in Sarajevo. The king’s death rose tension in many European countries that were allies to his kingdom. Allies to the monarchs were disappointed on hearing Princip serving twenty years and not facing execution penalty after he had assassinated the king. Austria later issues ultimatums to Serbia in relation to the king’s death, Serbia complies with them except one that “Austrian officials have to take part in any investigations of Serbian persons found in Serbian territories and are connected to the king’s assassination.” This did not impress the Serbian citizens and later Austria declared war on them.
On the spark of the war, allies grew and many ideologies came into existence. Annexation being the leading ideology, countries had to fight for colonies so that they can expand their territories and gain strength. This ideology led to the scramble for Africa in search for colonies. Struggle for power became visual as states wanted to have wider ammunitions both on land and in the navy and dictate, the industrial powers of their native countries. The conflict that spread to other countries thought to be a brief war but unfortunately spread for a number of years. As years went on, more countries joined the war, more weapons emerged in the war. This trend led to increased territory protection as other countries fueled the war to improve on their military tactics, Italy wanted to improve its defensive tactics and avoid annexation because of its location.
Nationalism spirit made the war inevitable. People had a need to show the importance of their countries, their thoughts of easily winning a war if there was one made them participate in the bloody 1914 war. Russia and Austria were in greed of the Balkans region that was in Austria’s control, this later made the two nations have indifferences and fight for the region’s control. Those from Empire countries were in need of independence because leadership was of different languages and religion that raised many conflicts amongst the people.
In the year 1870 – 71 Germany was at war with France, which it lost to Germany. Later, France gets distrustful to Germans and this raised conflicts between the countries that later led to war.
In conclusion, the bloody war that began as a local conflict turned to become a European war claiming many lives, property and displacement of people. Many reasons fueled the war but the spark was when King Ferdinand met his death at Sarajevo causing a lot of tension in the European continent. As the war continued and major allies gaining territories, the war finally ends with the redrawing of the European states to avoid further conflicts of annexations and leadership struggles.