A fierce war that began in Europe and ended globally. It was one of the fiercest conflicts in history. It lasted more than four years. Its human losses amounted to about nine million dead. It paved the way for major political changes. It was behind revolutions in many countries.

Causes of war


The immediate cause of World War I was the assassination of Austrian Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand with his wife by a Serbian student named Gavrilo Princip on June 28, 1914, during their visit to Sarajevo.

However, scholars monitor a number of indirect causes, most notably the tension in international relations at the beginning of the twentieth century due to the succession of crises, such as the Balkan crisis and the Franco-German conflict over borders, in addition to the growth of nationalism within Europe and the aspiration of some minorities to independence.

In addition, the growing economic and commercial competition between imperialist countries to share influence across the world and control markets to dispose of surplus industrial and financial production, and to supply raw materials, in addition to the imperialist countries entering into political and military alliances, which led to an arms race between competing countries that raised their military expenditures.

The outbreak of war


On June 28, 1914, a Serbian student assassinated the Crown Prince of Austria and his wife while they were visiting Sarajevo in the Bosnia and Herzegovina region. A month after this incident, Austria declared war on Serbia, and the European alliance mechanism began to interact, as Russia supported Serbia and declared war on Austria, so Germany rose declaring war on Russia.

Two groups participated in the war, the Allied Forces (the Triple Entente) led by the United Kingdom, and the Central Powers led by Germany. Alliances expanded with the expansion of the war and the entry of many countries into it on the side of one of the two groups.

The war lasted more than four years, during which it turned from a European war to a world war. The European war (1914-1916) witnessed two periods, the first known as the war of movement and the second as the trench war. New weapons such as tanks and planes were used.

In 1915, the Germans were able to achieve a number of victories over the Allies. They defeated the Russians in the Battle of Gorlis Tarnau, occupied Poland and most of Lithuania's cities, and tried to cut the lines of communication between the Russian armies and their bases to eliminate them.

Although the Russians achieved some partial victories over the Germans, their heavy losses (about 325,000 prisoners) did not allow their army to recover its forces. The German success over the Russians led to the subjugation of the Balkans, and the Austrian and German forces crossed the Danube River to fight the Serbs and inflicted a severe defeat on them.

In the same year, the Germans were able to achieve clear victories on some fronts, and their front remained firm in the face of the attacks of the French and British armies.

The battles intensified during the year 1916, which witnessed the battles of Verdun, which lasted seven months, and the Somme, which lasted four months, and took place on French soil. of young people.

America's entry


The year 1916 was marked by the submarine war, which was one of the results of the United States entering the war. During this year, a war took place in the North Sea between the German and English fleets known as "Gatland".

The Germans also resorted to trying to sink any merchant ship to starve Britain and force it to surrender, and among the ships that were sunk were a number of American ships, which prompted the United States to enter the war on the side of the Entente countries in April 1917, making the war global.

Before entering the war, the United States embraced the Monroe Doctrine, which is based on America's neutrality in its foreign policy towards Europe, and not allowing any European country to interfere in American affairs. However, American leaders saw that it was in their country's interest to benefit from the war by entering it.

But the Germans benefited from the success of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in October 1917 and the Bolsheviks signing the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty on March 3, 1918, by which Russia exited the war.

Russia's exit from the war encouraged the German leadership to take advantage of its forces that were on the Russian front and direct them to fight the English and the French. The Germans were able to destroy the British Fifth Army in March 1918, and violent battles on both sides continued, which caused heavy losses in lives and money.

In return, the Allies took advantage of the enormous American capabilities and supplies to strengthen their war effort, and they were able to narrow the siege on Germany in a way that led to its weakening. By the summer of 1918, ten thousand soldiers were being sent daily to France.

The United States also sent a warship to Scuba Flow to join the British Grand Destroyer fleet to help guard convoys, and sent several regiments of US Marines to France.

In an attempt to prevent the Allies from benefiting from America's entry into the war, Germany carried out the "Spring Offensive of 1918" and worked to divide the British and French forces, and it hoped to end its war before the arrival of the American forces, which had a large number of soldiers.

But the Allies counterattacked in August 1918 in the Battle of Amiens, which was the opening stage of the Hundred Days Offensive, forcing the German army to retreat, causing Germany to request an armistice from the Allies.

The counterattack of the Allies began on August 8, 1918, and the Battle of Amiens took place. More than four hundred tanks and 120 thousand of Dominion forces, British forces and French forces participated, and several battles took place, the most important of which were the Battle of Albert on August 21 and the Second Battle of Arras, which included the Battle of Skarpe , and the Battle of the Quiyant Drocort Line.

In September, the American and French forces launched a final attack on the Hindenburg Line in the Battle of the Argonne Forest, and in the following week the American and French units cooperated to penetrate into the French province of Champagne and the Battle of Blanc-Mont Ridge began, forcing the Germans to retreat towards the borders of Belgium, and the Canadian Legion and the British Army were also able The first and second breach of the Hindenburg Line and the Second Battle of Cambrian took place.

The forces of the "Central Powers" quickly collapsed, and Bulgaria was the first to sign the armistice on September 29, 1918 in Thessaloniki. The collapses followed and the surrender agreements were signed. Germany signed the Compiegne Armistice with the Allies inside a railway vehicle on November 11, 1918 at five o'clock in the evening. The shooting takes effect at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

Losses


The war caused great human losses, as more than eight million people were killed, wounded, and millions lost. It also left great economic losses. Poverty and unemployment spread. The warring countries also experienced a stifling financial crisis due to the high costs of the war. The indebtedness of European countries increased and their economic hegemony declined in favor of the states. United States of America and Japan.

The map of Aruba changed after the war. The old imperial regimes disintegrated, the ruling families fell, the territorial borders of the European continent changed, with the emergence of new countries, and the Russian Revolution, which implemented the first socialist system within the framework of the Soviet Union.

The results of the war on the Arabs


The Ottoman Caliphate joined the Central Powers in this war. This marked the beginning of the end of Ottoman history, and the defeat of Germany and the Ottoman Empire put the fate of the Arab Mashreq in the hands of Britain and France.

Sharif Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca, dreamed of establishing a great Arab state, and his relationship with the Ottoman Caliphate was very bad, and Britain was keen to attract the Arabs to its side, so it entered into secret negotiations with him, and letters were exchanged between him and Sir Henry McMahon, the British delegate in Egypt and Sudan.

Britain pledged to give him a major Arab state, so he entered the war on its side, declaring what was known as the Arab revolution against the Ottomans in June 1916, with the participation of the famous British intelligence officer Lawrence of Arabia, and the movement was able to control the Hijaz with the help of the English.

His son Faisal advanced towards the Levant and reached Damascus after the departure of the Ottomans, and announced the establishment of the Arab government loyal to his father, who had declared himself king over the Arabs, but the allies only recognized him as king of the Hijaz and Transjordan.

Despite Britain’s promises to the Arabs, it conducted secret negotiations and agreements with France and Russia that dealt with the division of Ottoman properties, including the Arab countries. Then Britain and France were alone in a secret agreement known as the Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916) in relation to both the British delegate Mark Sykes and the French delegate Francois Georges-Picot .

Under this agreement, which was exposed after the Bolshevik revolution in Russia in 1917, France and Britain divided the Arab countries and subjected all its regions to colonialism under the name of the Mandate, and in the same year Britain betrayed the Arabs again when it promised the Zionist leaders to establish a national home for the Jews in Palestine, in what was known as the Balfour Declaration Issued on November 2, 1917.