World War I: Causes, Events, Treaty of Versailles and Consequences
World War I is one of the most important events in history that played a major role in determining the history of the 20th century. Chemical weapons were used for the first time in World War I. For the first time, civilian areas were massively bombed from the air, and for the first time in this century, the killing of civilians on a large scale occurred during the war.
Introduction to World War I
Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914, and this war led to the outbreak of a global war that finally ended on November 11, 1918, with the armistice between Germany and the Allies. This war has been called the Great War, and its origins were the competition of the great powers over colonies and military and national issues.
Causes of World War I
The causes of World War I were: the rivalry between Austria and Russia in the Balkans; the dispute between France and Germany since 1870 over Alsace-Wolren; and the economic and naval rivalry between Germany and England. However, the pretext for the start of the war was that Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the crown prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was assassinated by a Serbian nationalist named Prenzjeb on June 28, 1914, in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Austria claimed that Serbia was involved in this and demanded an investigation with the participation of Austrian representatives. The Serbian government accepted the investigation but opposed the presence of foreign representatives.
Members of the Triple Entente and Triple Alliance in World War I
During World War I, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria aided the Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary). The Allies (Belgium, Great Britain, France, Montenegro, Russia, and Serbia) were supported by Japan, Italy, Portugal, Romania, the United States, Greece, and Brazil. In other words, the members of the Triple Entente (Great Britain, France, and Russia) and the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria, and Italy) declared war on each other.
Italy withdrew from the Triple Alliance and remained neutral until 1915, when it joined the Allies in order to gain control of the Italian-speaking territories held by Austria, as well as several colonies in Africa. The Ottomans sided with the Germans to prevent Russia from gaining control of the Black Sea straits. The United States, with its military might, wealth, and equipment, came to the aid of the Allies in 1917 when the Central Powers were almost completely destroyed after three years of war.
The most important theater of the European war was in France, where the Germans crossed Belgium and invaded France. The German army’s war plan was to make a lightning attack on France, occupy Paris, and then attack Russia with the goal of destroying it. Germany attempted to capture France three times: once at the Marne (September 6-14, 1914), again at Verdun (February 1916), and again at the Marne in July 1918.
On the Eastern Front, the Russians were badly defeated by the Germans, and when the Bolsheviks took control of Russia in 1917, they signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and withdrew from the war. The Allies took over all of Germany’s colonies in Africa and the Far East, and occupied the Ottoman possessions in the Middle East, namely Syria and Arabia.
Causes of World War I, World War I, World War I
World War I – Ottoman soldiers observing and preparing for defense on the Gaza-Sinai border, 1917
The final defeat of the Germans in 1918 came as a result of Allied attacks, led by the French Marshal Foch, and Germany was forced to demand an end to the conflict; when the country accepted the Allied terms on November 11, 1918, World War I ended.
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was an agreement signed on June 28, 1919, at the Palace of Versailles, located on the outskirts of Paris, by the parties to World War I, and officially ended the First World War, although the war had ceased on November 11, 1918. The treaty came into effect on January 10, 1920. This agreement is one of the most famous agreements in history, and given its consequences, it can be considered one of the most influential and decisive agreements in history. In this agreement, the German Empire had to disarm and pay reparations to the Allies.
In 1920, the signatories of the Treaty of Versailles formed the League of Nations. The organization’s goals were to maintain peace around the world and resolve disputes through negotiation rather than war. The League of Nations never succeeded in fulfilling this role. The United States did not join the union.
World War I, Causes of World War I, First World War
Execution of Serbian soldiers by Austrian soldiers during World War I
Iran
was in the First World War during the reign of Ahmad Shah Qajar, and the constitutional government of Iran was at its weakest. Despite the Iranian government’s declaration of neutrality, hostile forces entered Iran from the south and north. As a result of the outbreak of World War I, the occupation of Iran by Britain, the purchase of Iranian food supplies by the occupying army, and the onset of the Great Iranian Famine of 1917–1919, a large number of Iranians (approximately 40 percent of the Iranian population; in other words, 8 to 10 million people out of Iran’s 20 million population at the time) died.
The Russian army advanced to the gates of Tehran but stopped short of annihilating the Qajar dynasty. In the south, the local people clashed with the British invaders on several occasions. The most important battles of World War I in Iran include the resistance of “Zair Khizr Khan Ahram (Tangestani)”, nicknamed Amir Islam, the ruler of Tangestan, Sheikh Hossein Khan Chah Kotah, a brave man seeking freedom in southern Iran, and Ra’is Ali Delvari and Khalo Hossein Bardkhoni, among the brave men of Tangestan in Bushehr province, and the Jihad battle in Khuzestan, and the resistance of Fars led by Sawlat al-Dawla Qashqai, Nasser Divan Kazeruni, and Ayatollah Seyyed Abdul Hossein Lari.
A group of men went from Qom to Isfahan, then Arak, and finally to Kermanshah, where they eventually organized the National Guard and formed a provisional government, the National Government, headed by Nizam al-Saltaneh (Reza Qoli Khan Mafi). After the fall of Baghdad, members of the provisional government, the National Government, and many Iranians went to Istanbul.
Some consequences of World War I
– World War I destroyed four empires; the German Empire lost its throne and was replaced by a republican government. The defeated Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires both disintegrated, and the Russian Empire fell to the Bolshevik revolutionaries.
– The occupation of Iran in World War I by Britain, the purchase of food supplies from the Iranian people by the occupying army, and the beginning of the Great Famine of 1917–1919 led to the death of between eight and ten million Iranians.
– World War I caused enormous human and financial losses and lasted 1,565 days. During this period, about 65 million people were mobilized. Of these, about 9 million were killed; about 22 million (about one-third) were disabled and disabled; 7 million were permanently disabled and disabled, and about 5 million were missing
