Custom essays on World War I

Creation of the military political groups in Europe and armament race sharpened the difficult relation between the imperialistic countries more and more. It provided significant pressure on the international relations and rather calm period of the world history was replaced by the more conflict, catastrophic and irregular policy of relations between the countries. It goes without saying that the sharpening of the imperialist confrontations started earlier than the war. It was already observed during the Morocco Crisis in 1905 – 1906 and 1911; Bosnia crisis of the 1908 – 1909; Italy – Turkish war lasting during the 1911 – 1912, Balkan wars of 1912 -1913. One of the most significant confrontation of that period was sending the military mission to Turkey by German government, it was headed by general von Sanders and aimed on reorganization and tutoring of the Turkish army (the events happened in December 1913).
Preparing for the war the governing rows of imperialistic forces created powerful military industry, the basis of which were the biggest and significant governmental plants – ordnance factories, gunpowder factories, ammunition factories, cartridge-manufacturing plants, shipbuilding yards and many others. The private enterprises were involved in the militarist plans too, producing different goods and production for armies – in Germany there were Krupp factories and plant, in Austria – Hungary – Schneider – Krezo and St. Chaumont, in Great Britain Wickers and Armstrong – Whitworth, in Russia – Putilov’s factory and many other private manufacturers.
The imperialists of both confronting coalitions were faithfully supporting the military industry, they energetically fixed their defense powers and it is essential that all the contemporary investigations and discoveries of science and techniques were aimed on the providing and supporting military industry and helped to develop radically new tactics of military conflicts. The newer, more perfect armor appeared: rapid rate rifles and machine guns, which aimed on increasing the fire powers of the infantry forces; within the artillery arms there was observed significant growth of the quantity in rifled-barrel guns of the newest systems. It goes without saying that the development of railroads had also been a part of the strategic plan. Their role was strategically very significant as they helped to fasten the centralization and deploying for action of the large military masses, provided support by the human inputs and any other type of material and technical supply of the army. The role of automobile transport also started to increase. The military air forces appeared – it was really the first military conflict where aviation was used as a military force for bombing, it was innovation that changed the whole idea of the contemporary military confrontation. The usage of the newest means of communication such as telephone, telegraph and radio helped the leaders of the military troops to provide all the necessary arrangements within the army they were leading. The number of soldiers was increasing significantly and well-taught arrearage forces had also appeared during this period of the military development. It goes without saying that imperialist nature of the majority states involved in the WWI was playing probably one of the most significant roles in the military development of the countries. In the field of naval military forces there was severe confrontation between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Germany. Both countries provided huge expenses for supporting their military naval forces. From the 1905 the new type of military ships was introduced – the dreadnought type of ships. Up to the 1914 the German naval forces firmly occupied the second place in the highly developed naval forces after the United Kingdom. It goes without saying that the other countries were also intended to develop their fleet, but financial and economical facilities did not let them to provide the set shipbuilding programs. The increased armament drive was overwhelming and as a result it needed significant financial inputs as it usually happened the labor class was supporting all these expenses.
The wide spread was provided to the ideological support and preparation to the First World War. The Imperialist leaders tried to persuade the nations about inability to avoid serious military confrontation between the states, the militarism became a part of the propaganda and was forced into the applications, chauvinism has also became a significant force for militarism propaganda. It goes without saying that all means of propaganda were used: public means, literature, arts, church are among the most influential and significant for that period. Bourgeoisie of all the states, playing with the patriotic feelings of the different nations, found really good justification for armament race, providing a perfect mask for the expansionist policies by the massaging the theme of the necessity to defend their motherland from the external enemies (i. e. the other countries taking the leading positions on the armament drive).
It goes without saying that the governmental forces at those times, supported by the biggest manufacturers of their countries were intended to solve certain problems with the help of the War. It goes without saying that German government (supported by Krupp manufacturing powers) were intended to enlarge the territory of the state, as Germany being divided on many smaller states for quite long period of time did not participated on the military arena for a long time and did not take part in the carving up the colonies and territories. German Kaiser Wilhelm II was very ambitious person and supported by the key industrialists, he promoted the expanding policy. The internal policy of the Germany at the time of so called “The Long Fuse” was also aimed on concentration the powers within the Kaiser’s hands. He was the one who set his ideas as seeking for the place in the sun for the German nation. Kaiser was the one who found explanation of his policy within the national interest. He built strong military machine due to the Tirpitz plan and was without any doubts successfully confronting British fleet. Being one of the most significant figures in the WWI Wilhelm II was not the one who forced the events, he just did not prevented the activity of the others, taking advantage of the situation. The same time he did not paid enough attention to control the socialist movements in Germany, which also played a significant role and provided an impact on the World War I making Kaiser to refuse from his title and leave the country in the end. According to Versailles Peace Act Wilhelm II was called the main war criminal of WWI.