[Music]
by the summer of 1914 europe was in a
crisis
just weeks before archduke franz
ferdinand heir to the austro-hungarian
throne had been assassinated in sarajevo
by a serbian-backed terrorist now just a
few weeks later the continent's largest
armies were mobilizing against each
other with new nations joining the fight
seemingly every week
the world watched with baited breath as
europe marched to war
so what happened how did a seemingly
irrelevant local conflict in southeast
europe become a world war and why did
britain decide to get involved
well before we answer those questions a
reminder to subscribe to the imperial
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videos just like this every two weeks
when people ask
how the first world war began
it's often couched in terms of a domino
effect a series of events that were
almost preordained but what i would say
is that if anyone had suggested in june
1914 in britain that world war might be
about to break out and they would be met
with disbelief really britain hadn't
fought a war on the continent since the
final defeat of napoleon at waterloo 99
years previously rather than a war in
europe britain was primarily occupied
with its own internal affairs as the
20th century dawned britain's one of the
greatest powers on earth it rules over
this vast global empire i mean it's so
big that every fourth person on earth
owes its allegiance to the british crime
the briton was the world's merchant
sailor
his flag encircled the globe sixty
percent of the vessels on any ocean were
his the lifeblood of the british empire
was the sea
the royal navy pleased the waves so that
its merchant ships could trade across
the globe this brought the british
empire vast wealth but not all of its
citizens were able to share in it many
overseas subjects were demanding greater
freedom from the empire to control their
own affairs while at home domestic
issues threatened to boil over there's
this huge inequality of wealth that
underpins british life at the turn of
the 20th century only two thirds of men
have got the right to vote absolutely no
woman has the right to vote so i'd say
by the time you get to 1914
this is quite a
volatile country the most divisive issue
however was that of home rule for
ireland some people in ireland wanted to
be ruled from dublin rather than
westminster while others were bitterly
opposed to this including some vocal
british politicians and a sizable
contingent in the north of ireland who
considered themselves to be british
as the home rule bill made its way
through parliament rival militias began
to arm themselves on either side of the
issue there is a very real threat that
this is going to spill over into
violence in the summer of 1914
and so to suggest to people in britain
that the conflict that's about to occur
will come from europe rather than from
ireland most people would have been very
very shocked to hear that
but while domestic tensions were rising
in britain new tensions were coming to
the fore in europe
germany was the new kid on the block
with big ambitions after defeating
france in the franco-prussian war of
1870 the most powerful german state
prussia allied with smaller germanic
states to create a united germany but
this new nation wanted an empire of its
own britain really initially admired
this new nation britain really actually
thought as a friend but
imperial germany
soon began to threaten britain's sense
of supremacy its determination to up its
industrial output up its military
strength and most crucially for britain
a rival fleet of warships
the german ships maneuver in the cold
waters of the north sea
this new german navy was a threat to
britain's naval dominance the glue that
held the empire together and something
for which britain could not stand
that rivalry then turned into an arms
race as each nation tried to out produce
the other with ever greater feats of
technology this culminated in the
production of dreadnought battleships
which were seen as the nuclear weapons
of their day
that factor means britain's now started
to see germany as a threat by the time
you get to say 1907
uh
europe's really split into two opposing
camps
germany had disturbed the delicate
balance of power in europe
france fearing this new empire on their
doorstep allied with russia in the east
an unlikely friendship for two of
europe's most ideologically opposed
nations
that then left germany feeling
surrounded and pushed them to form an
alliance with the austro-hungarian
empire and to a lesser extent italy
finally britain and its empire afraid of
german domination on the continent
drifted closer to france and russia
though without going as far as forming
an alliance you've got germany austria
hungary and italy and you've got france
russia and to some extent britain
there's still no immediate reason for
war between the two it would take a
crisis to turn tensions into an armed
conflict
and that crisis came in the summer of
1914
the balkans in southeast europe had been
a hotbed of unrest for some time with
two wars in the preceding three years
those wars had made austria-hungary's
neighbor serbia much larger prompting
tensions between the two nations to rise
even further
when archduke franz ferdinand was
assassinated in june by a serbian-backed
terrorist austria-hungary felt it had no
choice but to assert its dominance
austria-hungary sets out to punish
serbia it wants to quash support for
serbian nationalism it's encouraged by
its ally germany so after serbia failed
to meet the terms of a very draconian
ultimatum austria-hungary declares war
on serbia
and this act of war this stirs up these
old tensions and anxieties right across
the continent because it draws in
supporters and allies on both sides
when austria-hungary declared war on
serbia russia came in to back the serbs
in defense of a fellow slavic nation
when germany in support of its ally then
declared war on russia that brought
france into the war on russia's side
italy however did not join the war as
its alliance with germany and
austria-hungary was a defensive pact in
a matter of weeks then europe's largest
powers were primed for war but britain
was still in two minds over whether it
should be involved it agonized over
whether to support russia and france i
think at the heart of britain's
anxieties it came down really to britain
fearing german domination of europe
because if a victorious but hostile
germany dominated the continent and
threatened britain's position in the
world that was just intolerable for
britain the tipping point came thanks to
germany's war plans hoping to defeat
france quickly before russia had a
chance to mobilize her forces germany
attempted to skirt round the french
defenses in assassin lorraine by
attacking through neutral belgium a
country britain had sworn to protect
on the 4th of august britain issues an
ultimatum to germany which is ignored
which ends in britain declaring war on
germany and by britain declaring war on
germany that also means its global
empire is at war and you have a conflict
set up that becomes very rapidly a world
war
the causes of the first world war are
complex they're still debated to this
day
the nations didn't realize it at the
time but their attempts to defend what
they perceived as their own national
interests created a war that would shape
europe for decades to come most
participants expected the war to be over
by christmas but as we know the reality
was very different
the first world war became what we would
call a total war these nations pitted
against each other millions of men
fighting on land on the sea in the air
modern weaponry causing mass casualties
and ultimately the war broke the empires
of germany of russia austria-hungary it
forced the usa kind of onto the world
stage and the war also laid the seeds
for future conflict in places like the
middle east so it ultimately defined the
shape of europe and the world in the
20th century and this is how it all
began