- Published: September 25, 2022
- Updated: September 25, 2022
- University / College: Western University
- Language: English
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Ken LeeMs. Frankie TsuiSocial Studies 10-1Evil Nationalism in Total WarDuring 1914, the entire Europe was a powder keg filled not with gunpowder, but pride. Finally, it blew up with the assassination of the Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand in the 28th of June. While Franz Ferdinand was on his way to examine Serbia, he was assassinated by the Serbian nationalist (Sowards). In response to this action, Austrian angrily announced an ultimatum to Serbia, which strictly demanded Serbia to end all anti-Austrian agitation and punish any Serbian official whoever involved in the murder plot. However, the refusal of the demand gives many extreme nations like Germany an opportunity to show and test their army. Meanwhile, nations like Germany has a very strong nationalism thinking in their mind, which helped them to build up the second largest navy through out the entire Europe and to be more aggressive on declaring war on other nations. The assassination of Franz Ferdinand was a great chance for Germany to test their army, therefore Germany encouraged Austria to declare war on Serbia and claimed that she would provide help if Austria did that. As a result, this led to the beginning of World War I that at the end led to great damaged on the economy and the government of the entire European nations. Therefore, among all the reasons that led to World War I, nationalism, usually have a positive effect, turn into an evil idea that brought over 5 millions men died in the war. (U. S. Department of Justice)One of the most important reasons why nationalism is a major cause of total war is that nationalism raised citizens’ desire of gaining independence and dominance (World War I – nationalism). Before nationalism settled in, the war seems to be stuck and neither side of the alliances was able to defeat the opposition. Nation like Russia and Germany continuously send troops to the front line, however, it is not that affective, which they causes many innocent people to die but the war still seems not moving. However, after nationalism settles in, nations began to put all their effort into the war and turn WWI into a total war. First of all, Russia is one of the greatest examples of nationalism causes it to put all their effort on it. Russia’s nationalism is contributed to not only total war but also the beginning of WWI. Russia’s nationalism already began in 1914, which Russia thinks that they’re responsible for supporting the Serbian. This kind of nationalism made Russia confident about helping others, which later causes their allied Britain and their enemy Germany to join the war. Later on, when the war stocked in a period of time, nationalists in Russia cause Russian to join the war and fight for dominance. However, Russian army was poorly equipped in which soldier had no weapons to fight against the enemy. But the Russian nationalism encourage Russia to continuously send troops to the front line, which at the end Russia has the highest mobilization and death rate among the entire Europe. Base on the overall negative effect nationalism had on Russia, although nationalism usually help nations to gained right, in this case, it causes lot of innocent man to died in the war and hardly damage Russia’s economic situation. Second, nationalism in Britain is another great example of how nationalism turns WWI into total war. Because of nationalism and fearing the invasion of Germany, Britain built up the greatest navy power in order to protect themselves and also to prepare for future conflict. Britain’s nationalism although help Britain to built the world greatest navy, however, it brought Britain to be engaged to the war. Britain joined the war when Germany’s Schliefen Plan invades Belgium, this break the treaty that Britain has signed and Britain nationalist was urged to declared war on Germany. After Britain joined the war, Britain turned into the most industrially advanced nations in Europe. This is because of that the desire for nations to be better than other causes Britain to improve their industrialization and use it for the war. However, the advanced of industrialization and navy, at the end, turn Britain’s economy into a really bad situation, which as a result Britain was hard to repair her damaged. Overall, although nationalism improves Britain’s navy and industrialization, it also damaged Britain’s economy, which after the war Britain was suffering for restoring economy and repair war damaged. Although nationalism is the major causes for the beginning of the World War I, some people think that nationalism has no connection to it. Many people think that the start of World War I is causes by Austria wanting to take revenge on the Serbian and therefore send massive troops to the front line a fought Serbian. However, without nationalism in Serbia, the Austrian archduke would never be assassinated and as a result Austria has no reason to declared war on Serbia. In the process of World War I turning into total war, many people think that it turn into a total war is the war stuck in the stalemate for many years and both sides of the alliance wants to end the war as soon as possible, as a result, put all their effort into the war. However, if nationalism in Russia never felt having responsibilities on helping Serbia, the war won’t even turn into a global war that evolved many power in Europe. Also, without nationalism in Russia, she won’t mobilized that much of forces to the front line and therefore other nations don’t need to mobilized the same amount of the troops to either defend or defeat them. As a result, without nationalism, the war will not stuck in a stalemate that forces both sides of alliance to send massive troops and promote their technology to break it. To conclude, Nationalism in the Alliance has a really great effect on the war, which nationalism in Russia mobilized large amount of troops and causes the death rate to increase. Also, nationalism improves nation like Britain’s technology and their army to be stronger and causes WWI to be more likely to turn into a total war. However, this kind of improvement later on causes nations like Britain and Russia to suffer from the damaged of the war and therefore, overall nationalism has a negative effect on turning WWI into a total war. Another reason that turned WWI into a total war was because that the Central Power was aggressive about winning the war. By 1915, as mentioned, WWI was stuck in stalemate where neither side of the alliances were able to defeat one another. In time, nationalism in the Central Power was already strong and pushes nations to continuously put their effort in winning the war. Nations like Germany and Austria can be considered on of the main causes of WWI, when Austrian nationalists declared war on Serbia for the assassination of the Archduke. Also, the Central Power brought WWI into a more serious state, which gradually turned WWI into a total war. First of all, nationalism in Austria contributed to the start and the rise of WWI. On 28 June 1914, the assassination of Austrian Archduke occurred in Sarajevo. This action quickly angered the Austrian nationalists, therefore Austria sent the final set of demand to Serbia that required Serbian to show loyalty and ended anti-Austrian group in Serbia. However, when Serbia refused to follow the demand, Austria quickly declared war on Serbia that cause all the following to happen. Austria’s nationalism can be considered one of the most important factors toward the beginning of WWI, because she brings her alliance, Germany to join the war. Although Austria was a multinational country, during the war, nationalism in Austria made the country more united to fight against their enemy. The raised of many small groups in Austria that thinks by helping Austria to win the war, they are more likely to gain independence afterward. Although after the war, Austria-Hungary was separated into two different nations, they were united during the war because of the dominance to gain independence. Therefore, nationalism was really important for nation to gain independence and to work harder in the war. Second, another important factor that turned WWI into a total war is the nationalism in Germany. Germany had the second largest navy power through the entire Europe. Germany had a very strong military power and the desire for nation to be better than other led Germany to become really aggressive on declaring war on other nations. When the assassination occurred, this is a really great opportunity for Germany to test their army and technology. Therefore, when Serbia refused to accept to final demand, Germany encourages Austria to declare war on Serbia. During the war, Germany continuously promoting their technology to defeat the alliance. Strong nationalism gives benefits to Germany because the people support the government and allowed them to spend their economic effort on military. Germany had great technology and skilled military tactic like Schliefen Plan to help them win the war. Although the plan failed at the end because of the false prediction Germany had, the Plan could represent how aggressive Germany had on conquering other European nations. Beside the war tactic, many technologies like the U-boats were used in Germany that helps them to be very powerful during the war. Once nationalism became stronger, Germany became the most powerful nation that’s hard to be defeated. Overall, nationalism in some way will improve nations’ technology but it will cause lot of war to happen. During the war, nationalism in the Central Power appeared to be evil and aggressive on winning the war that causes many innocent people to die. However, many people think that it’s not actually nationalism that causes Central Power to be so aggressive on winning the war on the other hand, it is that the leaders of the nations were aggressive on gaining more power and the people of that nations just simply followed their ruler. However, it is not true because if there were no nationalism in the nation, people will not willing to joined the army and provide fundamental help to the government. As mentioned, Germany built the second largest navy power during World War I, however, without the support of their people Germany could never build the powerful army in their nation. At the end of World War I, Germany mobilized around 11, 000, 000 forces to the front line, (U. S. Department of Justice) which is the second largest in the entire Europe. This shows that men the Germany were willing to support the government and joined the army to support the government. As a result, Central power became so aggressive is not because it has an aggressive leader, it is because nationalism encouraged people to joined the army and support their nation. To conclude, nationalism in the Central Power was also another important factor that turn WWI into a total war because, nationalism in Germany causes nations to continuously improve their technology in order to fight against powerful enemy. This cost many money for nations to create new weapons and also causes many factories to start producing new weapons. On the other hand, Nationalism in Austrian led to the beginning of WWI and all the later events to happen. Therefore, nationalism in the Central Power is also another important factor that led WWI into a total war. Last, overall the reasons that WWI turned into a total war is because nationalism in the entire Europe encourage their nation to continuously promoting their technology. As a result brought WWI into a massive war with lots of new weapons and strategies. Before WWI, most of the European nations focused on industrialization to improve nations economic trade. Some of the military leaders argued for improving their nations’ communication, and therefore inventions like the telegraph were invented to help increase the efficiency of information flow during the war. However, European nations did not actually focused on their weapon and strategy on winning the war. When WWI begins in 1914, nations were so aggressive on winning the war, and therefore technology, weapons, and military strategies suddenly improved and brought the war into a more violent war. First of all, nationalism in Europe encouraged their nations to continuously promoting their weapons and transportation in order to break the stalemate and defeat their enemy. There were many new technologies that was invented during WWI, they all made the war into a more serious stage that causes over 5, 142, 631 man to be killed in the Alliance and 3, 386, 200 in the Central Power (U. S. Department of Justice). Weapons like artillery gun and machine gun highly increased the death rate because the ability of rapid fire and long-range fire allowed army to attack their army much easier. Also, poison gas was used in the war to either blinded or choked the opposition. Poison gas is a kind of toxic gas that was used in chemical warfare to kill or incapacitate by inhalation. Poison gas could be considered on of the deadest weapon of the war. One British soldier recalled the effect of being affected by poison gas:” I suppose I resemble a kind of fish with my mouth open gasping for air. It seemed as if my lungs were gradually shutting up and my heart pounded away in my ears like a beat of a drum…. To get air into my lungs was real agony” – William Pressey (Ellis)This primary source shows that poison gas has an overall negative effect on soldiers. Although poison gas could weaken enemy easily, poison gas was an uncertain weapon. Sometime poison gas could be blow back to the side where launched it. Overall, improvement of technologies helps nations to weaken one another and increase the death rate of the entire Europe. Also, the improvement on machine and transportation contributes to the efficiency of the war. Many transportation and machine like airplane and tank began to use in the war. Those heavy technology help army to transport military material into the front line more easily and also help nations to break through the no mans’ land and defeat one another. As a result of nationalism encourage nations to promote technologies, there were many new weapons and transportation invented during the war that brought over 8, 528, 831 men to died in the war. Second, nationalism causes and also broke the stalemate of WWI. Although nationalism usually helps nations to improve their military strategy, during WWI it led the great war to stuck in a stalemate in which neither side of alliance were able to defeated one another. Strategies like trench warfare slow down the war but still continuously caused many man to died in the war. Trench warfare is a kind of strategy that was developed during WWI that nations dig trenches and fight between the trenches. In this time of the war, no one can actually tell who is going to defeat others because of the slow fight that was caused by the strategy. Although the trench warfare slow downs the Great War, it continuously brought large amount of death in the front line.” If you have never had trench foot described to you, I will explain. Your feet swell to two to three times their normal size and go completely dead. You can stick a bayonet into them and not feel a thing. If you are lucky enough not to lose your feet and the swelling starts to go down, it is then that the most indescribable agony begins. I have heard men cry and scream with pain and many have had to have their feet and legs amputated. I was one of the lucky ones, but one more day in that trench and it may have been too late.” Harry Robert(Memories from the trenches)The primary sources that was given above is talking about the harsh condition in trench warfare, which men’s foot will basically rot if they stay in the trenches for long time. However, even though it brought negative effect to the nations, nationalism seems to blind the nations that were losing to continuously send troops to the front line. This causes nations to get greater damaged than the normal mobilization. Therefore, nationalism although gave nations confidence on winning the war, it blinded the countries and causes them to continuously send useless forces to the front line causes innocent death. During the war, nationalism encouraged European nation to promote their technology and refresh their military tactic, which at the end contributed to total war. However, many people think that promoting technology is mandatory for nations to improve their army. It is the basic idea for nations to improve during the war. Therefore, it does not have direct relationship to World War I turning into a total war. However, without nationalism’s contribution to World War I European nations could not invent new weapons that fast and use it in the war. Also, in the process of producing and inventing new weapons and transportations, it required both money and labor to help them produce powerful weapons. Without the support of the people, government will not able to gain fundamental and labor support and therefore, could not build industry to support the war. As a result, World War I will not turned into a total war. As a result of nationalism, European nations was encouraged to promote their technologies and used new military strategy. These actions even though help nations to improve and to defeat their opposition; it blinded the nations and led them to massively send troops to the front line to attack one another. This brought many innocent citizens and unnecessary soldier to died in the war. For example, in Russia, although Russia continuously sent troops to the front line, nationalism blinded the government and the soldiers have to fight without well equipment. Therefore, although nationalism usually considered being positive and helpful to nations, it also harms many nations’ economy and people. To conclude, although nationalism use to be a effective idea that can encouraged nations to improved their economy and government, however, in World War I nationalism appeared to be an overall negative and evil ideas that did not encouraged nations to improved but to cause them to continuously send troops to the front line and causes many unnecessary death in World War I. nationalism appeared to be evil because first, it raised nation’s desire to gain independence, especially in Austria, Serbian’s desire to gain independence from Austria causes the Serbian nationalist to assassinate the Austrian archduke. The assassination, as I mentioned, is the major causes of World War I. Also, nationalism in Russia led she felt that they have the responsibilities to protected Serbia from the attack of Austria, as a result, brought World War I into a more serious state. Nationalism in Britain also causes Britain to strengthen their army. In the war it allowed Britain to protect herself and to defeat all the powerful nations that act aggressively in the war. Second, nationalism in the central power brought the war to turn into a total war because nationalism in Central power led them to became so powerful that nations must investigate better technology and war tactic to defeat their army. Last, overall World War I turns into a total war is because that neither sides of the alliances want to lose the war and therefore, they kept promoting their technology and upgrade their war tactic in order to defeat the opposition. During the war, nationalism, in another way, led to the rise of many small countries and allowed them to gain independence, but it also led to many problems after the war. For example, India helps Britain to fight during the war thinking they’re able to gain independence. However, after the war, Britain broke her promise and continue treat Indian badly. This led to the crisis in India that was led by Mohandas Gandhi. Without nationalism, World War I will not turns into a total war and as a result will not damaged nations’ economy and government that much, which Europe can prevent the afterward bad economic situation and nations won’t suffer from paying loans and reparation. With nationalism, Germany, Italy, and Russia developed into dictatorship, which at the end led to World War II. Overall, nationalism in World War I turns the war into a total war and at the end, with the joining of United State, the war end with the victory of the alliance.