The horrors of the global slaughter of 1939-1945 made us think of the previous, World War I, as a relatively small conflict. Indeed, the losses among the armies of the warring countries and their civilian population were then many times less, although they were calculated in multimillion figures. However, it should also be remembered that the opposing sides actively used chemical warfare agents, and the participation of submarine, surface and air fleets, as well as tanks in combat operations, indicates that the nature of the First World War is as close as possible to modern ideas about strategy and tactics.
June 28, 1914 in the Bosnian city of Sarajevo there was a terrorist attack, as a result of which members of the august Austro-Hungarian family, Archduke Ferdinand and Sophia, his wife, were killed. The perpetrators were subjects of the empire, but their nationality gave reason to accuse the Serbian government of supporting terrorists, and at the same time to blame this country for inflating separatism.
When the First World War began, even those who started it did not expectthat it will drag on for four years, cover vast expanses from the Arctic to South America, and lead to such large-scale losses. Serbia, in an internal political crisis and weakened by two consecutive Balkan wars, was a practically defenseless victim, and victory over it was not a problem. The question was which countries would react to this attack and how.
Despite the fact that the Serbian government accepted almost all the conditions of the ultimatum presented to it, this was no longer taken into account. When the First World War began, the government of Austria-Hungary announced mobilization, enlisting the support of Germany and assessing the combat readiness of possible opponents, as well as the degree of their interest in the territorial redistribution. As subsequent events showed, not all factors were taken into account.
Exactly one month after the Sarajevo assassination, hostilities began. At the same time, the German Empire informed France and Russia of their intentions to support Vienna.
In the days when the First World War began, the population of both Austria-Hungary and Germany was seized by a single patriotic impulse. The subjects of the enemy countries did not lag behind in the desire to "teach a lesson" to the enemy. Mobilized soldiers were showered with flowers and treats on both sides of the border, which soon became the front line.
When the First World War began, plans were made in the general staffs for rapid offensives, seizures and encirclementsenemy army groupings, but soon the fighting took on a pronounced positional character. For all the time there was only one breakthrough of the layered defense, it was named after General Brusilov, who commanded this operation. The winners in such conditions were determined not so much by the quality of equipment or the talents of command personnel, but by the economic potential of the warring countries.
The Austro-Hungarian and German empires were weaker. Exhausted by four years of confrontation, despite the Brest-Litovsk peace with Russia, which was favorable for them, they were defeated, the result of which was the Treaty of Versailles. The heroes of the First World War, both in Russia, engulfed in the flames of revolution, and in Germany, and in Austria, turned out to be unnecessary human material, rejected by society.
