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France's informal alignment with Britain and its formal alliance with Russia against Germany and Austria eventually led Russia and Britain to enter World War I as France's allies. [26] [27] Britain abandoned its policy of splendid isolation in the 1900s, after it had been isolated during the Second Boer War. Britain concluded agreements ...
Before World War II, the events of 1914–1918 were generally known as the Great War or simply the World War. [1] In August 1914, the magazine The Independent wrote "This is the Great War. It names itself". [2] In October 1914, the Canadian magazine Maclean's similarly wrote, "Some wars name themselves. This is the Great War."
The African-American community did not take a strong position one way or the other. A month after Congress declared war, W. E. B. Du Bois called on African-Americans to "fight shoulder to shoulder with the world to gain a world where war shall be no more". [40] Once the war began and black men were drafted, they worked to achieve equality. [41]
Grey insisted that world peace was in the best interests of Britain and the British Empire. [4] France could strengthen its position in the event of war by forming new alliances or by enlisting more young men. It used both methods. [5] Russia was firmly in the same camp, and Britain was almost ready to join.
Historians examining the origins of the First World War have primarily focused on the roles of Germany and Austria-Hungary. The scholarly consensus minimizes the mention of Russia, with only brief references to its defense of Serbia, its Pan-Slavic activities, its treaty commitments with France, and its efforts to maintain its status as a major ...
Berlin did not go to war in 1914 in a bid for ‘world power’, as historian Fritz Fischer claimed, but rather first to secure and thereafter to enhance the borders of 1871. Secondly, the decision for war was made in July 1914 and not, as some scholars have claimed, at a nebulous ‘war council’ on 8 December 1912.
Margaret MacMillan, in her book, The War That Ended Peace, puts the blame for the start of the First World War on the decision making of a small group of people, primarily blaming the leaders of Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary. [51] The Russians did not want to back down after mobilizing, due to the fast mobilization that they had ordered.
Daily Mail on 5 August 1914. The United Kingdom entered World War I on 4 August 1914, when King George V declared war after the expiry of an ultimatum to the German Empire.The official explanation focused on protecting Belgium as a neutral country; the main reason, however, was to prevent a French defeat that would have left Germany in control of Western Europe.