Explainer: What happened during WWI and why do we mark Remembrance Day on November 11?
- Then known as the ‘Great War’, more than 16 million people died in the massive war involving powers like Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, Russia, and Britain
- Conflict lead to a deadly pandemic, the Russian Revolution and WWII
British soldiers fight in the trenches during WWI. Photo: ShutterstockWhile you have probably learned about WWII, how much do you know about WWI – the “Great War” – which preceded it?
When did it take place, and who was involved?
Though the conflict officially lasted from 1914 to 1918, tensions had been brewing in Europe for years before the war kicked off, especially in southeast Europe in a region known as the Balkans.
There were two sides: the Central powers consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire, which extended from modern-day Turkey down to Egypt. By 1914, the Ottoman Empire was already in decline, having lost much of its territory a few years earlier.
On the opposing side were the Allied powers: Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Canada, Japan and the United States.
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What started the war?
On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was shot dead by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip, who was part of a group struggling to end the empire’s rule over Bosnia.
Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia for the assassination and saw it as an opportunity to clamp down on the idea of Serbian independence once and for all.
There was one problem. Serbia had a powerful ally: Russia. Because of this, the leader of Austria-Hungary waited until he had the support of Germany, and its leader Kaiser Wilhelm II, before declaring war one month after the assassination. Russia quickly came to Serbia’s defence, followed by Russia’s allies, Britain and France.
It gets messier when you remember that because some of these countries were still run by royal families that had intermarried around the continent for the last few centuries, some of the key players during WWI were related. According to Britannica, “King George V of the United Kingdom was the first cousin of German Emperor William II and Russian Tsar Nicholas II, but family ties did little to slow the march to war.”
Trench warfare
WWI saw massive levels of destruction. More than 16 million people died during the war. One reason for the massive casualties was trench warfare.
Trenches are long, deep ditches used for defence. Soldiers would stay in the trenches, often for weeks at a time, to protect themselves from machine guns, air strikes and chemical weapons; the trenches gave them time to take defensive measures.
However, to attack, soldiers would usually climb over the trenches and run into what was known as “no man’s land”. Needless to say, running into an empty space under a barrage of gunfire is not the safest way to fight.
The trenches were also very unsanitary, and constant exposure to the muddy wetness of the tunnels led to “trench foot”, which could require amputation.
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Effects
Russian Revolution
Russia suffered the most deaths in the war – more than 1.8 million military deaths and 1.5 million civilian deaths. Russia initially fought on the side of the Allied powers, but defeat on the battlefield, combined with economic trouble at home, led to the Russian Revolution in 1917. The new government, run by Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks, agreed on an armistice with the Central powers and withdrew from the war.
These events would later lead to a Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, played out through proxy wars in countries like Vietnam.
Deadly pandemic
The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1919 was the deadliest in world history. Around 500 million people – one-third of the global population at the time – caught the virus, and between 20 million and 50 million people died.
The war made it easy for the virus to spread, especially in the unsanitary conditions and close quarters that soldiers lived in. It also spread through ports, even reaching distant islands in the South Pacific.
For reference, as of November 2, 2023, there have been more than 770 million cases of Covid-19 and around 6.97 million deaths.
Although it is called the Spanish flu, it probably didn’t originate there; many newspapers were subject to censorship to boost morale during the war, so they didn’t report deaths from the virus. However, news from Spain wasn’t subject to these same censorship rules, so they freely reported the deaths, leading to the false belief that the virus started there.
WWII
The Treaty of Versailles, the peace agreement reached after WWI, made Germany accept responsibility for starting the conflict and forced it to pay back massive debts. The German economy was in shambles, and unemployment levels were high.
These bleak conditions were perfect for a fascist leader named Adolf Hitler, who placed the blame for the country’s problems on anyone and everyone he could – but mainly Jewish people. WWII officially kicked off in 1939 when Germany invaded Poland.
Remembering the war
The UK and other Commonwealth countries mark the anniversary of the armistice with Remembrance Day on November 11, though the purpose has since evolved to honour members of the armed services who died in all wars. A moment of silence is held at 11am – the time the ceasefire took effect – and many people wear red poppies, representing the battlefields in France and Belgium. All signs of life on these fields were wiped out in the fighting, and one of the first plants to reappear afterwards was the poppy. It became a symbol of the soldiers’ sacrifice.