Sarah Coleman March 9, 2017 Period 5 Western Civilization 12 The Guns of August Book Critique The Guns of August, by Barbara W. Tuchman, is about the start of World War I. It starts out talking about how King Edward VII strengthened the nations during his time alive. Along with King Edward strengthening the nations, Lord Palmerston, a Foreign Minister for England, was able to get a few countries to sign a treaty. “The treaty was signed in 1839 by England, France, Russia, Prussia, and Austria” (Tuchman 18). After the treaty was signed, France and Russia formed an alliance so that if one were attacked, the other would help in the battle. Germany knew about this and formed a plan to defeat France before Russia could get there to help. When France …show more content…
A few times, I had to re-read sections because I did not understand what was going on. Aso, Tuchman used the word “he” after mentioning a few different male names, which also lead to me being confused. Tuchman used a few words that were hard to figure out the definition based on context clues. To go along with a few words that were difficult when it came to figuring out what they meant, there were a few words that were in another language. Sometimes when these words came up, the translation would be the next word, or group of words, in the sentence. Other times, there was no translation, which made understanding what was being said even harder. When this happened, it was normally either German or French …show more content…
Tuchman was born on January 30, 1912. She was lucky enough to have a few relatives, a grandfather and an uncle, who worked for the government. Ever since Mrs. Tuchman was young, she enjoyed history and politics. After she graduated high school, she went on to Radcliffe College in Massachusetts. Tuchman got a job out of college, but later moved onto a job for a magazine where she covered stories that had to deal with politics and cultural events. This increased the qualifications she had when it came to writing the book. Margaret MacMillan really enjoyed this book because of how Barbara Tuchman wrote it. MacMillan stated “Throughout the book you are aware of her ability to bring the past to life, in part using what she called the corroborative detail” (MacMillan). The way MacMillan talked about the book, I was able to tell she really liked it. “It is a long book, but I was gripped from her wonderful first sentence” (MacMillan). Other experts also enjoyed The Guns of August. The back of the book has different, positive, remarks about the book. Also, the book was so good that it received the Pulitzer
One of the three underlying events that lead to World War I becoming such a big war was alliances. “There were at least 100 countries” according to http://www.history.com fighting a war, and countries had to choose their side. Countries used alliances for extra support. Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy were part of Triple Alliance until 1915 when Italy switched sides hurting Austria-Hungar. On the Triple Entente United Kingdom, and France fought together.
World War I was one of the most brutal and bloodiest war ever fought in the early twentieth century. The war left ten million soldiers dead, seven million civilians dead, and another ten million people to be wounded (Background Essay). It was the Triple Alliance, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey, against the Triple Entente, France, Britain, Russia, and Italy (Background Essay). The war ended with the Paris Peace Conference where world leaders meet up to discuss about a creation of a treaty to settle the peace terms. President Woodrow Wilson of the U.S. simply wanted to create a League of Nations to settle future conflicts and to avoid war (Background Essay). However, Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau of France and Prime Minister David Lloyd George of England wanted even more; revenge and humiliation on Germany. They are forcing Germany to pay hundreds of billions of dollars for
In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s Europe was becoming a tinder box for a possible great war. Every country was extremely determined on spreading their empires. Additionally they began to form alliances, France with England and Germany with Austria-Hungry. Then on June 28th 1914 a Bosnian-Serb nationalist assassinated the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife practically igniting Europe and the world into a massive war. This assassination was viewed as an act of war and Russia came in to assist their ally Serbia. Germany naturally had to declare war on Russia to help Austria-Hungry. France and England then joined in to assist Russia.
Britain, France, Germany and other nations competed for colonial gains in Africa. Britain and Germany competed industrially. Then, Germany industrialized quickly and the British were threatened by this. This caused them to hate Germany, then France and Britain eventually forms an alliance and goes at it with Germany. Document 4 states, “The allied and associated governments affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage”. The final cause of WW1 was the assassination of Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary which started the war immediately. After the assassination the Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. once Russia heard that Serbia was at war, they also had to go to war which leads Germany declaring war on Serbia. Therefore, the era of the began expansion of the war included all those countries who were defending they alliances. Document 7 states, “The two armed camps alarmed each other, and each grew heavy with multiplied incidents, which spread East with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, where Russia and Austria were advancing contradictory claims…” This quote shows how the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand started WW1 immediately and kept
Before the early twentieth century, the countries of Europe led vast empires that ruled the world both economically and politically. However, world dominance was soon ended by war, the great war to be exact. World War 1 devastated Europe for years yet began swiftly, with the country of Austria-Hungary declaring war on Serbia. Although various aggressions such as Archduke Ferdinand’s assassination are thought to be the reasons for World War 1, it was the alliance systems, militarism, and imperialism that proved to be the underlying cause of the war.
World War I was a devastating war that killed millions of people. The war was fought between two powers, the Entente, which was Russia, France, and the United Kingdom. Later, the USA would join up against the Triple Alliance, which was the countries of Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Italy, but Italy ended up switching sides a year later after the war started. It was a war that lasted for a long time, changed many borders, and killed a lot of people. Alliances were the main reason World War I lasted so long Document A shows a map of Europe and all the alliances there were but Document B first started with Austria-Hungary fighting Serbia, then Serbia getting Russia to help them, Austria-Hungary got Germany to enter the war, so Russia got France
The events of July and early August 1914 are known as the sparks that lit the explosion of World War I. Uneasy tensions that had been boiling beneath the surface of Europe for many years soon erupted and with that several alliances that were formed over the past decades were invoked, so within weeks the major powers were at war; via their colonies, the conflict advanced rapidly. When war officially broke out in 1914, Britain joined in the defense of Belgium and in reaction to Germany's violation of the treaty in which the countries neutrality was to be respected by all other nations. Upon this Britain requested that all dominions of the British Empire, including Canada were to fight on its behalf.
The first cause of World War One were alliances, the actual agreement between two nations; meaning work together. To start off, the United Kingdom, Russia, and France were apart of the Allies alliance. Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire were members of the Central Powers alliance. Some countries chose to
It all began with an assassination,by a Serbian nationalist on June 28, 1914 in the Balkans. The Archduke of Austria-Hungary was shot and killed in his own vehicle, which sparked war between Russia and Germany and the alliances that went along with it. The Allies consisted of France, Great Britain, Russia, The United States and Italy, while The Central Powers consisted of Austria-Hungary, Germany the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria. The underlying cause of World War I consisted of three reasons, Militarism and Alliances as well as Imperialism being the most important.
Many historians believe that due to the Wilhelmine Era and the expansion of the German nation, led to the outbreak of World War One. During the Bismarck era, Bismarck 's main goal was to keep France isolated and stay in good relations with Austria and Russia so that it would prevent a war. Although Bismarck 's foreign policy was creating cooperation, it did not last very long. The spark of World War one came from the Wilhelmine era, which turned away from everything Bismarck’s foreign policy represented. The expansion of the military scared Europe, the industrialization of the railroad was a suspicion to other countries, and the expansion of domestic supporters led to the alliance of the France, Britain, and Russia known as the Triple Entente.
(History Place 1.). This was one of many alliances that would lead up to World War I. Some of the other alliances included Russia and France that was in reaction to the Triple Alliance, Britain and Japan’s Naval alliance, and Russia makes an agreement with Britain. All of these alliances took place between 1882 and 1910 to see who could make the most powerful alliance. During all this the United States remained neutral and was not getting involved in the tensions ongoing in Europe.
World War I was a tragic episode in European history. As with most wars, there were some causes that led to this event. A few of these causes were militarism, alliances, and imperialism. The first spark of the war was on June 28, 1914 when the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated by a Serbian nationalist group called the Black Hand. The Austrian leaders demanded an apology from Serbia, they got upset and Russia said they would help Serbia. With no apology and the threat of Russia, on June 28 Austria-Hungary declared war on them; Russia in return declared war on Austria-Hungary. Germany declared war on Russia, France on both Germany and Austria-Hungary. Finally Britain had joined France and Russia, then all of Europe was at war.
World War I was caused by several issues between European powers, the first being militarism, or the huge emphasis placed on having large and strong armies and navies. Germany is an example of militarism in WWI because Germany began competing with the British for having the largest navy in the world, as well as developing new weapons like poison gas and submarines, the latter being a great tool in surprise attacks. Militarism was also associated with the Romanticism of war; Europeans wished to fight so that they could become heros. The constant military build ups in several European countries left countries looking for alliances with other strong countries, in the event that war was to break out. Germany, Italy, and Austria created the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente was comprised of Great Britain, France, and
Alliances between countries that was the first main cause of World War 1. It was the formation that had a significant impact on World War 1. “The problem that the Alliances had was Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife was assassinated on June 28, 1914, by Gavrilo Princip, igniting a conflict that led to World War 1 and made a larger problem”. The other problem was between the Triple Alliances and the Triple Entente. The countries that were in the Triple Alliance was Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy and for the Triple Entente was Russia, France, and the United Kingdom. Germany was worried about having to fight a war on two fronts or two different borders, but the fear was not justified because France and Russia are against Germany and Russia was larger than Germany. In document B “The Crime Of The Ages.
By the 1st of August 1914, Germany had declared war on Russia, as well as threatening Belgium. At this point everyone was trying to protect their country and the countries of their alliances’. So we can see that another trigger to the war was threat, threat that their land would be taken, and that their military was not large enough. So again there was this thirst for land and a need to beat others, this formation of alliances is none other than another trigger to the First World War.