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Great War Causes

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A Serbian terrorist group by the name of the black hand assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Of Austria-Hungary and his pregnant wife Sophie. Austria-Hungary responded to the assassination by declaring war on Serbia. The assassination is what triggered The Great War but, the assassination wasn't the only cause of the war, there were underlying issues that made the war worse than it should have been. Countries had alliances with each other that meant if one country went to war the aligned country has to go to war too. In 1882, Germany, Austria-hungary and Italy got together and formed the triple Alliance. On the other hand, France, Britain and Russia got together to form the triple entente. The alliances that formed caused a large scale war. Other Causes including nationalism, imperialism, and militarism All costed the lives of over 16 million people . The Great War was a turning point in history because advanced technology and weapons were introduced. The war also caused the fall of four major European empires. The Ottoman Empire, the Austria-Hungary, German and Russian. …show more content…
Countries raced to show off their big and dangerous weapons. The Germans introduced chemical warfare to the war by using poison gas. The gases were loaded into artillery shells and fired into the enemy trenches. The Germans used Gases like tear gas, chlorine, phosgene and diphosgene, and mustard gas on their enemies. The most used gas were Phosgene and diphosgene and they provided the worst fatalities out of the four mentioned gas. Germans used the gas a lot because they knew gas masks were of no use. Although chemical warfare posed a threat it did not cause as much casualties as artillery did. Artillery accounts for over 70 percent of casualties in world war one. A heavy gun aimed at an enemy trench could wipe out the whole

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