Blog #2 : Could WW1 have been prevented? What If it never had happened?

       

Could  WW1 have been prevented? 
What If it never had happened?

Could  WW1 have been prevented? What If it never happened? World War1, also known as the Great War, was a disastrous and gruesome war in Europe which began on July 28th,1914 and continued until November 11th, 1918. The number of dead bodies pointlessly lying on the battle fields doubled everyday, the families at home were being terrible tortured by tremendous worries and were burdened with financial problems. After these 4 years and 3 months of appalling days, the war had finally ended. I would like to pose a question here. Could this disastrous war have been avoided by any changes in the actions, words, or thoughts of people? Or was it a cruel destiny that people had to face?

                 Personally, I think there were possible ways to prevent this war and the countless deaths caused by it because it was just another horrible final work of humans, formed by their acquisitiveness and ambition. There are indirect and direct causes of world war 1. The indirect causes are militarism, alliances, imperialism, and nationalism. The direct cause is the assassination of the archduke of Australia, Francis Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo, Bosnia by a 19 year old Serbian male, Gavrillo Princip. It all begins here. First, the war would have been prevented if Serbia attempted to make deals or use words to solve conflicts of Serbians and Slavs against Austro Hungarians because the Serbians and Slavs earned nothing out of the assassination. They just gave away an excuse or an opportunity for the Austro Hungarians to attack them. I think it was a not thoughtful action done by the Serbians to be acting so drastic when they are in hold of much smaller power compared to the Austro Hungarians. Secondly, WW1 would not have happened if the ultimatum sent by Austro Hungary was different. Serbia refused to accept the third condition which was to allow Austro Hungarian officials into their country. I think it was obvious that Serbia wouldn't accept the last condition because it meant that Austro Hungary will be aware of all the movements or actions in Serbia and the officials will interfere with them. If Austro Hungary really didn't have any ambition to take that as a chance crush Serbia they would not have added the last condition in the ultimatum which would cause conflicts between the two nations. Lastly, If Germany did not attack Belgium, Britain, along with is allies would have not joined and the war, and If Germany just supported its ally, Austria Hungary instead of declaring war on Russia, then France would not have declared war on Germany and the scale of the war would have smaller than it had been.


  What if WW1 never happened, specifically in Canada? If WW1 never took place, then the changes in Canada due to the war would not have occurred  First of all, there would not have been such thing as conscription, which means there would have been less tension or conflicts between English and French Canadians, secondly, Canadian women would have never gotten their chance to fight for their rights to vote or have the opportunities to take larger roles in the society because men would always be in control of the important positions in the society, Thirdly,if there was no war, there would not have been such thing as the paris peace conference or the treaty of Versailles and Canada would not have gotten the chance to be recognized as an independent country.



Therefore, there were many ways that war could have been prevented. And if it had been avoided, then many lives would not have been killed, however, for Canada, it was an opportunity and a chance of change because it managed to show its potentials, earn a stronger position in the world and  turn the bloody war into a turning point of the nation.