The Purpose of the First World War
- Herausgeber(in): Professor Dr. Holger Afflerbach
- Titel: The Purpose of the First World War
- Untertitel: War Aims and Military Strategies
- Reihe: Schriften des Historischen Kollegs. Kolloquien
- Bandnummer: 91
- Verlagsort: München
- Erscheinungsjahr: 2015
- Umfang: X, 258 S.
- ISBN: 978-3-11-034622-0
- Beschreibung:
Nearly fourteen million people died during the First World War. But why, and for what reason? Already many contemporaries saw the Great War as a „pointless carnage“ (Pope Benedict XV, 1917). Was there a point, at least in the eyes of the political and military decision makers? How did they justify the losses, and why did they not try to end the war earlier? In this volume twelve international specialists analyses and compares the hopes and expectations of the political and military leaders of the main belligerent countries and of their respective societies. It shows that the war aims adopted during the First World War were not, for the most part, the cause of the conflict, but a reaction to it, an attempt to give the tragedy a purpose – even if the consequence was to oblige the belligerents to go on fighting until victory. The volume tries to explain why – and for what – the contemporaries thought that they had to fight the Great War.
- Inhalt:Table of Content (S. V–VI)Holger AfflerbachDanksagung (S. VII)List of Abbreviations (S. IX–X)Holger AfflerbachWhat Was the Great War about? War Aims, Military Strategies and Political Justifications during the First World War (S. 3–6)Hew StrachanMilitary Operations and National Policies, 1914–1918 (S. 7–25)Georges-Henri SoutouFrench War Aims and Strategy (S. 29–44)Keith JefferyBritish Strategy and War Aims in the First World War (S. 45–60)Boris KolonitskiiWar as Legitimisation of Revolution, Revolution as Justification of War. Political Mobilisations in Russia, 1914–1917 (S. 61–78)Dušan T. BatakovićSerbian War Aims and Military Strategy, 1914–1918 (S. 79–94)Roger ChickeringStrategy, Politics, and the Quest for a Negotiated Peace. The German Case, 1914–1918 (S. 97–115)Marvin Benjamin Fried„A Life and Death Question“: Austro-Hungarian War Aims in the First World War (S. 117–140)Lothar HöbeltMourir pour Liège? World War I War Aims in a Long-Term Perspective (S. 143–159)Mesut UyarOttoman Strategy and War Aims during the First World War (S. 63–185)John Gooch„An Act of Madness“? Italyʼs War Aims and Strategy, 1915–1918 (S. 187–207)Klaus SchwabePresident Wilson and the War Aims of the United States (S. 209–234)Holger Afflerbach„… eine Internationale der Kriegsverschärfung und der Kriegsverlängerung …“. War Aims and the Chances for a Compromise Peace during the First World War (S. 237–254)List of Authors (S. 255–258)