World War I

The M A I N causes:

Militarism

Growing rivalries between European nations towards the end of the 19th century caused countries to invest their new wealth from industries in mobilizing their armies, in order to be prepared for war….

Alliances

….as well as creating alliances with other nations, in order to feel more safe. This resulted in Europe eventually being divided into two major superpower affiliates; the Central Powers and the Entente.

Imperialism

The United Kingdom and France had for years expanded their empires by colonizing weaker nations around the world. This was a great economic advantage, since it gave them control over foreign resources, markets, territories and people. Other European nations recognized the importance of this and wanted to expand their empires too, and their frustrated ambitions led to tensions, Especially between Great Britain and Germany. Germany had a fast growing industry, but few colonies. Their expanding power worried GB.

Nationalism

A nationalist feels the need to be extremely loyal to their country. The serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip shot the Austro-Hungarian archduke Franz Ferdinand to death because he didn't want Serbia to be a part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. This event sparked the outbreak of the war.


Zimmerman Telegram
In January, 1917, an event occured which resulted in the United States joining the war. A telegram from Germany's foreign secretary, Arthur Zimmermann, to a German ambassador in Mexico, proposed a Mexican-German alliance, in case a war between the US and Germany would break out. Germany promised that if they would win the war they would return the lost Meaxican territories Texas, New Mexico and Arizona to Mexico. When Woodrow Wilson found out about it he ordered a preparation for war. The news broke out in public on March 1, 1917.

Lawrence of Arabia

After the outbreak of World War I, the British man Thomas Edward Lawrence recruited into the Bristish army, and got a job in the military intelligence service in Cairo, Egypt. This would suit the archeologist - who had worked for a couple of years in Syria and learnt the Arabian language - well.

The British wanted permission to organize a revolt against the vast Ottoman Empire - which collaborated with the Central Powers during World War I - and Lawrence would come to play an important role as a liaison. In October 1916, he was sent to Arabia to learn more about the Arabian National Movement. During this time, he fought together with an arabian guerrilla against Ottoman forces. Lawrence convinced Arabian leaders (who usually were very split and did not work together) to coordinate their fight against the Ottomans, so that the Ottomans would have to send troops of their own to fight back. This would ease the pressure on the British, who were fighting against the Ottomans elsewhere.
In 1917 Lawrence succeeded in making the arabian guerilla collaborate with fighters from the Bedouin tribe Howeitat, and together attack the city of Akaba. The Brits didn't think this was a possible task, since the city was heavily protected by an artillery staged by the sea, ready to defend at any time. What Lawrence and the arabs did was to cross the desert instead, in order to enter the city from another way. No one thought it was possible to cross the desert, but they succeeded, and they managed to overthrow the city. Lawrence returned to Cairo to deliver these news to the British general Edmund Allenby, who thereafter took over the cause of defeating the Ottoman empire.

Lawrence returned to London, where he advocated a division of the Ottoman Empire's arabian territories, where the arabs would have the main influence. He participated in the Treaty of Versailles, where he found out that Great Britain and France had already secretly divided up the area.
He would come to be very disappointed of the treatment of arabs in the future.

After his experiences he wrote the famous book "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom", which was not published until after his death. He also gained a lot of fame during his lifetime because of the journalist Lowell Thomas, who found Lawrence's story fascinating and decided to tell it to audiences. At first Lawrence was fine with all the attention he received, but eventually turned more bothered by it. He withdraw from public, changing his name numerous times.

He died in a motorcycle accident in 1935.

Source: http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/T.E._Lawrence