In WW1, what did the Allies want to achieve? (2024)

The Allies’ war aims changed over the course of the conflict...

In WW1, what did the Allies want to achieve? (1)

Published: December 2, 2014 at 1:40 PM

The Allies’ war aims changed over the course of the conflict in response to military and diplomatic developments and to pressure from the United States to make them clear as a basis for negotiating peace.

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All countries had territorial aims: to evacuate the Germans from Belgium, to restore Alsace-Lorraine to France, for Italy to get the Trentino, and so on. They also wanted to restore their defeated allies, Serbia and Romania, ideally with extra territory.

The British and French wanted somehow to crush Germany’s military capability, both as revenge and as insurance against a second conflict. They also came to want to carve up the Ottoman Empire between them, and to allow the component parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to set up independent states.

US President Wilson also hoped to establish world peace through a League of Nations, which also became an allied war aim.

Seán Lang is a senior lecturer in history at Anglia Ruskin University, and the author of First World War for Dummies.

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In WW1, what did the Allies want to achieve? (2)

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In WW1, what did the Allies want to achieve? (2024)

FAQs

In WW1, what did the Allies want to achieve? ›

The British and French wanted somehow to crush Germany's military capability, both as revenge and as insurance against a second conflict.

What were the Allies trying to achieve? ›

The leaders of the Allies were Franklin Roosevelt (the United States), Winston Churchill (Great Britain), and Joseph Stalin (the Soviet Union). The common purpose of the Allies was to defeat the Axis powers and create a peaceful post-war world.

What was the purpose of alliances in ww1? ›

The alliance systems in World War One made what could have been a smaller, more isolated conflict turn into a global one. The Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, The Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria) in World War One promised to defend each other against the threats of the Allied Powers.

What were the Allies main goal? ›

The heterogeneous alliance that defeated the Axis states in the Second World War was united by its determination to demand the unconditional surrender of the enemy powers and to prevent their resurgence.

What did the Allies want at the end of ww1? ›

The treaty had been drafted during a peace conference held in Paris starting on 18 January; but Germany had been shut out of the deal-making, while the Allies debated the matter alone, unable to agree amongst themselves: France wanted to definitively remove the German threat and cripple the country, Great Britain ...

Why do you think the Allies were able to achieve success? ›

The allies achieved success because they planned accordingly. They had the mulberry harbors, they had plans for every contingency. They used overwhelming force. They also learned valuable experience in landings through the pacific campaign.

Why were the Allies successful? ›

By 1943, the Allies manufactured about three and a half times more airplanes than Germany and Japan. The ship building numbers overwhelm the eye even more. In 1943, the Allies—led by the United States—produced seven times the number of ships that Germany and Japan did, even including German U-boats.

What were the Allies in WW1? ›

The Entente, or the Allies, were an international military coalition of countries led by France, the United Kingdom, Russia, the United States, Italy, and Japan against the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria in World War I (1914–1918).

Was alliances the most important cause of ww1? ›

In conclusion, whilst alliances were a key cause of tension, and certainly escalated the war, they were neither the dominant long-term cause, nor the trigger which actually caused war to break out in 1914.

Who murdered Ferdinand and why? ›

The assassin – Gavrilo Princip – was a member of a Bosnian Serb nationalist group seeking to unite territories containing ethnic Serbs under Serbia's control. Convinced that the Serbian government had assisted Princip's group, Austria-Hungary issued a series of harsh demands, most of which the Serbs accepted.

Who did the Allies want to defeat first? ›

Yet, with much of the US fleet destroyed and a nation unprepared for war, America and its allies decided they needed to save Great Britain and defeat Germany first. The Japanese, meanwhile, sought to complete what they began at Pearl Harbor.

How did the Allies achieve victory in WW2? ›

Western Allied industrial, maritime and air power were fundamental to destroying the German war machine. But to win, it was crucial to take ground and destroy the forces holding it, and on this score, it was the eastern front where the Wehrmacht was broken most emphatically.

How did allies achieve victory in Europe? ›

Explanation: As WW2 wound down in Europe, the Americans, who were over 2,000 miles from home, had more and better supplies than the Germans, who were hundreds of miles away from their home. The Allies bombed the daylights out of the German supply lines while simultaneously preventing their own from being too damaged.

Why were the Allies fighting in WW2? ›

The Allies began as an agreement between Poland, the United Kingdom, and France that the latter two would come to Poland's aid if it were invaded by Germany. When Germany did attack on September 1, 1939, the United Kingdom and France fulfilled their promise, declaring war against Germany on September 3.

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