World War I : The Eastern Front - What are the specific objectives of the offensives? Who were the combatants? Did the offensives succeed or fail?

Essay by Charmz March 2006

download word file, 5 pages 4.5

Downloaded 27 times

The offensives and objectives / combatants

Expansion of the war was swift. Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia on 6 August, 1914. Then France and Great Britain declared war on Austria-Hungary, there were large amounts of wars in the east, and the main combatants in the east were armies of Russia and Austria-Hungary and Germany.

Before the war actually started, there were already conflicts between Austria and Russia. In the Balkans, there was fierce rivalry between the two countries, when they both clashed over who should conquer areas that broke free. And Serbia, at that time was one of the areas. Serbia wanted to unite all the Slavs and have them under Serbian leadership. However, Austria-Hungary feared that all the Slavs in its area would unite with Serbia, therefore tried their best to stop Serbia. On the other hand, Russia supported Serbia, mainly because Russia was afraid that if the control of Constantinople was under Austria's, then Russia's route to the Mediterranean would be blocked.

And a powerful Serbia would hold Austria back in doing so. Due to these many mistrusts and conflict, Austria-Hungary and Russia soon went to war. Another reason of the Austrian offensive, was when they blamed Serbia for the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Russia agreed to defend Serbia.

One of earliest wars occurring in WW1 in 1914, between Russia and Austria-Hungary, was 'The Battle of Lemberg'. It was a major battle between the two countries, in which the Russians successfully captured the fortress of Lemberg. The objective of this offensive, which was launched by Austria-Hungary, was to attack the Russians when shortly defeated in East Prussia. But Russia, instead captured the Lemberg fortress.

The Brusilov Offensive was the greatest Russian achievement during World War I. It was a major offensive against the armies of...