Transcript Western Civilization Chapter 25

Western Civilization
Chapter 25
World and Revolution,
1914 - 1919
Background to World War I
• 28 June 1914 – Assassination of Archduke Franz
Ferdinand and his wife, Sophia, by Gavrilo Princip
of the Black Hand in Sarajevo, Bosnia
• 23 July – Ultimatum sent from Austria-Hungary to
Serbia (unreasonable demands and a time limit)
• 28 July – Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia
after response was 1 hour late and only with
German backing
• 30 July - Russia declared war on Austria-Hungary
and Germany
Assassination of Franz Ferdinand and
His Wife, Sophia
The Assassin
• By 4 August – Germany declared war on
Russia and France (then walked through
neutral Belgium to get to France)
- France declared war on
Germany in response
- Britain declared war on
Germany because it went through neutral
Belgium to get to France
Liege, Belgium
Remember: 4 Main Causes
• Militarism – build-up of new weapons
• Imperialism – taking over territory that is
already occupied and organized
• Nationalism – belief that people of the same
ethnic background, same history, should have
their own nation-state
• Alliances – Triple Alliance and the Triple
Entente
Trigger: the assassination of Franz Ferdinand
Triple Alliance
• Italy
• Germany
• Austria-Hungary
Italy changed to the Triple Entente in 1915. The
Ottoman Empire joined in on the German side
Triple Entente
• Britain
• France
• Russia
• Countries make alliances not because they like
each other, but because they have a common
enemy
• Germany declared war on both France and
Russia because they had a plan for a two front
war
• It was called the Schlieffen Plan
– In a 2-front war you throw all you have against
one side
– Then when one side has fallen, throw all you have
against the other side
Germany was counting on Russia taking a long time
to mobilize; it didn’t. Germany had a 2-front war.
• The war spread worldwide, eventually
involving 33 nations and colonies
• In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson declared
the United States neutral
• We had a history of not joining entangling
alliances
• We did not wish to be dragged into any
European wars
• It was hard for Americans to remain neutral
– Ancestral ties
– Trade
– Some felt sympathy for France, our oldest friend
– Some sympathized with Germany, AustriaHungary, and Italy, the Central Powers
– Many Irish wished for neutrality because of their
hatred for Britain
– Russians and Polish Jews supported Germany
because of their rough treatment by the Tsars of
Russia
– Socialists also hated the Tsars’ cruel treatment by
the secret police against rebels and so backed
Germany
So in the U.S., there were conflicting loyalties, and
Wilson’s wish for neutrality was idealistic
But U.S. wasn’t ready for war; we didn’t join
alliances and we would only fight in self-defense
Stalemate in Europe
• Schlieffen Plan did not work
– No quick, victorious take-over of France
– Belgians resisted heroically
– Russians advanced more quickly than expected
into German territory
– So Germany had to split their forces thus
weakening their offensive in the West by sending
troops to head off Russia
Technology of Killing
• New weapons were not used efficiently
because they weren’t completely understood
– Airplane: of little importance in battle at first;
used to count troops of the enemy until enemy
started shooting at planes
– Poisonous Mustard Gas: not used effectively yet
devastating because a slight shift in the wind
could throw it back on the troops spraying it
– Machine Gun: very effective because it could
mow down troops advancing in the old infantry
style
• Battle of the Somme, July 1916; 60,000 British troops
killed or wounded in the first ½ hour
At the end of the battle there were 400,000 British
losses, 200,000 French losses, and 500,000 German
losses
– Tanks
• developed by the British
• armored vehicles could drive right through
encampments
• not used effectively
• finally were used in conjunction with infantry soldiers
instead of sending tanks in first, followed by foot
soldiers
War at Sea
• Directly touched American interests
• Naval war was an economic war because it
destroyed commerce
• British set up a blockade of Germany with their
superior navy
• During times of war, all enemy merchant ships
could be seized, attacked, and sunk
• According to the old rules of the sea, crews and
passengers were to be rescued before ship was
sunk
• Ships of neutral nations retained the right to
trade with any nation as long as they weren’t
carrying war materiel
• British blockade kept Americans from trading
with Germany because the British had mined the
waters
• American ships were also stopped and searched
by the British
• British saw war materiel to be foodstuffs and
virtually any trade good
• Americans had only minor objections because
German trade was minor
• In retaliation, Germany tried to harm the British
economy by using their submarine called the
Unterseeboot or U-Boat
– Modern sub developed by 2 Americans, John Holland
and Simon Lake
– Plans offered to U.S. first but rejected by U.S. Navy
– Took plans to Europe and sold them to highest bidder,
Germany
• Submarine
– Armed with 19 torpedoes each
– Made the waters around the British Isles a war
zone
– Any merchant ships in the area were in danger of
attack
– No opportunity for escape
– Any survivors most likely drowned
– German U-boat tactics seemed immoral to many
U-boat Attack
Lusitania
• 7 May 1915, the English luxury liner, the
Lusitania, was sunk off the coast of Ireland killing
1198 of the 1959 aboard including 128 Americans
• Before Americans and others boarded the ship in
New York, the Germans took out a full-page ad in
the New York papers warning of a possible attack
• Americans felt invulnerable because the U.S. was
officially neutral
• When the ship was sunk and there was an
outcry, the Germans said, “We warned you.”
• The Lusitania was carrying war materiel, 4200
cases of small arms bought in U.S., back to
England
• There was a secondary explosion on the ship
after it had been torpedoed
• The Germans felt justified in sinking the ship
Lusitania
• Americans became anti-German as a result
• Wilson was upset because of the loss of life
and because the right to the freedom of the
seas had been violated
• A series of messages went back and forth
between the U.S. and Germany
• The Germans then agreed to stop attacking
passenger vessels
• Things calmed down a bit between the U.S. and
Germany
• In 1916 the allies said they’d arm all merchant
ships, hence the Germans resumed sinking ships
without warning
• When the Sussex was sunk with 1 American on
board, Wilson threatened to break diplomatic
relations with Germany (this was usually the last
step before declaring war)
• Germany said it would stop and search before
attacking
Americans Enter War
• Because of the stalemate on the Western
Front, each side tried to find new allies to join
them
– Ottoman Empire joined the German side in August
1914
– Italians switched sides in 1915 and joined with
Britain and France
– Colonies were drawn into the fight
– In 1917, the U.S. entered the war on the British
and French side
Allies of World War I
• The U.S. had tried to stay neutral because we
weren’t ready for war in 1914
• We did, however, start to supply Britain with
needed goods
• We entered the war in April of 1917 because:
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Freedom of the seas had been violated
Innocent lives had been lost
Commerce was interrupted
Shift in American sentiments
Zimmerman telegram
Zimmerman Telegram
• We aren’t sure if this was a true telegram or
something dreamed up by the British to get U.S.
into the war
• The telegram said that Germany would finance a
Mexican attack on the U.S. in order to keep the
U.S. occupied in the Western Hemisphere and
away from Europe
• Then when Germany won the war, Germany
would give back to Mexico all the territory the
U.S. had taken from them
• The Zimmerman telegram was the last straw
for the U.S., and so we joined in on the fight
• Wilson also had a plan for how world politics
should be conducted after the war called his
14 Points
• He knew no one would listen to him if the U.S.
did not get into the war and help
• Although U.S. troops in large numbers didn’t
arrive until 1918, the U.S. entry gave the Allies
a needed shot in the arm – raised morale
• Also in 1917 Russia withdrew from the war:
The Russian Revolution had begun
Home Fronts
• War affected all citizens, whether soldiers or not
– Increase in government powers
– Increase in size of government use of propaganda to
manipulate public opinion
– Women worked in factories, drove trucks, and did
men’s jobs while the men went off to war
– This resulted in women getting the right to vote in the
U.S.
– In Germany, Austria, and Britain women demanded
equal pay
– Military draft imposed
– Factories produced war products
– Food rationing in some areas, not in U.S.
– Civil liberties removed or threatened, even in U.S.
– Unemployment ended
In the last year of the war, the influx of American
troops helped bring the war to an end
• On 29 September 1918, German leaders were
informed that the war was lost for them and
they should sue for peace
• Armistice Day was 11 November 1918
• The war was over
• Now came the Peace Conference and Peace
Treaty
Peace Settlement
• January 1919 delegations of the 27 victorious allied
nations gathered in Paris to write up the final
settlement of the war
• The conference was dominated by 3 leaders:
France
Great Britain
U.S.
Georges
David Lloyd
Woodrow
Clemenceau
George
Wilson
=
=
revenge
just peace
14 Points
Compromise
Clemenceau, Lloyd George, & Wilson
14 Points
• Some of the 14 Points:
– No secret alliances
– Self-Determination
– General association of nations : the League of
Nations
• Italy played a less important role at the
conference than it thought it should have
• Germany wasn’t invited and was only
expected to sign the treaty without question
• The compromise at the end: Wilson sacrificed
most of his 14 points but got his League of
Nations
• Overall, it was a vengeful peace
Treaty of Versailles
• The Treaty of Versailles was signed by the new
government in Germany, the Weimar,
because they felt they had no other choice;
Germans were starving
• The Treaty of Versailles was signed on the
28 June 1919, the 5th anniversary of Franz
Ferdinand’s assassination
Terms of Treaty
• German army was limited to 100,000 men and
they had to stay in army for a long time
• Germany could not have any submarines or an
air force (Luftwaffe)
• Austria could not merge with Germany
• Alsace and Lorraine went back to France and
sections of Prussia to the new Polish state
• new nations formed from former AustriaHungary: Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia
• Germany had to pay reparations of 132 billion
gold marks or $33 billion
– U.S. loaned money to Germany to help it get back
on its feet
– Germany used some of the money to pay Britain
and France
– Britain and France used the money to pay U.S. for
the war goods they had bought
*(Remember this when we get to 1920s)
• Rhineland was demilitarized
• Germany was blamed entirely for the war
• Germany was totally humiliated
• Every country but the United States approved the
Treaty of Versailles
– U.S. Congress did not because of the inclusion of the
League of Nations; said we did not join alliances
– U.S. returned to isolationism and elected Warren G.
Harding
Results
• There was a weakened League of Nations
because U.S. did not join
• Communist Russia
• Shaky S.E. Asia: new nations that were unstable
• U.S. isolationism
• Britain refused to support France in future
conflicts
• France was alone sharing a border with Germany
• Germany:
– was humiliated and resentful
– had trouble repaying reparations
– had a shaky economy and inflation
– Caused France to occupy the Ruhr Valley for 15
years to make sure Germany paid their debt
The Russian Revolution
• Russia finally entered the Industrial Revolution
in the early 20th century
• The conditions for the workers were
horrendous:
– worked an 11 ½ hour day
– lived in a shared hovel with 10 other people
– strikes were illegal
– unions were illegal
– had no contact with employer
• So Marxism, which first made its appearance
in the 1880s, began to take hold
• In the 1890s, Vladimir Ulyanov Lenin emerged
as strong force in the movement
• He was influenced by the execution of his
older brother for terrorism in 1886
• Lenin believed in revolution as a means of
change
Vladimir Lenin
• He wanted to build up the party quickly and
bring the peasants to revolt
• Others did not want to move in that direction
• At a party conference in 1903 in Brussels and
in London, the majority of delegates
supported his plan, and hence, were called
the Bolsheviks or “majorityites”
• Lenin was sent into exile from Russia by the
Tsar for his ideas
• Then, without him in Russia, the Russian
Revolutionary movement was dominated by
the “minorityites” or Mensheviks who
opposed Lenin’s pursuit of violent revolution
• In Russia, conditions were poor for the
peasants, 90% of the population
– Russia had lost its war with Japan, 1904-1905
– Russians were starving and approached the Tsar’s
palace to ask for bread and an 8-hour day in 1905;
the military fired on them
– The result was Bloody Sunday or the First Russian
Revolution (failed because there was no real plan)
– The country went on strike after Bloody Sunday
– The only way Tsar Nicholas II could get the
country back under his control was to promise
political reforms like a Duma (parliament)
Tsar Nicholas II
• The Duma was Russia’s first legislative assembly
which would limit the Tsar’s supreme authority
• Things quieted for a time
• Nicholas really gave the Duma little power
• He was still in control
• Conditions for peasants were still poor
• Then Russia entered World War I hoping it would
unite the Russian people
• It did not
• Russia had some early victories followed by
many losses
• Soldiers were poorly armed and poorly led
– food prices rose
– not enough food for the people
– long hours in factories
– soldiers deserted
– angry marches in the capital
– angry peasants and mutinous troops
– Nicholas refused to share power
– Nicholas’ troops joined the demonstrators, and
Nicholas knew it was over
– Tsar Nicholas II abdicated the throne in late
February 1917
– He and his family were placed under house arrest
– The Duma formed a Provisional Government led
by Alexander Kerensky
• This Provisional Government had little
experience governing
• There were no plans
• Provisional Government kept Russia in World
War I
• There were many problems and the new
government could not stop the chaos
• Lenin believed this was the time for revolution
and returned from exile in April of 1917
• His followers weren’t able to seize control
until October 1917 when Leon Trotsky, Lenin’s
lieutenant, seized control of key installations
in the capital
• Kerensky fled
• The Bolsheviks and Lenin now had control
• Power had passed from the moderates to the
extremists
• A civil war then broke out that lasted for 4
years : White Army (Tsar backers) vs. Red
Army (Lenin backers)
• Bolsheviks were renamed Communists:
– carried out the will of a determined minority of
revolutionaries in the “interests of the masses”
– established a proletariat dictatorship that would
later become corrupted by power
• Foreign Policy:
– The first thing Lenin did was to seek peace with
Germany, so he could concentrate on Russia
– He signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March
1918
• Gave away nearly ¼ of Russia’s territory and 1/3 of the
population, minerals, and factories
This gave Lenin what he needed – time. Time to defeat
the White Army of Tsar supporters
• Then Lenin started to make changes
• His policy War Communism changed to
become the N.E.P., New Economic Policy:
– nationalized the banks
– nationalized industry
– created universal education
– established rights for women
– allowed for some free enterprise
• Russia was renamed the U.S.S.R. , the Union
of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922
• Lenin died in 1924
• He was succeeded by Joseph Stalin, a brutal
leader
• As of 1991, Communism is no longer in power
in Russia
The Russian Revolution of 1917
• The ideas of the Enlightenment and the French
Revolution did not reach Russia by the beginning
of the 20th century
• The Industrial Revolution only reached Russia by
the 1890s
• When most western European nations were
becoming modernized politically, economically,
and socially, Russia remained feudalistic
• It was a land of peasants, aristocrats, and the
Tsars
• The rigid policies of most tsars especially
frustrated the intelligentsia who turned to
revolution and terrorism to bring about change
• Many of the intelligentsia were exiled in 1900 as
a result
• With the revolution of 1905, also known as
Bloody Sunday, Nicholas II was forced to give
concessions: give Duma some power but that did
not last long
• The country did pull together, unite, at the
beginning of World War I
• But when losses seemed too great and the
civilian population suffered too much, the
people began to blame the corrupt
bureaucracy of the Tsar
• The Duma asked for more power
• Nicholas refused
• March 1917: demands for bread turned into
strikes and riots, and some troops refused to
fire on the people; some joined the people
• 12 March 1917: Duma organized a Provisional
Government
• 15 March 1917: Nicholas II resigned, was held
captive, and was later shot
• The Provisional Government passed laws giving:
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civil liberties
religious freedom
equality before the law
union rights
There were problems with the Provisional Government.
There were differing factions coupled with its
inexperience at governing
• They had to share power with the Soviets –
political organizations of workers, soldiers,
and radical intellectuals
• Provisional Government also chose to
continue the war with Germany and that
drained Russia of men and resources
The Rise of the Bolsheviks
• Marxism influenced many of the intellectuals
of the 19th century
• Marxists formed the Social Democratic Party
led by Gregory Plekhanov and Vladimir Lenin
• Repression of the tsar forced the Social
Democrats into exile by 1900
• In London in 1903, a split came in the party:
the radical Bolsheviks of Lenin and the more
moderate Mensheviks
• Bolsheviks were a minor irritant until 1917
• Members in Russia were hunted down,
imprisoned, exiled, or shot
• Lenin remained in exile for 17 years living in
Switzerland
– He made plans to overthrow the tsar
– He developed principles and goals for his party
• His party would not be open and democratic
• His party would be elite and a highly trained group of
Marxist revolutionaries
• Lenin wanted a dual revolution in Russia of both
workers and peasants
• He wanted the revolution to spread to other
nations
• He was opposed to World War I
• In April 1917, Lenin made a deal with Germany:
Germany would transport Lenin from Switzerland
to the Russian border if Lenin created chaos in
Russia and took Russia out of the war
• When Lenin returned, he made himself known
with slogans like “peace to the army”, land to
the peasants”, and ownership of the factories
to the workers”
• Interest in the Bolsheviks began to grow
• Kerensky had many arrested and other
Bolsheviks fled
• Lenin fled to Finland for awhile
• But the Kerensky government was weakening
– It couldn’t extract Russia from the war
– There was a threatened ouster of General Kornilov
– Kerensky then released Bolsheviks hoping they
would help him defend the capital from Germans
and revolutionaries in September 1917
– By October, Lenin and his followers had gained
control of the Petrograd and Moscow Soviets
• 6 November 1917: Trotsky, a follower of
Lenin, seized control of the power centers of
government
• Trotsky then arranged to transfer the power to
the Soviets and Lenin
• 7 November 1917: the Bolshevik majority
elected Lenin as head of their new
government
The Bolsheviks in Power
• Bolsheviks immediately strove to consolidate
their power
• They set up a bureaucracy:
– They had a pyramid of soviets or people’s councils
who were elected by universal suffrage
– The party was dominated by a few Communists,
as the Bolsheviks now called themselves
– It was “arranged” that Communists would be
dominant in all elections
Changes Made
• Capitalism was abolished
• Barter system replaced money
• Industry and commerce were placed under
the committees of workers
• Land was nationalized and management was
given to the local peasants
• Crop surpluses were turned over to the state
• Church lands were confiscated by the state
• Lenin had been opposed to Russian
involvement in World War I, so he
immediately opened negotiations with
Germany
• Germany dictated the terms because Russian
soldiers were deserting in droves, and
Germans threatened to attack Petrograd and
Moscow
• The result was the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
• Russia lost Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,
the Ukraine, Bessarabia, and the Polish
Provinces
• This added up to 1/3 of Russia’s European
population, ¾ of its iron, 9/10 of its coal
• Russia had to pay a large sum of money to
Germany to get out of the war
• After this very harsh peace with Germany,
Russia was thrown into 2 years of a civil war:
The Red Army vs. The White Army
• The White Army was made up of aristocracy
and army officers aided by French, Polish,
Japanese, Czech, and American troops – who
backed the Tsar
• The Red Army finally defeated the White Army
and the Communists took back the Ukraine
• After all the fighting, the Russian economy
was in a shambles
• Lenin first tried to mobilize the economy and
society with “war communism”, but there
were problems
– Peasants did not know how to run the factories
– Peasants didn’t want to give food surpluses to the
government
• By 1921, 30 million Russians were threatened
with starvation in spite of relief sent by other
nations
• Many died
• So Lenin tried something new, The New Economic
Policy (NEP)
– Lenin allowed for some capitalism like private
ownership
– Money and credit were restored
– All NEP programs were supervised and regulated
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1923, Lenin suffered a paralyzing stroke
He died in 1924
A power struggle ensued
Joseph Stalin won out
Joseph Stalin
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Son of peasants
Became a revolutionary and a terrorist
Arrested and imprisoned several times
Exiled to Siberia during World War I
Given amnesty by Alexander Kerensky in 1917
Became a devoted associate of Lenin
Became executive secretary of Communist Party
1927, became leader of Communist Party and
dictator of the Soviet Union
5 Year Plans
• Stalin had a series of 5 Year Plans with specific
goals for a planned economy
• First Plan Objectives – 1928
– End NEP
– Eliminate remnants of capitalism
– Industrialize USSR
– Collectivize and mechanize agriculture
– Set up national defense
– Transform economy to Communist economy
• Stalin got rid of private ownership
• He consolidated farms and mechanized them
• Farmers had to surrender land to the
government but could keep animals and
gardens for their private use
• Collective farms were supervised by
Communist Party members
• To mechanize farms meant to industrialize
them
• This was practically non-existent in the USSR
in 1928
• With help from other nations, great strides
were made: steel mills, power plants,
foundries, mines, refineries, and railroads
were built
• 1932, Stalin announced that the goals of his
first 5-year plan had been met
• The 1930s brought his next 2 5-year plans
– He stressed collective and mechanized farming
– He stressed heavy industry
– He began the production of consumer goods
Problems for Stalin
• Great resistance to collectivization because of
mismanagement, drought, and starvation
• Collectivization cost the lives of 10 million
people
• Resisters to collectivization were killed or
exiled to Siberia
• By 1939, 90% of Soviet agriculture was
collectivized and mechanized
Industry
• In each 5-year period, production doubled but it
cost lives
• By 1941, the Soviet Union was the 4th largest
industrial power in the world
• The changes of Stalin cost many lives
• All opposition was destroyed, usually by killing
millions and even within his own party
• By 1939, all the original Bolshevik leaders had
been removed from power and from the party
• Most were killed; some just removed
Totalitarian Control
• By 1939 the USSR was under totalitarian
control, dominated by the Communist Party
• It controlled the economic, social, religious,
political, and cultural life of the nation
• Only the Communist Party could organize
political activity:
– name political candidates
– set policies
– produce propaganda
• Opposition was considered to be disloyalty and
would be crushed by the police – secret and
regular police
• Within the government, there was the Politburo:
– 16 men
– met in secret
– made all decisions to be accepted and carried out
without question
Obedience was demanded of all Party members
Society and Culture
• 1917 – 60% of all Russians were illiterate
• 1928 – there was free, compulsory, secular
education: elementary, high school, and
higher
• Scholarships were given to talented Party
members
• By 1941, Stalin decreed that illiteracy had
been banished from the Soviet Union
• The Arts were supported by Stalin’s programs
• Musicians, dancers, architects, and painters
were all subject to the Communist ideology
• All liberal, bourgeois, or capitalist literature
was heavily censored
Soviet Society
• Made egalitarian
• Party members enjoyed more privileges
• Women benefitted:
– no discrimination tolerated
– equal pay
– equal educational and professional opportunities
At home it was different; the man dominated
• Social organizations were saturated with the
Party line and were carefully watched
• Religion:
– Church property was confiscated
– Churches were turned into museums and sometimes
rented out for certain occasions
– There was no religious instruction in schools and no
religious instructors
Religion was perceived as a problem. Communists
thought it could get too powerful and overthrow
government.
Soviet Union and the World
• The USSR expected other capitalist societies to
fall after World War I and turn to Communism
• The only country to embrace Communism was
Hungary that set up a Communist dictatorship
in 1919; it only lasted 4 months
• The USSR started the Comintern, or
Communist International, to guide and aid
other Communist Parties in other nations in
the common cause of world revolution
• In 1917 and 1918, other Western nations felt
Communism would not last
• To help with its collapse, France, Great Britain,
Japan, and the U.S. sent in troops in 1918 and
gave aid to the White Army
• For several years, no Western nation would
recognize the new government of the USSR or
accept it into the League of Nations
• But when Communist leaders recognized they
needed the knowledge, technology, and aid of
capitalist nations, they toned down their
rhetoric against them
• The result:
– 1922, Germany recognized USSR
– 1924, Great Britain and France recognized USSR
– 1933, the U.S. recognized USSR
• One reason why they recognized the USSR was
that they wanted to sell them what USSR wanted
to buy
• The Depression years softened the West’s stance
against it
• During World War II, USSR allied itself with Great
Britain, France, and the U.S. against Germany –
only after Germany broke its treaty with USSR
• USSR joined with Western nations out of
necessity against Germany
• After World War II, USSR’s relations with the
West cooled rather quickly
• This resulted in the Cold War which lasted
until the 1990s