Transcript The Great War: The World in Upheaval EUROPE IN 1914 • • • • • • Described by Barbara Tuchman as the “Proud Tower”, with weak foundations Despite democratic reforms, aristocrats.

The Great War: The World in Upheaval
EUROPE IN 1914
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Described by Barbara Tuchman
as the “Proud Tower”, with weak
foundations
Despite democratic reforms,
aristocrats and wealthy capitalists
in control
No major European war since
1815
Militarily, European nations were
vulnerable only to each other
Socialism calls for international
solidarity of workers
But this ideal conflicts with
nationalistic, patriotic feelings
Causes
of the
War
1. The Alliance System
Triple Entente: Britain,
France, Russia
Triple Alliance:
Germany, AustriaHungary, Italy
The Alliance System
• The major nations of Europe form alliances designed to
provide mutual defense and support if one of the allies is
attacked by another nation (defensive alliance).
• The Dual Alliance (1879) between Germany and Austria
Hungary was designed to protect them against attacks
by Russia. Italy joins in 1882, making it the Triple
Alliance.
• The Triple Entente, a series of agreements between
1904 and 1914 by France, Russia and Great Britain, was
meant to provide security against German attack. The
French were still angry over their humiliating defeat in
the Franco-Prussian War.
Two Armed Camps!
Allied Powers:
Central Powers:
2. Militarism & Arms Race
Total Defense Expenditures for the Great Powers
[Ger., A-H, It., Fr., Br., Rus.]
in millions of £s.
1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1914
94
130
154
268
289
398
1910-1914 Increase in
Defense Expenditures
France
10%
Britain
13%
Russia
39%
Germany
73%
3. Economic & Imperial Rivalries
4. Aggressive Nationalism
Nationalist Aspirations
• Idea of self determination: Every group
with the same language and ethnicity had
the right to have its own nation.
• Nationalist movements lead to the creation
of Belgium (1830), Italy (1861), Germany
(1871).
• Nationalist movements in the Ottoman
empire result in independence of Greece,
Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria.
5.Pan-Slavism: The Balkans
The
“Powder Keg”
of Europe
Pan Slavism in the Balkans
• Austria-Hungary faces nationalist movements
among its Slavic peoples: Poles, Czechs,
Slovaks, Croats and Slovenes.
• Serbia pushes for a unification of all Balkan
Slavic peoples under Serbian leadership.
Sponsors terrorist organization—the Black Hand
• Russia supports Slavic cultural unity, seeing its
role as “the mother of all Slavs”
• Germany supports its ally Austria-Hungary in its
efforts to suppress Slavic nationalism.
The
“Spark”
Archduke Franz Ferdinand &
His Family
The Assassination: Sarajevo: June 28,
1914
The Assassin:
Gavrilo
Princip
Inevitability of war
• June 28, 1914 Archduke
Francis Ferdinand of
Austria assassinated
• July 5, 1914 Germany
issues A-H “blank check”
– pledging military
assistance if A-H goes to
war against Russia
• July 23, 1914 Austria
issues Serbia an
ultimatum
The inevitability of war
• July 28, 1914 A-H
declares war on Serbia
• July 29, 1914 Russia
orders full mobilization
of its troops
• August 1,1914 Germany
declares war on Russia
• August 2, 1914 Germany
demands Belgium declare
access to German troops
The Schlieffen Plan
• Invade France first
and force surrender in
a matter of weeks
• After defeating
France concentrate
on the Eastern front
against Russia
• Avoid fighting a two
front war
“Belgium is a country, not a road”
• King Albert I of Belgium
denied permission
• August 2, 1914 Germany
declared war on France
– Why???
– The Schlieffen Plan!
German troops invade
Belgium
• August 4, 1914 Great
Britain declared war on
Germany for violating
Belgian neutrality
The Schlieffen Plan
The Schlieffen Plan’s
Destructive Nature
• Germany made vast
encircling movement
through Belgium to
enter Paris
• Underestimated
speed of the British
mobilization
– Quickly sent troops to
France
The Schlieffen Plan fails
• Sept 6-10, 1914
– Battle of Marne
– Stopped the Germans
but French troops
were exhausted
– Both sides dug
trenches for shelter
– Becomes a war of
defense
STALEMATE!
1914 – 1915 Illusions and Stalemate
• Many Europeans
were excited about
war
– “Defend yourself
against the
aggressors”
– Domestic differences
were put aside
– Enthusiastic soldiers in
all the nations march
of to war.
1914 – 1915 Illusions and Stalemate
• War would be over in
a few weeks
– Ignored the length and
brutality of the
American Civil War
(a bloody prototype to
World War I)
1914 – 1915 Illusions and Stalemate
• “Fatal attraction of
war”
– Exhilarating release
from every day life
– A glorious adventure
– War would rid the
nations of selfishness
– Spark a national rebirth based on heroism
1914 – 1915 Illusions and Stalemate
• Belief that Modern
industrial war could
not be conducted for
more than a few
months
• “Home by Christmas”
Soldiers Mobilized
14
12
Millions
10
8
6
4
2
0
France
Germany
Russia
Britain
The Western Front:
A “War of
Attrition”
The Western Front
The Trenches
The Trenches
• Trenches dug from
English Channel to
Switzerland (over 400
miles)
• 6 to 8 feet deep
• Both sides
immobilized for nearly
four years
Life in the Trenches
• Elaborate systems of
defense
– barbed wire
– Concrete machine gun
nests
– Mortar batteries
– Troops lived in holes
underground
– Artillery barrages precede
attacks on the enemy
trenches
“Death is everywhere”
• “We all had on us the
stench of dead bodies.”
Death numbed the
soldier’s minds.
• Shell shock
• Psychological devastation
“Death is everywhere”
• A New Weapon is
introduced to achieve a
breakthrough in trench
warfare:
Mustard gas
– Carried by the wind
– Burned out soldier’s lungs
– Deadly in the trenches
where it would
sit at the bottom
Life in the Trenches
• Trench warfare
baffled military
leaders
– Attempt a breakthrough
– Then return to a war of
movement
– Millions of young men
sacrificed attempting the
breakthrough
Verdun – February, 1916
e German offensive.
e Each side had 500,000 casualties.
War Is HELL !!
The Somme – July, 1916
e British offensive
e 60,000 British soldiers killed in one day.
e Over 1,000,000 killed in 5 months.
Siegfried Sassoon, “Attack”
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At dawn the ridge emerges massed and dun
In the wild purple of the glow'ring sun,
Smouldering through spouts of drifting
smoke that shroud
The menacing scarred slope; and, one by
one,
Tanks creep and topple forward to the wire.
The barrage roars and lifts. Then, clumsily
bowed
With bombs and guns and shovels and
battle-gear,
Men jostle and climb to, meet the bristling
fire.
Lines of grey, muttering faces, masked with
fear,
They leave their trenches, going over the
top,
While time ticks blank and busy on their
wrists,
And hope, with furtive eyes and grappling
fists,
Flounders in mud. O Jesus, make it stop!
The Eastern Front
• Much more mobile
more than the West
Germans advance
deeply into Russia
– But loss of life still very
high
– 1915: 2.5 million
Russians killed,
captured, or wounded
The Eastern Front
• Russian army moved
into Eastern Germany
on August 30, 1914
– Defeated at Battle of
Tannenberg and
driven back into
Russia
• The Austrians
defeated in Serbia
• Italians attacked
Austria in 1915
The Eastern Front
• Germany and Austria
Hungary joined by
Bulgaria in Sept. 1915
– Attacked and
eliminated Serbia from
war
Impact of the Russian Revolution
• February Revolution in 1917 forces Tsar
Nicholas II to abdicate the throne.
• Power struggle between the Provisional
government and the Petrograd Soviet of
Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies.
• Vladimir Lenin returns from exile and leads ther
October Revolution in which the Bolsheviks
seize power.
• In the Treaty of Brest Litovsk with Germany in
March, 1918, the Bolsheviks accept harsh terms
and take Russia out of World War I.
America
Joins
the
Allies
The Zimmerman Telegram
The Sinking
of the Lusitania
The Yanks
Are Coming!
The war ends
• 1917 – Russia
surrenders (a
separate peace)
• U.S. joins the war
on the Allied side
• Nov. 11, 1918
Armistice
11 a.m., November 11, 1918
The Armistice is Signed!
The Toll of War
Allied Powers
Central Powers
42 million served
23 million served
22 million casualties
15 million casualties
World War I Casualties
10,000,000
9,000,000
8,000,000
7,000,000
6,000,000
5,000,000
4,000,000
3,000,000
2,000,000
1,000,000
0
Russia
Germany
Austria-Hungary
France
Great Britain
Italy
Turkey
US
The Home Front: Total War
• Limits on individual freedom.
• Government control of the war
economy: production quotas
and wage and price controls
• Shortage of male labor brings
women into the war industries.
• Censorship and Propaganda
War news censored
– Public is not told about high
death toll
– Romanticized the battlefields
– Enemies portrayed as savage
beasts
The Home Front
• Women took war factory
jobs
• Received lower wages
than males
• Food shortages made
running a household
difficult
• War effort of women
leads to their getting the
vote in many nations
(except France). after the
war.
Munitions Workers
German Women Factory Workers
A Woman Ambulance Driver
The War of the
Industrial
Revolution:
New
Technology
French Renault Tank
U-Boats
The Airplane
“Squadron Over the Brenta”
Max Edler von Poosch, 1917
The Zeppelin
Poison Gas
Machine Gun
Turkish Genocide Against Armenians
A Portent of Future Horrors to Come!
The Treaty of Versailles
June 1919
Woodrow Wilson USA
David Lloyd-George Great Britain
The Big Four
Georges Clemenceau France
Vittorio Orlando Italy
The Big Four at Versailles in 1919
What did France want from the
treaty?
Security
Revenge
Reparations
Clemenceau : The
Tiger
Clemenceau wanted to make sure
that Germany could not invade
France in the future. He was
determined that Germany should be
made to pay for the damage that had
been caused in northern France by
the invading German armies.
What did Britain Want?
In public Lloyd-George said he
wanted to punish the Germans. The
British public was very anti-German
at the end of the war.
In private he realised that Britain
needed Germany to recover
because she was an important
trading partner.
David Lloyd-George
He was also worried about the
“disease from the east”,
communism. The Russian
government had been overthrown
by a communist revolution in 1917.
Lloyd-George believed that the
spread of communism had to be
stopped. A strong Germany would
be a barrier against it.
What did America Want?
Woodrow Wilson wanted the treaty to be
based on his Fourteen Points
He believed Germany should be punished
but not severely. He wanted a just
settlement that would not leave Germany
feeling resentful
Wilson wanted to set up an international
organisation called The League of
Nations which would settle disputes
Woodrow Wilson
The American public did not support him.
They were fed up with involvement in
European affairs. The USA became more
isolationist.
What were the terms of the Treaty of Versailles?
Germany’s armed forces :
The German army was to be reduced to 100,000 men. It was
not allowed to have tanks.
Germany was not allowed an air force
The area known as the Rhineland was to be de-militarised
The Allies were to occupy the west bank of the Rhine for
fifteen years
The German navy was to have no submarines or large battleships
Territorial Losses
Germany lost ALL of her overseas
colonies
Mandate system puts France and Great
Britain in control of former colonies of
Germany and the Ottoman Empire.
Angers Arabs, who fought for
indedpendence.
Alsace-Lorraine was given to
France
Posen was given to Poland so that she
would have access to the Baltic Sea.
This area became known as the Polish
Corridor. It meant that East Prussia
was cut off from the rest of Germany.
The Rhineland was to be demilitarized
The Saar coalfields were given to
France for fifteen years
The port of Danzig was made a Free City
under the control of the League of Nations
The War Guilt Clause
"The Allied and Associated Governments
affirm, and Germany accepts, the
responsibility of Germany and her Allies for
causing all the loss and damage to which the
Allied and Associate Governments and their
nationals have been subjected as a
consequence of a war imposed upon them
by the aggression of Germany and her
Allies."
Article 231
GERMANY ACCEPTED
RESPONSIBILITY FOR
STARTING THE WAR
REPARATIONS
Germany agreed to pay for the damage
caused by her armies during the war. The
sum she had to pay was later fixed at
£6,600 million
Germany was forbidden to unite with Austria
How did Germans React to the Treaty?
Germans thought the Treaty was a “diktat” : a dictated peace.
They had not been invited to the peace conference at Versailles
and when the Treaty was presented to them they were
threatened with war if they did not sign it.
The Treaty was NOT based on Wilson’s Fourteen Points as the
Germans had been promised it would.
Most Germans believed that the War Guilt Clause was
unjustified. The French and British had done just as much to
start the war
The loss of territory and population angered most Germans who
believed that the losses were too severe.
Many Germans believed the German economy would be crippled
by having to pay reparations.
The Treaty of Versailles was signed on 28th June 1919. It
officially ended the 1st World War. Many historians believe
that it was a major cause of the 2nd World War.
Most Germans were horrified by the harshness of the
Treaty. There was anger amongst all groups in Germany,
no matter what their political beliefs. Some German
newspapers called for revenge for the humiliation of
Versailles.
However anger was also directed against the government
in Germany. Already there was a myth growing in the
country that the German army had been “stabbed in the
back” by politicians…the so called “November Criminals”.
Now these same politicians had signed the “Diktat”, the
dictated peace. The new democracy in Germany was now
closely linked with the humiliation of Versailles.
The Legacy of the Great War
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Breakup of three empires: Russian, Austrian and Ottoman
New independent nations: Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Poland, Latvia,
Lithuania, Estonia
Turkey a separate nation under President Mustapha Kemal.
Origins of the current Middle East conflict: Mandate system—France in
Syria and Lebanon; British in Iraq and Palestine
British make conflicting promises to Arabs and Jews (Balfour Declaration,
1917 promises a Jewish homeland)
The first successful communist revolution in Russia, inspires revolutionary
movements throughout the world
Europe in relative decline; the United States and Japan become great
powers (the “American Century”)
Uncivilized behavior of Europeans encourages anti-colonial movement
The technological advances in warfare are transferred to civilian life
Resentment in Germany and Italy leads to the rise of fascism and Nazism
Psychological and Social impact
• Public bitterness towards political and
economic elites that produced the war
• The “lost generation” of alienated young
people
• The “jazz age” rejection of the old values”
Innovation in art, literature, dress,
manners, music