WW1 - Practices and Effects

Total War

A new form of war where almost all of a nation was devoted to war, civilians and industries were incorporated into the war effort.

The three theaters of war (where war could be fought)

Land, sea, air

Why did the Schlieffen plan fail?

• Belgium put up stiffer resistance than expected

• Russia mobilized quicker than expected

• British entry into the war, miracle on the Marne

• Hard to maintain supply as the troops got further from Germany.

Miracle on the Marne

The battle of the Marne took place 6-9th September between French, British, and German forces. French reservists were shipped to the battle by taxi, the lack of German supply meant primarily the British force could halt the Germans, forced them to retreat and dig trenches.

Race to the Sea

When it was clear that neither side would achieve a breakthrough on the Western Front (Germany was too strong and had fortified, but the supply was not sufficient deep in France) the sides dug opposing trenches all the way to the North Sea, trying to outflank eachother.

Trench warfare

Opposing sides dig trenches with no man’s land in between, which is often covered with debris and barbed wire. Attempts may be made to storm the opposing trenches, but it is much easier to defend than attack in this form of warfare.

Battles of Ypres, Artois, and Champagne

Attempts to break the trench stalemate in November and December 1914, all failed and resulted in the permanent trench system and stalemate

Battle of Verdun

9 month battle between February and December 1916 in which Germany hoped to capture the town of Verdun; an important fortification and a symbol of French morale. The French army held the town, but casualties were immense on both sides, reaching around 800000 in total.

Battle of the Somme

July 1916-November 1917, the goal was to take pressure off of the defenders of Verdun and prevent Germany from winning the eastern front. No major advancements were made, but 1.2 million men died.

Life in the trenches

Constant bombardment by artillery fire, poor sanitation, wet, damp, and cold, constant sniper fire, corpses left around the soldiers, leading to stress, exhaustion, and shell-shock.

Battle of the Masurian Lakes + Tannenberg

Due to the quick Russian mobilization, Germany had to move their forces east and deal with Russia. Russia had invaded Galicia, but these two battles demolished part of the Russian army and its advance into Germany. It was able to maintain territory in A-H.

Eastern power balance

Germany could defeat Russia due to better logistics and technology despite being outnumbered, but Russia could defeat Austria-Hungary due to the Austrians being largely incompetent

Ludendorff and Hindenburg

Two important German generals, incredibly important for the war effort in the East and eventually the West too

OKH

Oberkommando des Heeres, the German high command, gradually took control of all sectors of the German state during the war transforming the country to a military dictatorship

War on two fronts

Germany had been exposed to its worst nightmare, and still coped incredibly well. The Germans maneuvered very well on the Eastern front to defeat the Russians, but had to constantly save Austria-Hungary from embarrassment. The west was bloody, but did not represent an immediate danger to either side.

Gallipoli campaign

Attempt by the British forces (mainly Australian and New Zealander) to land on the important Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey, and seize the Dardanelles. It was a bloody affair, and ultimately the Brits failed.

Brusilov offensive

Pressured by the UK and France to do something, general Aleksei Brusilov led an offensive against the German lines in July 1916. Although it initially went very well, Germany reacted and aided A-H, halting the offensive and ultimately causing the deaths of a million Russians, and the decline of morale.

The Ottoman Empire joins

31st October 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the war, closing off the Dardanelles strait, which was the main route of shipping between the Western Allies and Russia.

Mesopotamian campaign

The British wanted to seize the oilfields of Iraq and apply pressure to the Ottomans, and hence began from Kuwait and pushed towards Anatolia

Arabian campaign

The British wanted to push through Egypt, into Palestine, and hoped to use the local Arabic population to create effective guerrilla resistance.

The Italian Front

Italy ”switched sides” and joined the Allies in 1915, hoping to gain Istria, Dalmatia, and South Tyrol. It was a mountainous and very standstill front, but took a high toll on both sides, like the western front, and required a high amount of Austrian troops. The Germans and Austrians achieved a breakthrough in 1917, almost reaching Venice, forcing the Allies to pour forces in and push back.

The (two) Russian revolution(s)

First came the February Revolution of 1917, when Russia received a democratic government under Alexander Kerensky. However, rather than sign an offered peace with the Germans, Russia opted to keep fighting, enraging the population who wanted peace. This, and the continued losses and suffering enabled Lenin’s October revolution in 1917. Initially, Germany pushed even further, until the communists accepted a very harsh treaty, the treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

The ceasefire was signed in December 1917, but any hope of quickly getting troops to the West was killed, as the treaty took until March 1918 to negotiate. The treaty was harsh, and Germany gained protectorates in Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic States, and gave parts of the Caucasus to the Ottomans. The need of garrisoning these territories delayed the sending of troops to the West.

Why did the USA join the war?

• unrestricted submarine warfare. This tactic had been successfully employed by Germany until 1915, when the US issued an ultimatum and had them stop, after the sinking of a U.S. civilian ship the Lusitania (which did have military equipment headed for the UK onboard)

• Germany restarted this campaign in April 1917.

• The Zimmermann telegram, sent from Germany to Mexico, asking Mexico to invade the USA and promising rewards for this.

American military capacity

• fleet on par with the British royal navy

• In April 1917 the US had 200000 active military personnel.

• In the next 9 months, 4.3 million men were mobilized.

What additional front that had never been part of war before did total war create?

The home front, as civilians were now part of the war effort, and were considered military targets at times.

How did governments act during total war?

• Nationalisation of key industries

• Legislation to control civilian life

• Large government agencies to oversee management of resources

• Imports of whatever could not be produced domestically

• Increase in war-related production

What was the blockade of Germany?

A naval surface blockade by Britain against Germany during the war. This meant that Germany could not import anything through the North sea, causing over 800000 German civilians to die during the last two years of the war. Some scholars argue this constitutes a war crime.

British civilian life

• Rationing of food, especially while Germany committed to unrestricted submarine warfare, as this tactic did significant damage

• Occasional German bombings, 5000 casualties by the end of the war

Political repercussions

• Communist power in Russia

• Failed communist uprisings in Hungary and Germany (1919)

• German revolution and republic (1918)

• Collapse of Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire

• Nine new nations in Europe (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Austria, Yugoslavia, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, USSR)

• Large revisionist sentiments against the treaties, especially in Germany, Hungary, and Italy.

• Many of the new countries were not consolidated democracies yet, and therefore there were many rivalries between ethnic groups.

Economic repercussions

• Economies ruined all over the world (except the USA)

• Britain spent $23b on the war, France spent $9.3b and Germany spent $19.9b

• Huge loans taken

• Debt incurred, inflation, unemployment

• Great depression 1929

Results for warzone territories

Parts of eastern europe and northeastern France were unusable for years after, for farming or industry.

Social effects

• Women had worked in the factories

• Women worked in traditionally male spheres, earning money

• With economic independence came social independence for women

• As men returned, they were unhappy and wanted their jobs back. Women were fired.

• Women were given the right to vote in many countries to make up for the loss of jobs.

• Loss of aristocratic power

• Stronger trade unions

• Better health and welfare systems

The human cost

• 9 million dead

• millions disabled

• 20% of Frenchmen aged 20-40 in 1914 were now dead

• 20 million died after the war in the Spanish flu

The results for the USA

• Dominant military and economic power in the world

• Successful industries and new technologies

• Wilson’s interventionism was opposed by the people

The Armistice of Compiègne

Agreement signed between Germany and France in November 1918, bringing hostilities to an end on the Western front.

The Big Three

Lloyd George, Clemenceau, and Wilson, leaders of the UK, France, and the USA

Wilson’s goals and 14 points

• Eliminate the causes of war

• Give peoples of Europe self-determination

• Create the League of Nations

• Democratisation

Clemenceau’s aims

• Neuter Germany

• Reparations for French losses

• Alsace-Lorraine, possibly the Rheinland

Lloyd George’s aims

• Removal of German colonies and navy

• German economic recovery and position as bulwark against communism

Italy’s aims

• wanted Istria, parts of Dalmatia, South Tyrol, and Southwestern Anatolia as promised in the 1915 treaty of London.

Japan

Japan wanted German colonies, more influence in China, and a racial equality clause in the covenant of the LoN

German public opinion in 1918-1919

• War did not feel lost, Germany had surrendered before being invaded

• Did not expect a tough peace agreement

• Resulted in the stab in the back myth, that Germany had been winning but was stabbed in the back by the socialist and jewish politicians

Public opinion in Italy, UK, and France

• Thirsty for revenge against Germany

• reparations, territory, the lot

• Bleed germany dry

The Treaty of Versailles

• Germany not part to negotiations, called the treaty a diktat

• The war guilt clause, Germany takes the blame for the war

• Disarmament of Germany → 6 battleships, army of 100000

• Demilitarisation of the West bank of the Rhine

• Occupation by France of the Rhine and the Saarland for 15 years

• Annexations of Alsace-Lorraine, Posen, Memel, North Schleswig and Upper Silesia, areas with significant German populations

• All colonies taken

• Danzig turned into a free city under Polish suzerainty

• The union of Germany and Austria was banned, despite the peoples of both countries supporting it.

• Treaty of Brest-Litovsk undone, independent states supposed to be allowed to exist instead but the Bolsheviks conquered most of the area

The Treaty of St Germain-en-Laye

• Austria recognised as the successor of the Austro-Hungarian empire

• Forced to pay reparations

• Forced to cede Bohemia and Moravia, Dalmatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bukovina, Istria, Trentino, South Tyrol and Galicia

• Army significantly limited

Treaty of Trianon

• Treaty between the entente and Hungary

• Hungary recognised as the successor to the Hungarian government in the A-H empire

• Pay reparations, limit army

• Lose Slovakia, Carpathian Ruthenia, Croatia, the Burgenland, and Transylvania.

• Hungary lost 75% of its territory and 66% of its population, leaving 3 million Hungarians under foreign rule.

Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine

• Treaty between Bulgaria and the Entente

• Ceding North Macedonia, Bobrudja, and Western Thrace

• Paying reparations and army limits

Treaty of Sèvres

• Eastern Thrace and Smyrna to Greece

• Southwestern zone to Italy

• Free Armenia under British protection

• Free Kurdistan and expanded Syria under French protection

• release of Iraq, Palestine, the Hejaz, and all Arabian holdings

• Straits to become international and demilitarised

Mustafa Kemal Pasha

• Turkish nationalist

• Started a Turkish nationalist uprising in Trabzon, fighting the Ottomans, British, French, and Greeks

• British and French decided not to uphold commitments, signed deals, allowing Armenians and Kurds to be massacred

• Greeks defeated, Greeks massacred and burned especially during the Great fire of Smyrna

• Created a successful and stable Turkish state, very effective military and political leader

Treaty of Lausanne

• Turkey gained Eastern Thrace, Istanbul, Smyrna, and some Aegean islands, as well as Armenia and Kurdistan and parts of the protectorates.

• Did not have to pay reparations or have a limited army size.