CHAPTER 25: WAR & REVOLUTION (1914 – 1919)

Alsace and Lorraine

Alsace and Lorraine

Bismarck’s first concern was to keep France - bitter over defeat and loss of A and L - diplomatically isolated and w/o allies

second concern: threat to peace posed by enormous multinational empires Austria Hungary and RUssia part southeastern EUro where waning strength of Ottoman Empire created threatening power vacuum in disputed border territories of Balkans

William (Wilhelm) II

(1890) new emperor William (Wilhelm) II incautiously dismissed Bismarck part cus disagreed w/chancellor’s friendly policy toward Russia

under William (Wilhelm) II, Bismarsk’s alliance plan unravel

Germany refused renew nonaggression pact w/Russia the centerpiece of Bismarck’s system in spite Russian willingness to do so, move promoted long-isolated republican France to court absolute Russia offering loans, arms, and support ; euro divided two blocks

Triple Alliance

alliance of Austria, Germany, Italy. Italy left alliance when war broke out 1914 on grounds that Austria had launched war of aggression

Dual Alliance

Italy faced increasingly hostile Dual Alliance of Russia and France

Anglo-French Entente

Britain improved often-strained relations w/USA concluded alliance w/Japan (1902) and allied w/France ij Anglo-French Entente of 1903 which settled all outstanding colonial disputes between Britain and France

First Moroccan Crisis

result of First Moroccan Crisis of 1905 was something diplomatic revolution

• Britain, France, Russia and even US began to see Germany as potential threat

• (same time) German leaders began see sinister plots to encircle Germany and block its dev as world power

Triple Entente

alliance of Great Britain, France, Russia prior to and during world war 1

• Russa (1907) battered by disastrous war w/Japan and revolution of 1905 agreed settle quarrels w/in GB in Persia and Central Aisa and signed Anglo-Russian Agreement laying foundation

Dreadnoughts

cus of great size and power heightened international tensions

Militarism

widespread Militarism (popular approval of military institutions and their values) and nationalism encouraged leaders and citizens alike to see international relation as arena for testing of national power w/war if necessary

Universal conscription

in Germany, France, Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Russia only Britain still relied on volunteer army exposed thousands young men each year to military culture and discipline

Nationalism

many believed war glorious, manly, and heroic

• support for military values closely linked to growing sense of popular Nationalism notion that one’s country was superior to all others

• drove spiraling arms race and struggle over colonies

• much of populations ready for war

Archduke Francis (Franz) Ferdinand

• heir to Austro-Hungarian throne

• assassinated by Serbian revolutionaries during state visit to Bosnian capital of Sarajevo

Gavrilo Princip

• after series failed attempts bomb archduke’s motorcade, Gavrilo Princip, fanatical ember of radical group Blank hand short archduke and wife Sophie in automobile

Blank hand

• radical group

“powder keg of Europe”

• in early years l=of twentieth century, war in Balkans “powder keg of Europe” seemed inevitable

• * reasons: (1900-1914) Western powers successfully forced Ottoman ruler give up European territories

• Serbs, Bulgarians, Albanians, otter now sought estab independent nation staes and ethnic nationalism inspired by changing states boundaries destroying Ottoman Empire and threating Austria- Hungary

Bosnia and Herzegovina

to block Serbian expansion, Austria (1908) annexed territories of Bosnia and Herzegovina

• southern part of Austro-Hungarian Empire now included even larger Serbian population

First/Second Balkan Wars

(first, 1912): Serbia joined Greece and Bulgaria to attack Ottoman Empire and quarreled w/Bulgaria spoils of victory

(second, 1913): Bulgaria attacked former allies, Austria intervened and forced Serbia give up Albania, (post centuries) nationalism finally destroyed Ottoman Empire Euro

• encouraged by success against Ottomans, Balkans nationalist increased demands for freedom from Austria-Hungary, dismaying leaders of multinational empire

Ultimatum

(July 23) Austria-Hungary gave unconditonal ultimatum that could violate Serbian sovereignty

Thobald von Bethmann-Hollweg

chancellor of Emperor Willian II realized war b/w Austria and Russia likely, for resurgent Russia wouldn’t stand by and watch Austrians crush Serbs

“blank check”

with hoped German chancellor sent telegram to Austria-Hungary which promised Germany “faithfully stand by” its ally in case of war

• this “blank check” unconditional support encouraged prowar faction in Vienna to take hard line against Serbs at time when moderation might still have limited crisis

Schlieffen Plan

failed German plan calling for lightning attack through neutral Belgium and quick defeat of France before turning on Russia

Total war

war which distinctions between the soldiers on the battlefield and civilians at home are blurred and where the gov plans and controls economic and social life in order to supply armies at front w/supplies and weapons

Erich Ludendorff

termed word total war

• German general

Battle of the Marne

• (sep 6) French attacked gap in German line at Battle of the Marne

• (3 days) France threw everything into attack

• one point: French gov desperately requisitioned all taxis of Paris to rush revenues to front

• finally: Germans feels back and France miraculously saved

Trench warfare

type if fighting used in World War I behind rows of trenches, mines, and barbed wire; cost in lives staggering and gains in territory minimal

Verdun

• (1916) unsuccessful German campaign against Verdun cost some 100000 lives on both sides and ended w/combatants in original positions

• results in (1917) little better

• hard fought battles all fronts: million young men wounded or died no read gain

Battle of the Somme

• great British offensive overtake in summer 9116) northern France exemplified horrors of trench warfare

• battle began weeklong heavy artillery bombardment on German lines, intended cut barbed wire fortifications, decimate enemy trenches and prevent Germans from making effective defense

• (seven days and nights) British artillery fired nonstop on German lines expending 3 million shells

“over the top”

(July 1) British went “over the top” climbing out of trenches and moving into no-man’s land toward German lines, dug into series of ridges about half mile away

Dugouts

Germans fled here

• underground shelters dug deep into trenches where suffered from lack of water, food or sleep

• but survived

Battles of Tannenberg

Germans won major victories repulsing Russian attacks at Battles of Tannenberg at Masurian Lakes in Aug and Sep 1914

Battle of Gallipoli

(1915) British forces tried and failed take Dardanelles and Constantinople from Ottoman turks

• invasion force pinned down beaches ad ten month long battle cost Ottoman 300000 and British 26500 men killed, wounded, or missing

Hussein ibn-Ali

• British more successful at inciting Arabs to revolt against Ottoman rulers

• bargained w/foremost Arab leader Hussein ibn-Ali, cheif magistrate of Mecca, holiest city in Muslim world

• managed in 1915 to win vague British commitments for independent Arab kingdoms

• (1916) rebelled against Turks claiming himself king of Arabs

T.E. Lawrence

• Hussein aided by British liaison officer T.E. Lawrence who 1917 helped lead Arab soldiers in successful guerrilla war against Turks on Arabian peninsula

British Commonwealth

• soldiers from commonwealth embers Canada, Australia, and New Zealand fought with British; those Australia and New Zealand fought w/particular distinction in failed allied assault on Gallipoli

Lusitania

• May 1915: German submarine sank British passenger liner Lusitania claiming more 1000 lives among them 139 US citizens

• pres Woodrow Wilson protested vigorously using tragedy to incite America public opiniion against Germans

• to avoid certain war with United States, Germany halted submarine warfare for almost two years

Rationing

• new gov ministries mobilized soldiers and araments estab rationing programs and provided care for war widows and wounded veterans

• censorship offices controlled war use

War Raw Materials Board

• (soon as war began) Jewish Industrialist Walter Ratheau conviced gov to set up War Raw Materials Board to ration and substitutes raw mareials

• * every useful material from foreign oil to barnyard manure invetoried and rationed

• board launched successful attempts to produce substitues such as synthetic rubber and nitartes for scarce war supples

• food rationed in accordance physical needs

Auxiliary Service Law

• following terrible Battles of Verdun and Somme (19116): German military leaders forced Reichstag accept Auxiliary Service Law which required all males between seventeen to sixty to work only at job critical to the war effort

• women also worked

• ppl lived on little more than 1000 calroies day

Fatherland Party

• wsuport of newly formed ultraconservative Fatherland Party, generals estab military dictatorship

• Hindenburg called for ultimate mobilization of total war

• Germany win only “if all the treasures f sour soil that agriculture and industry can produce are used exclusively for conduct of War,, All other considerations must come second”

Ministry of Munitions

• (post 1915) British Ministry of Munitions organized private industry to produce for war, allocated labor, set wages and price rates, settled labor disputes

• (France) weakened parliament met w/o public oversight and courts jailed pacifists who dared criticize state

Espionage and Sedition Acts

• weakened civil liberties

Labor unions

• need for workers meant greater power and prestige for labor unions

• unions cooperated w/war gov on workplace rules, wages, and production schedules in return for real participation in important decisions

• paralled entry of socialist leaders into war gov

Easter Rising

• armed republican militias took over parts Dublin and proclaimed independent Irish republic

• (post week of fighting) British troops crushed rebels and executed leaders

Duma

• voted to support war (RUssia’s lower house of parliament)

Rasputin

• Tsarina Alexandra arbitarily dismissed loyal political advisers

• turned to court fav, disreputable and unpop Rasputin who uneduc Siberian preacher who influence with tsarina rested on purported ability to heal Alexis (her only son) from hemophilia

Petrograd

• (march) violent street demonstrations broke out in Petrograd (St.Peterburg) spread to factories and engulfed city

• tsar ordered army to open fire n protesters, but soliders refused shoot and joined revolutionary crowd instead

• Duma declared provisional gov (March 12, 1917)

• (3 days later) Nicholas abdicated

February Revolution

unplanned uprisings accompanied by violent street demonstrations begun March 1917 (old calendar Feb) in Petrograd, Russia, that led to abdication of tsar and estab of provisional gov

Kerensky

• new gov formed May (1919) included fiery agrarian socialist Alexander Kerensky who became prime minister July

• he refused confiscate large landholdings and give them to peasants fearing such drastic action complete disintegration of Russia’s peasant army

• for patriotic Kerensky and other moderate socialists; continuation of war = national duty

Provisional government

• human suffering and war weariness grew testing limited strength of Provisional government

• seeing self as true grassroots product product of revolutionary democracy, SOviet acted as parallel gov

• issued own radical orders, weakening authority of Professional revolutionaries

Petrograd Soviet

• huge fluctuating mass meeting of two to three thousand workers, soldiers, and socialist intellectuals modeled on revolutionary soviet of 1905

Professional revolutionaries

• Lenin believed possibility of revolution determined more by human leadership than historical laws

• called for highly disciplined workers’ party strictly controlled by small, dedicated elite of intellectuals and professional revolutionaries

• elite not stop until revolution brought to power

Bolsheviks/Mensheviks

• Russian Marxists split into two rival factions

• Bolsheviks: Lenin’s radical revolutionary party of Marxist socialism which successfully installed dictatorial socialist regime in Russia, “majority group”

• Mensheviks: Lenin’s opps “minority group”

• Lenin kept Bolsheviks name even tho only tenuous majority of single vote for propaganda reasons and they became revolutionary party he wanted; tough, disciplined, led from above

“Peace, Land, and Bread”

• Lenin’s promise of “Peace, Land, and Bread” spoke to expectations of suffering soldiers, peasants, and workers and earned Bolsheviks substantial popular support

• moment for revolution at hand

Leon Trotsky

• Lenin’s supporter (1879-1940), spellbinding revolutionary orator and radical Marxist, brilliantly executed Bolshevik seizure of power

Constituent Assembly

• Bolsheviks proclaimed their regime “provisional workers’ and peasants’ gov” promising that freely elected Constituent Assembly would draw up new constitution

Socialist Revolutionary Party

• (nov) Bolsheviks won only 23% of elected delegates

• Socialist Revolutionary Party (peasants party) had clear plurality with about 40% of vote

• (after constituent assembly met one day) Bolshevik soldiers acting under Lenin’s orders disbanded it

• (Jan 1918) Lenin moved to estab one party state

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Peace treaty signed March 1918 between Central Powers and Russia that ended Russian participation in WW1 and ceded Russian territories containing third of Russian empire’s populations to Central Powers

Whites/Reds

• officers of old army organized so called White opposition to Bolsheviks in southern Russia, Ukraine, Siberia, and area west of Petrograd

• whites came from many social groups and united only by hatred of communism and Bolsheviks - Reds

Civil War

• summer 1918 Russia in full fledged Civil War

• 18 self proclaimed regional gov several which represented minority nationalities challenged Lenin’s gov in Moscow

• (end of year) White armies were on attack

• (Oct 1919) closed in on central Russia from three sides and appeared they might triumph, didn’t tho

War Communism

application of centralized state control during Russian civil war which Bolsheviks seized grain from peasants, introduced rationing, nationalized all banks and industry, and required everyone work

Cheka

• Lenin and Bolsheviks set up fearsome secret police called Cheka dedicated to suppressing counter revolutionaries

• during civil war Cheka imprisoned and executed w/o trail ten of thousands of supposed “class enemies”; victims included clergymen, aristocrats, wealthy Russian bourgeoise, deserters from Red Army and political opponents all kinds

• tsar and fam callously executed July 1918

End Russian Civil War

( spring 1920) White armies almost completely defeated and Bolsheviks retaken much territory ceded to Germany under Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

• Red Army reconquered Belarus and Ukraine both which briefly gained indepdence

• building on success Bolsheviks moved westward into Polish territory but halted on outskirts of Warsaw (Aug 19200 by troops under leadership of Polish field marshal and chief of state Jozef Pilsudski

• defeat halted Bolsheviks attempts spread communism further into Euro tho (1921) Red Army overran independent national gov of Caucasus

• Russian civil war over and Bolsheviks won impressive victory

Spring Offesnive

• (1918) Ludendorff launched extensive attack on french lines

• German armies came within 35 miles of Paris but Ludenorff’’s exhausted overextended forces never broke through

Second Battle of the Marne

• Ludendroff’s exhausted forces stopped July at Second Battle of the Marne where 140000 American soldiers saw action

• late but massive American intervention tipped scales in favor of Allied victory

Kiel

• (nov 3) sailors in Kiel mutinied and throughout northern Germany soldiers and workers estab revolutionary councils like russian soviets

Czechoslovakia

• independent states of Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia and larger Romania were carved out its territory

Yugoslavia

• greatly expanded Serbian monarchy gained control of western Balkans and took name Yugoslavia

Weimar Republic

• (Germany) moderates from Social Democratic Party and liberal allies held on to power and estab Weimar Republic - democratic gov that lead Germany for next fifteen years

• success deep disappointment for Russia’s Bolsheviks who hoped more radical revolution in Germany help spread communism across European continent

Social Democratic Party

• great majority of Marxist politicians in Social Democratic Party were moderates, not revolutionaries

• wanted political democracy and civil liberties and favored gradual elimination of capitalism

• also German nationalists appalled by prospect of civil war and revolutionary terror

• moderate Social Democrats quickly came to terms with army and big business which helped prevent total national collapse

Spartacist Uprising

• radical communists led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg tried seize control of gov in Spartacist Uprising in Berlin (Jan 1919)

Free Corps (Freikorps)

• Liebknecht and Luxemburg arrested and then brutally murdered by Free Corps (Freikorps) soldiers

• (Bavaria) short-lived Bolshevik style republic violently overthrown on gov order by Free Corps (Freikorps

Kapp Putsch

• nationwide strikes by leftist workers and short-lived, right0wing military takeover - Kapp Putsch - repressed by central gov

“stabbed in the back”

• right-winged nationalists including new Nazi party despised gov from start

• spread myth that German army had never actually lost war; instead nation “stabbed in the back” v

Treaty of Versailles

• 1919 peace settlement that ended war between Germany and Allied powers

Idealism

greatly strengthened by US pres Wilson’s jan 1918 peace proposal; 14 points

Woodrow Wilson/Fourteen Points

Wilson’s 1918 peace proposal calling for open diplomacy, reduction in armaments, freedom of commerce and trade, estab of League of Nations and national self-determination

National self-determination

notion that ppls shud be able choose own national gov through democratic majority rule elections and live free from outside interfernce in nation-states with clearly defined borders

Big Three

United States, great Britain, France - controlled conference

• Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia excluded tho land on negotiating table

• Italy had limited role

• reps from Middle East, Africa, East Asia attended as well but concerns largely ignored

Georges Clemenceau & David Lloyd George

• prime ministers Lloyd George of Great Britain and Georges Clemenceau of France unenthusiastic about League

  • primarily concerned w/punishing Germany

Rhineland

• Clemenceau gave up French demand for Rhineland buffer state in return for French military occupation of region for 15 years and formal defensive alliance w/US and Great Britain

Mandates

• germany’s African and Asian colonies given to France, Britain, and Japan as League of Nations mandates or administered territories though germany’s loses within Euro relatively minor thanks to Wilson

Article 231: War Guilt Clause

• article in Treaty of Versailles that declared that Germany (with Austra) solely responsible for war and had to pay reparations equal to all civilian damages caused by fighting

Henry Cabot Lodge

• republican senators led by Henry Cabot Lodge believed treaty gave away Congress’s constitutional; right to declare war and demanded changes in articles

• (failing health) self righteous Wilson rejected all compromise; ensured treaty would never by ratified by US and US never join League of nations

Isolationism

8 new American gospel of Isolationism represented tragic renunciation of internal responsibility

• using US actions as excuse, GB too refused ratify defensive alliance w/France

• France stood alone bitterly betrayed by enemies

Sykes-Picot Agreement

• (1916) named after British and French diplomats

• (secret accord) Britain and France agreed former Ottoman territories would be administered by Euro powers under mandate system

Mandate system

• plan to allow Britain and France to administer former Ottoman territories put into place after end of First World War

Balfour Declaration

• (1917) British statement that declared British support of National Home for Jewish People in Palestine

General Syrian Congress

• Arab nationalist came together in Damascus as General Syrian Congress (1919) and unsuccessfully called again political independence

• congress proclaimed Syria as independent kingdom; similar congress declared Iraqi independence

Mustafa Kemal

• Turkey survived post war invasions

• led by Mustafa Kemal(1881-1938) Turks refused acknowledge Allied dismemberment of country and gradually mounted forceful resistance

• Kemal directed successful Turkish defense against British at Battle of Gallipoli and Turkish army repulsed invaders

Treaty of Lausanne

• recognized territorial integrity of Turkey and solemnly abolished hated capitulations that European powers had imposed over centuries to give citizens special privileges on Ottoman Empire

Influenza epidemic

• another 20 million people died in worldwide Influenza epidemic that followed war 1918

“shell shock”

• countless soldiers suffered from “shell shock”

• now termed post traumatic stress disorder PTSD

• some soldiers received medical treatment, others accused cowardice and shirking and denied veterans’ benefits after war