Course of WWI History Notes

Central Powers vs. Allied Powers

1915 Italy joined AP because they offered more land, 1917 US joined AP, Ottomans (1914) and Bulgaria joined CP

Advantages of Central Powers

central location allowed for superior troop movement, Berlin-Baghdad RR - great transportation, better military - better trained, machinery, and weapons, cut Russian supply lines

Advantages of Allied Powers

naval control - will establish naval blockade, manpower - 40mil against 21mil, access to raw materials due to F, GB, & R imperialism

WWI: 1914

Plan XVII fails as DE does not come through A-L, DE got close to Paris but B of Marne forces DE to retreat, trench warfare develops at Western Front later turns into war of attrition, trenches go from North Sea to Swiss border, Eastern Front - war of movement, Steamroller Offensive does well until B of Tannenberg & B of Masurian Lakes - failure to capture Koenigsberg caused great R losses forcing R into defensive leading to DE going into offensive , R generals - Samsonov and Rennenkampf, DE generals - Hindenburg und Ludendorff

WWI: 1915

Austro-German att. pushes R completely out of DE and A-H, Dardanelles Campaign was launched by W. Churchill - amphibious att. to capture Dardanelles and Constantinople to supply R, failure of multiple attempts cause 252K casualties, as a result Bulgaria joins CP and overruns Serbia with A-H, AP send 500K men to Salonika Greece - Greek holds these men there, Battle of Kut - AP tried to liberate middle east but Ottomans won - AP promised tribes in middle east independence - now fought together against Turks, German colonies were taken very quickly besides German East Africa due to Guerrilla Tactics, DE uses U-boats for restricted submarine warfare until switching to unrestricted submarine warfare when DE and A-H suffer from blockade, Lusitania Affair - GB uses passenger ships to get resources - DE torpedoes Lusitania killing 193 US citizens - DE goes back to restricted sub. warfare as US threatened to join AP, first effective use of: submarines, machine guns, gas warfare, gas masks, airplanes, tanks

WWI: 1916

B of Verdun - Gen. Petain (F) and von Falkenhaxn (DE), Goal was to get a way to Paris, F line bends but never breaks and DE ends up in same spot, B of Somme - GB att. DE to take off pressure from Verdun, first B with tanks, DE line never breaks only bends, B took pressure from Verdun but was a loss for AP, Brusilov Offensive - led by R against A-H to relief pressure off Verdun, was highly successful until DE came, considered AP loss although achieving its goal, as a result A-H was never able to really recover and Romania joins AP, CP take over Romania, B of Jutland - DE att. blockade showing that DE boats were better, DE forced to retreat, considered AP win although greater loss of tonnage

WWI: Home Front

WWI was total war - impacted both civilians and military, 4 concepts arise: 1. centralizing the government - most decision were made without votes, all great powers created small group of advisers or military leaders to make decisions, was easy due to public support, 2. economic regulations - economies turn into war economies - everything supports the war effort, blockade forced DE & A-H to invent substitutes for bombs, butter, and flour which will result in decreasing public support, AP had to ration, 3. propaganda - yellow press continued throughout war causing war hysteria and later resulting in greater punishment for CP, 4. civil liberties - banned all ways to speak out against war to prevent loss of public support, President Wilson tried to get countries together for peace conference but they refused due to win or nothing mentality

WWI: 1917

Czar Nicholas II is overthrown and provisional Gov’t takes over, DE went back to unrestricted submarine warfare gambling to starve GB before US would arrive, Zimmerman letter - intercepted letter from DE to Mexico telling Mexico to keep entertaining US and DE would help gain lost land back, while US prepared AP suffered series of losses, Nivelle Offensive - wrong interpretation of DE retreat caused great F losses resulting in mutinies which are quickly put out by F, GB launch Ypres offensive trying to break Hindenburg Line but line never breaks - causes great AP losses, B of Caporetto - CP push back It forcing them to create second line, 2nd Brusilov Offensive - planned by Provisional Gov’t, R runs out of resources causing DE to go through Baltic States creating fast line to St. Petersburg - causes Bolshevik Revolution - Lenin is dictator - AP do not like this, Lenin meets with DE to get out of war, Lenin releases all secret documents to prove it was a war of imperialism, Wilson releases 14 points: US fight for democracy, US wants empires to break up, US wants fair & open peace, freedom of the seas, world peace, LEAGUE OF NATIONS, CP were not doing well: Ottomans were very weak, Bulgaria experienced war weariness, A-H had new emperor Charles I who was very inexperienced, desertion, DE experiences war weariness due to blockade but war leaders push to not surrender

WWI: 1918

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (DE,R) - pulled R out of war, R will lose Bread Basket: Finland, Poland, Ukraine, Baltic States - DE will give them independence but creates puppet Gov’ts, Ludendorff Offensive - go to Paris before US arrives, leads to 2nd B of Marne - US arrives and DE pushed back to Hindenburg line, Balkan Offensive - Greece joins AP and liberates Serbia together with 500K men from Salonika, Bulgaria, Ottomans, and A-H sign armistice/leave war, Chancellor Prince Max von Baden meets with Wilson and requires 14 points to be part of peace talks to sign armistice and Wilson requires removal of DE Kaiser and creation of democracy, November 11 DE signs armistice, was an unusual war as CP won more B and lost less men but lost the war

Immediate Results of WWI

estimated overall losses: 10mil, AP deaths: 5.5mil, CP deaths: 3.5mil, most civilians died due to blockade, US losses were mostly due to diseases, 30bil property damage, psycological damage/shell shock - lots of soldiers struggle to join back into society, across Europe people question what had happened - extreme politics develop - facism & communism, countries try to avoid conflict - will not react to countries’ aggression