Effects of War- Factors that led to the defeat of Germany and her allies

What factors led to the defeat of Germany and her allies?

What were the 4 factors?

1. Strategic errors

2. Economic factors

3. Entry and role of the US

4. Domestic instability in the Central Powers

Strategic Errors

• germany’s risky military strategy

• allied coordination and “distinctly modern style of warfare”

• british control of the seas

• weak allies (central powers domestic instability more detail)

• german military defeat

• germany not capitalising from Russia’s withdrawal

germany’s risky military strategy

• germany gambled on a quick victory with the schlieffen plan

• plan failed so now they had to face a war on two fronts

• ger also gambled on british involvement by going through belgium

• verdun ‘bleed them white’ strategy failed

• Unrestricted U-boat warfare failed in limiting supplies reaching Allies + added to US join

• zimmerman telegraph intercepted- us op fueled against ger

• ger zeppelin attacks sunk moral ground- propaganda war lost

allied coordination and “distinctly modern style of warfare”

• russia mobilised fast

• brits got a million volunteers by 1914 xmas

• allies counteroffensive (to the Spring/Ludendorff offensive) benefited from a greater coordination of effort and what Becket calls a distinctly “modern” style of warfare.”

• allied military operations in france took advantage of all tech + tactical developments in war

brit control of seas

• blockade on ger helped ‘turnip winter’- lack of food

• brit still able to import food with help of colonies + us (convoy system)

• For John Keegan, in the First World War (1998), the war at sea in the Atlantic was decisive in the outcome of the war. 

Why was the war at sea the most important in deciding the outcome of the First World War?

• Blockades essential in disrupting enemy supplies- which were essential for war effort

• Tactical developments- like allies’ convoy system decided which side would receive their supplies for continued war effort (allies did)

• Sinking of RMS Lusitania (cruise) + resulted loss of civilian lives by germam U-boat shifted public op of US in allies favour- contributed to US joining war

weak allies

• ger hoped aus h could secure balkans (political chaos of empire- strategic liability to ger) “shackled to a corpse”- alliance

• aus h ordered unsuccessful attacks

• uncoordinated soldiers due to multi ethnic languages, translation + disunited

• all ger allies surrendered before ger did

• bulgaria surrender cut off main oil supply from ger

military defeat

• when italy joined allies (treaty of london)- war on 3 fronts

• stalemate meant war of attrition- resources exhausted for both sides (thats why sea was vital to transport resources)

• failure of ger spring offensive defeated morale + lost a million men + supplies

• ger unable to sustain losses after 1918 offensive, + spanish flu

• ludendorff asked for armistice 1918

ger not capitalising from russia’s withdrawal

• treaty of brest litovsk prolongued one million ger soldiers in the east- did not plan for spring offensive as well

• because of russia internal chaos, ger unable to get resources to deal w CHAOS at home

Economic factors

Germany

• played important role in ger defeat: supplies not reaching army (naval blockade) + people ready for a revolution

• naval blockade prevented imports reaching ger

• federal tax system- gov unable to get more money from taxes

• didnt spend enough on civilian sector unlike allies

• agriculture fell by 70%

Allies

• DORA act gave brit gov power over production distribution- used by lloyd george in munitions crisis to distribute to factories

• greater resources

• allied coordination and team effort meant war of attrition

• in long run allies benefited

US entry into war

germany

• zimmerman telegram intercepted (written by ger foreign secretary to mexico proposing a military alliance against US)- americans now saw ger as threat- fuelled their decision to join war

• unrestricted U-boat warfare= primary US motivation to join war

• german trade value w US fell drastically

• US declared war on ger april 1917

• large number of americans arriving daily on western front brought down ludendorff + ger morale

allies

• US troops arrived june 1918 in france

• 2 million soldiered deployed

• US massive economic resources pushed ally victory

• even before joining, US contributed money, weaponry + warships

domestic instability of central powers

• bulgaria sought armistice 25th september

• turkey signed armistice october 1918

• 1918 flour ration in vienna dropped, trains to ger plundered

• battle of vittorio veneto defeated austrians, 3 days later armies signed armistice (multi ethnic countries declared independence)

• october, ludendorff achknowledged need to accept social democrats in ger

• 4th october, new ger gov requested armistice

• kaiser abdicated, new ebert became president

• armistice signed 11th nov 1918