WWI

1. intro to WWI

• paradox:

  • begininning 20th c, most Europeans believed they were heading for a kind of historical plateau, full of benign progress and abundant civilisation

  • at same time, European states never maintained such huge armies in peacetime as beginning 20th c

• paradox tells us that it was fragile peace and that the states were creating identities and wanted to protect them

local conflict gone global

• Austria-Hungary (dual monarchy): formed in 1867 as result of Austro-Hungarian compromise of 1867 (worked as 2 states but in war and international relations they acted as 1 state)

  • imbalance: German- and Hungarian-speaking groups less than half of the population

  • heightened nationalist sentiment: compromise inspired movements for the restoration of states’ rights in some areas

  • 1908: annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary

    • Greater Serbia aspirations: various cultural associations; including terrorist ones like Black Hand Secret Society (assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo)

  • assassination = direct threat to Austrian stability

• Franz Ferdinand: leader Austria-Hungary in Sarajevo (killed by Bosnian serb of Black Hand Secret Society)

• Austria sends a humiliating ultimatum to Serbia that they can’t possibly comply with

July crisis (chain mobiliisation)

cartoon: Serbia threatened by Austria with ultimatum, Russia defends Serbia because also orthodox (Serbia like little brother Russia), germany defends Austria because allies, france is like what the fuck do you think you’re doing and the last one is UK or USA being like please don’t what the fuck

• war was not favourable for any power (economically inter-dependent; need for soldiers would deplete the industrial workforce) yet diplomacy breaks down

  • ultimatum Austria to Serbia (infringing on Serb sovereignty); Serbia expects invasion so mobilises, Russia also mobilising

  • Austria-Hungary declaration of war on Serbia, Russia mobilises; germany sides with Austria-Hungary and sends Russia an ultimatum to stop mobilisation

  • Germany declares war on Russia and invades Luxembourg as prep for Belgium and France; Brits promise support naval support

  • Germany declares war on Belgium and France and violates international law, by invading Belgium = casus belli (an event or action that justifies or allegedly justifies a war or conflict) for britain and France who enter war

pre-war alliances

• the central powers

  • central Europe dominated by Germany and its weaker cousin Austria-Hungary

  • Italy ceded from earlier Triple alliance with them

  • Also known as quadruple alliance because joined after war began by Bulgaria and Ottoman Empire

• the Allied powers

  • triple entente: a pact between Russia, Great Britain (UK &Ireland) and France

  • reluctant Great Britain: isolationist policy; war had to be declared by parliament

  • Italy, Romania and Greece

    • Italy was member triple alliance but blamed Austria-Hungary for violating the treaty; abandoned neutrality later

    • Romania good economic relations with germany but had eye on Transylvania

    • Greece and Serbia bound by alliance of mutual support; greece neutral until entry Ottoman Empire in war

  • US and Japan

    • Japan hoped to acquire German concessions in China and North Pacific

    • US end neutrality after German sinking British liner Lusitania and german sabotage munition depots in US

• these alliances set the stage for a massive war: any dispute between two members of these blocs could pull in all of the others, as the treaties committed these states to defending their allies

timeline

• 1914: start of WWI

  • Germans violate Belgian neutrality; Great Britain abandons isolationist tradition, enters war with Allied Forces

  • Germans fail to take Paris, trench warfare begins in France

  • Germans defeat Russian offensive East Prussia; take over Poland

  • Ottoman Empire enters war with Central Powers

• 1915

  • Italy enters war on allied side

  • British launch Gallipoli campaign against Ottoman empire

  • German campaign submarine warfare: sinking British ocean liner Lusitania

• 1916

  • German offensive Verdun & Allied offensive on Somme; no breakthroughs

  • Western front: Stale-mate between invading Germans and French/British defenders

  • Eastern front: Germans significant progress against Russia

• 1917: Russian Tsarist system crumbles under war efforts

  • March riots: Strikes, food riots; army sent in to suppress riots; but troops join demonstrators: Tsarist regime replaced by provisional liberal government; commitment to continue war

  • Growing rift: Mensheviks (“minority”) and Bolsheviks (“majority”, more radical) on necessity revolution (vs. gradual reform) and organisation party (mass party vs. leadership party)

  • October revolution: Lenin’s Bolsheviks called for “Peace, Land and Bread” (confiscation of land, redistribution) but provisional government protected private property; Bolsheviks take power; withdraw from WWI (leave capitalist powers to destroy each other + popular support) and attention inwards with civil war

  • Russia withdraws from war, Britain and France low on credit, Germany seems to be gaining upper hand

• 1917: USA enters war

  • public opinon favours neutrality

  • Resistance to war from:

    • Irish Americans (against strenghtening GB; German victory might facilitate Irish independence) and German Americans (fear public opinion would also turn against them)

  • Yet, increasingly, Germany seen as main aggressor in Europe

    • Reports atrocities Belgium (1914); German U-boats + sinking Lusitania (1915)

• 1917: USA enters war: main motives: German activities violate USA neutrality

  • Renewed unrestricted submarine warfare: Germany targets any vessel approaching British waters; attempt to starve Britain into surrender; also targeting American ships

  • Woodrow Wilson (US 28th President) asks Congress for “a war to end all wars”; a war against Germany “to make the world safe for democracy”

    • US declares war on Germany and Austria-Hungary

    • new manpower and resources to Allied Powers

    • 1918: American troops to Europe; breaking stale-mate in France

• 1918

  • Soviet Russia surrenders (Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany); Germany at height of success

  • Woodrow Wilson announces Fourteen Points (proposal for peace)

  • Allied forces break stale-mate in France

  • Armistice (wapenstilstand) November 1918

• 1919-1920

  • Paris Peace Conference deliberations --- Germans sign Treaty of Versailles

a truly global conflict

• war fronts not limited to Europe (Gallipoli, Palestine)

• colonial troops (10 million) (though reluctance to train them because might turn against colonizers so more dirty practical jobs)

2. the blame question: causes and responsibilities for WWI

causes and responsibilities

• Germany often blamed for WWI

  • peace treaty of Versailles: Guilt clause

  • Germany (Hitler) was agressor of WWII; often invoked to also explain te first one

• also carries historical responsibility

  • Germany gave Austria-Hungary blank cheque (we’ll help you without questioning the ultimatum that isn’t really right of you but we’ll fight with you still lol) against Serbia

  • Germany’s aspirations for world hegemony following Franco-Prussian war: industrialisation and growing colonial presences

  • Germans’ fear of encirclement (Russia and France); it’s why they invaded france (and Belgium)

  • Germany’s self-deceit: believed that isolationist GB wouldn’t enter the war

  • Germany’s attempts to solve domestic problems (arising from industrialisation, urbanisation and the arising of a powerful socialist movement) by exporting them

• late 19th c: growing distrust also among other Great Powers

  • France broke out of diplomatic isolation (Franco-Prussian war); renewed economic and mutual defense with Russia; renewed revanchism as germans meddled in colonial affairs

  • British/German rivalry: British angered by German naval construction programme

• growing economic interdependence yet also intensified competition between sovereign national states

  • no internation guarantor to ensure participation in the world economy to all nations under equal conditions

  • international competition (colonialism) for economic and political advantages generated popular support for nationalist ideologies and imperialism

• the real explanation lies with the break-down of the European system of international relations and a return to international anarchy

  1. Vienna congres: lack of attention to nationalist sentiments

  2. break down of the international system: as from 1890s onwards, Germany lost control over balancing great powers

     • renewal international competition through expanionist scrambles (colonial competition)

     • return to European politics centred on (secret) alliances and ententes: alliance system as attempt to bolster individual states’ security; to assure it wouldn’t be cut off, conquered or subjected to another’s will

     • germany as rising power not credible manager

     • cascading effect: local to world conflict

3. the short war illusion: trench warfare and attrition

short war illusion

• belief that war would be of short duration dominated political-military analyses

• facts: one of deadliest conflicts in history (total war, lack of accuracy of artillery), tactical stalemate led to trench warfare, a real war of atrition (uitputtingsoorlog)

• as result of industrial revolution, (military) technologies had changed dramatically

• why mismatch elite expectations and reality WWI

  • military elites felt confident about their enhanced artillery strength (new weapon technology)

  • military elites favoured offensive strategies (glorification Napoleonic war of art and relative peace Europe = limited chances for testing new technologies)

  • yet, new weapon technology

    • favoured offensive strategies (limited capacity to fire and run)

    • equally distributed across different European armies

  • war became protracted as result congruent military strategies

• new innovations later on, yet lack of effective leadership over armies endured

  • germans solved tactical issues not strategic ones; no real change in strategy

  • poor lines of communication (attacks carried where tactical opportunities arose rather than where strategic advantage lay)

conclusion

• after unprecedented global battle, peace settled in Paris 1919

• series of treaties between allied forces and rivalling forces

• Europe found itself in shambles; bolshevik Russian state, impending chaos in Central Europe, and severely weakened populations in rest of Europe

• peace treaties complicated by rivalling conceptions and political interests