Russian War + World War 1

Russian Revolution (1917)
Socialism = the belief that the economy should be controlled by society, either directly or through the government
Nicholas ll became czar in 1884
Russo-Japanese War (1904) = defeat for Russia in this war led to political istability
Russia in WW 1
Suffered harsh defeats
Shortages of both food and weapons
Alexandra = Czar Nicholas ll’s wife
Both the Czar and his wife = very unpopular because they were politically incompetent
and foolish
The March Revolution of 1917
Czar Nicholas ll abdicted (gave up) his power on March 15, 1917
Provisional Government = temporary central government in Russia after the Czar stepped down
Russian masses wanted 3 things:

1. Immediate peace and withdrawl from WW1
2. Transfer of land to the peasants
3. Control of factories by workers
   Bolsheviks = radical revolutionary group in Russia Wanted a socialist society in Russia
   Led by Vladimir Lenin
   Slogan = “Peace, Land, and bread!”
   Russian Revolution
   November 1917
   Bolsheviks claimed absolute power
   Bolshevik Party = officially renamed the Communist Party in March 1918 Lenin’s 1st order of business = get Russia out of WW1

Russian Civil War
1918 - 1921
Communists vs their political opponents
From 1914 - 1921 = 27 million Russians had died
1922 = Russia becomes USSR = Union of Soviet Socialist Republics = the Soviet Union
Joseph Stalin
Ruled the Sviet Union from 1929 - 1953
By 1900 = Europeans and people with European ancestry largely controlled the entrie world through their formal empires or informal influence
Itallian Unification
1st King of United Italy = Victor
German Unification
Last Major European power to unify
Otto Van Bismark = Prime Minister of Prussia
Wanted strong government and army → Unification would comes through “blood and
iron”
Unified in 1871
1st Kaiser = Wilhelm l
Main Causes of WW1
Miliarism
Alliances
Imperialism
Nationalism
European = Imperialist rivalries since 1800s
Nationalism had unified Germany and Italy and was becoming more and more popular In Austrian Empire = Nationalism was creating the most violent tensions in Europe Many Slavic people = in the Balkins = region once controlled by the Ottoman Empire Militarism = glorification and expansion of the military
Alliance systems = Defense agreements among nations
2 Major Aliiance Systems:

• Triple Alliance = Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Italy
• Triple Entente = Great Britain, Russia, and France
  The Spark of WW1
  June 28, 1914 = Archduke Francis Ferdinand was assassinated
  July 28, 1914 = A-H declared war on Serbia
  Germany gave Russia and France an ultimatum = stop mobilizing or face war August 1914 = Germany invades Belgium in order to get France
  This led Great Britain to declare war on Germany
  Response of the People
  People in every country responded with patriotic enthusiam
  Worldwide Involvement = First time in world history that all major nations were involved in a war
  Naval warfare = battles between the British and German navies were common Germans used U-boats = submarines

New weapons = Machine guns, Tanks, Airplanes, Poison Gas Trench Warfare
Febraury 6, 2023
Used on the Western Front
Complex System of trenches and tunnels
The space between the trenches = “No Mans’s Land”
WW1 became a war of attrition = tryin to wear down the other side with constant attacks
WW1 = “Total War”
Total war = countries invloved used every resource available for the war effort On the home front = people mobilized resources for the military front
In WW1 = 2 Theaters
Western and Eastern Front
Schlieffen Plan = Germany’s military plan to avoid war on 2 fronts
Plan = go into France through Belgium and conquer France, THEN turn back around
through Germany to get to Russia Stelemete on the Western Front
Both sides continuedto fight with neother side making any real progress
Verdun - February 1916
Each side had more than 500,00 Casualties
The Somme - July 1916
1.1 Milioin left dead
July of 1918
The US sent 2 million American troops to help the French there
Fresh Americans = deciding factor in the war
The Eastern Front
Didn’t use trench warfare
1914 -1917 = Russia continued to suffer harsh defeats by the german armies
1917 = the US declared war on Germany
Germans used unrestricted submarine warfare = subs attacked without warning and
attacked commerical ships also Subs = “U-boats”
1915 =a U-boat sank an American passenger liner = the Lusitania
1200 killed - 128 Americans
The Zimmerman Telegram
Said that if Mexico supported Germany in the War, then Germany would help Mexico get land it lost to the US in the Mexician - American War
US believed the world would be a better place if the Allies won
Significance of the US in WW1
Marked America’s emergance as a world power →evenually led to world leadership November 9, 1918 = Kaiser abdicted and a German republic was proclaimed November 11, 1918 = Germans signed an armistice = agreement to end the fighting