chapter 33 | the great war: the world in upheaval

THE DRIFT TOWARD WAR

  • catalyst for war, assassination of archduke francis ferdinand

    • heir to throne of austo-hungarian empire

    • killed by serbian nationalist

  • underlying causes for war

    • intense nationalism

    • frustrated national ambitions and ethnic resentments

    • pursit of exclusive economic interests

    • abrasive colonial rivalries

    • general struggle over balance of power in europe and the world

  • two hostile alliances, the allies and the central powers

NATIONALIST ASPIRATIONS

  • french revolution and napoleonic conquests spread nationalism throughout europe

  • nationalism has ideas that people had the same ethnic origins, language, and political ideas

  • self-determination: belief popular in world war i and after that every people should have the right to determine their own political destiny; the belief was often cited but ignored by the great powers

  • denied national autonomy to germans, italians, belgians, and others

    • belgian gained independence from netherlands 1830

    • italy unified 1861

    • germany unified 1871

  • nationalism tore apart ottoman, habsburg, and russia dynasties

  • european powers (mostly austria and russia) shrunk ottoman empire

    • plus nationalist revolts from the subjects

  • pan-slavism: 19th century movement that stressed the ethnic and cultural kinship of the various slav peoples of eastern and east central europe and that sought to unite those peoples politically

    • supported slav nationalism in austria-hungary

    • wanted to weaken austrian rule so russians could take over

NATIONAL RIVALRIES

  • economic competition and colonial conflicts between european powers

    • biggest between britain and germany

  • germany’s rapid industrialization threatened britain

THE NAVAL RACE

  • naval power important in securing trade routes and merchant shipping

  • germans made huge battleships, so british got angry and made huge battleships

  • dreadnought: a class of british battleships whose heavy armaments made all other battleships obsolete

    • high speed, steam turbines

  • germans made dreadnoughts as well, increased tensions between the two nations

COLONIAL DISPUTES

  • europeans searched for new lands to colonize and frequently ran into each other

    • britain and russia in persia and afghanistan

    • britain and france in siam and nile valley

    • britain and germany in africa

    • germany and france in morocco and africa

  • britain vs germany and france vs germany most dangerous

  • germany was more behind in unification than anywhere else so they wanted more

  • britain and france already had a lot of colonies

  • french and germany in morrocco

    • germans supported moroccan independence, put france in a bad light

    • france threatened war

  • balkan wars

    • fought two wars for possession of ottoman european territory

PUBLIC OPINION

  • european societies had citizens who politically particiapted and wanted to be better than other nations

  • wanted their country to “come in first”

  • newspapers, pamphelts, and books

    • aggressive patriotism

UNDERSTANDINGS AND ALLIANCES

  • countries go to war to support one another

  • framework where one small international crisis could set off a global war

  • europe’s major powers in two hostile camps

    • triple alliance

    • triple entente

THE CENTRAL POWERS

  • also known as the triple alliance

  • central powers: world war I term for germany, austria-hungary, and ottoman empire alliance

  • 1879, two empires formed dual alliance to protect from russian attack

  • fear of france made germany join pack

    • austrians could pursue balkan politics without russian intervention

  • 1882, italy joined dual alliance in fear of france

  • italy declared war on ottoman empire in 1911, strained alliance

THE ALLIES

  • france wanted to crush germany because of their defeat in the franco-prussian war

  • russia and britian suspicious of central powers too

  • triple entente: alliance between france, russia, and britain, commonly referred to as the allies

  • first between britain and france, then britain and russia

  • signed military pact

WAR PLANS

  • french military strategy, plan xvii

    • gave no thought to amount of casualties

  • german military strategy, schlieffen plan

  • schlieffen plan: called for swift knockout of france, then defensive action against russia

    • russians couldn’t move their supplies and soldiers as quick as the france

    • logistical problems

      • move 180K soldiers + supplies into france by 500 trains with 50 wagons each

GLOBAL WAR

  • workers met with shock and fear

  • intellectuals and city livers met with euphoria

    • expected war

    • saw as release of pressure from building crises

  • crowds dancing and happy with declarations of war

  • governments went to dictatorial control for continous war

  • increased women in labor force

  • asians, africans entered into war

  • later, japan, us, and ottoman empire entered war

THE GUNS OF AUGUST

  • gavrilo princip, assassinated austrain archduke francis ferdinand

  • black hand: pre-world war i secret serbian society; gavrilo princip, assassinated austrian archduke francis ferdinand, provided spark for great war

    • dedicated to unification of all south slavs (yugoslavs) to form greater serbia

    • obstacle was austro-hungarian empire

DECLARATIONS OF WAR

  • 23 july, austrians wanted to teach serbs a lesson, so they gave them an unacceptable ultimatum

    • declared austrian officials would be included in investigation of people associated with the archduke’s assassination

    • austrians denied it

  • 28 july, austria-hungary declared war on serbia

  • complex mobilization plans and logic of alliance system

    • precise military timetables for war to be successful

  • 29 july, russia defended serbia from austria

  • russia mobilization against germany

  • 31 july, german ultimatium to russia that they cease mobilization

  • german ultimatium to france to know what their intentions were if germany and russia were in war

  • 1 august, germany declared war on russia, france mobilized

  • 3 august, germany declared war on france

  • germans invaded belgium with schlieffen plan

    • belgium neutral, denied germany’s permit to pass through to attack france

  • 2 august, british ultimatium to germany that belgium’s neutrality be respected

    • germany denied, british declared war

MUTUAL BUTCHERY

  • expected war to be quick

  • “god is with us” germany

  • “god and tsar” russia

  • “for god, king, and country” britain

  • americans wanted to make world safe for democracy

  • military strategies concerned with sweeping assults, envelopments, and swift triumphs

THE WESTERN FRONT

  • german “race to the sea” to atlantic coast

  • three years, battle remained stationary

  • continous damage and casualties to opposing side, only to have the same outcome

  • trenches ran from english channel to switzerland

  • italy left triple alliance for neutrality, but joined war on allies side

    • allies promised to cede italy austro-hungarian territories if they won

STALEMATE AND NEW WEAPONS

  • stalemate: a situation in which further action or progress by opposing or competing parties seems impossible

    • on western and southern fronts

  • barbed wire, rapid machine guns

  • no-man’s-land: territory between opposing trenches

  • developed weapons to break stalemate

  • poisonous gas used by germans in jan 1915

  • mustard gas: liquid agent, when exposed to air, turned into noxious yellow gas

    • rotted body from inside out

  • tanks and airplanes

  • british tanks sept 1916

    • break down defensive trenches to restore fighting

  • planes used to locate enemies or observe

  • submarines

NO-MAN’S-LAND

  • shell craters, cadavers, body parts

  • waist-deep mud, corpse-fed rats

THE EASTERN FRONT

  • austrian/german forces overran serbia, albania, romania

  • russia invaded prussia, 1914

    • 1915, german/austrians drove them out, established defensive line

  • russian defeats made tsar look bad

    • revolutionary ideas in russia

BLOODLETTING

  • 1916, germans tried to enter fortress of verdun

  • bloodiest battle of the war

    • 315K french dead

    • 290K germans dead

    • less than 160K identifiable bodies

      • exploded or sucked into the mud

  • british attacked at the somme

    • 420K casualties

NEW RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

  • civilians targets of warfare

  • aug 1914, german bomb targeted parisians

  • blockades to deny food to populations

    • hoped starvation would force government to surrender

    • british killed 500K germans

TOTAL WAR: THE HOME FRONT

  • helmuth karl von moltke, former chief of prussian general staff

    • said nation’s defeat would be acknowleged once the people’s strength was broken

  • fought between entire societies

  • home front: civilian “front” that was symbolic of the greater demands of total war

    • support war effort

THE HOME FRONT

  • war weariness and decline in economic capability

  • give control of society to military leaders

  • militarized civilian war production

    • giving private enterprises to government control

    • severe discipline on labor process

  • demands for raw materials and manufactured goods

  • reorganized industries, set production quotas and priorities

  • government established wage and prices, extended work hours, restricted movement of workers

  • extended ages of military service

  • demand for workers at home

WOMEN AT WAR

  • women fill in gaps in workforce

  • patriotism and high wages

  • took over farms and businesses left by their husbands

  • postal workers, police officers

  • nurses, physicians, communications clerks

  • making of shells

  • women died from explosions of flammable materials

  • worked with tnt explosives

    • caused severe poisoning

  • knew they were important to war effort

  • still gaps between men and women wages

  • voting for women

    • britain 1918

    • germany 1919

    • austria 1919

  • russia and chinese governments discouraged patriarchal families, supported sexual equality and birth control

PROPAGANDA

  • restriction of civil liberties, censorship of bad news, criticism of enemies

  • those who criticized their nation were prosecuted as traitors

    • jospeh caillaux publically suggested france should compromise with germany, sentenced to prison

  • dehumanized the enemy

    • germans saw russians as semi-asiatic barbarians

  • london claimed germans converted corpses of humans into fertilizer and food

  • germans showed besital black allied soldiers raping german women to show what would happen if the war failed in their favor

CONFLICT IN EAST ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

  • european governments brought their colonies into the wars

  • recruited men from colonies

    • millions of africans and asians

  • japan, us, and ottoman empire entered the war

JAPAN’S ENTRY INTO THE WAR

  • 15 aug 1914, sent ultimatum to germany to hand over territory of jiaozhou (northeastern china) to japan without compensation

    • demanded german navy withdraw warships from chinese and japanese waters

  • 23 aug, entered war on allies side

  • took possession of german-held islands in pacific

  • helped by new zealand and australia

THE TWENTY-ONE DEMANDS

  • japan advanced imperial interests in china

  • 18 jan 1915, japan gave chinese government 21 secret demands

    • would’ve made china a protectorate of japan

  • chinese confirm the japanese seizure of shandong from germany

  • grant japanese industrial monopolies in central china

  • place japanese overseers in key government positions

  • give japan joint control of chinese police forces

  • restrict their arms purchases only with the approval of the tokyo government

  • accepted most

  • china leaked note to british authorities

    • spoke up for china

BATTLES IN AFRICA

  • allies targeted german colonies in africa

  • germans controlled togoland, the cameroons, german southwest africa, and german east africa

  • togoland fell to anglo-french force

  • allied force was british, portuguese, french, belgian, indian, arab, and african troops

  • germs more deadly than germans

GALLIPOLI

  • southwest asian territories of the ottoman empire, aligned with central powers

  • winston churchill, first lord of britsh navy, suggest allied strike against the ottomans would hurt the germans

  • british and french navy seized dardanelles strait to open entry to russia through ottoman territory

    • not successful

  • fight at beaches of gallipoli peninsula

    • english, canadian, austrailian, new zealand forces on beach, turkish defenders on cliffs above

    • 250K casualties on each side

    • long-term consequences

    • weakened imperial ties because of the casualties

  • mustafa kemal helped form modern turkish state

ARMENIAN MASSACRES

  • christian last major non-muslim group under ottoman rule, they seeked independence

  • ottoman’s new policy of turkish nationalism stressed turkish culture and traditions

    • christian minorities an obstacle in turkism

  • seen as traitorous internal enemy

  • mass evacuations, starvation, dehydration, exposure

  • mass drowning, incineration, or assault

THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

  • after gallipoli and mesopotamia, retreated on all fronts

  • turkish unable to defend against british armies

  • attacked from arab revolt against the turks

  • 1916, nomadic tribes of arabia rose up against turkish rule

    • wanted independence from ottoman empire

    • british didn’t keep promise of arab independence after war

  • sykes-picot treaty: between britain and france to russia, defined their future spheres of influence and control in southwest asia in the aftermath of their victory in the war

    • divided arab provinces of ottoman empire outside peninsula into areas of british and french control

  • balfour declaration: british declaration from 1917 that supported the creation of a jewish homeland in palestine

THE END OF THE WAR

  • coped with food riots, strikes, and mutinies

  • romanov dynasty forced to abdicate for provisional government

  • bolshevik revolutionaries took russia out of the war 1918

  • united states enters conflict 1917

  • 1919, allies victorious

    • peace settlement

  • europe’s role decreased in world affairs

    • undermined europe’s power

    • promoted nationalist aspirations for colonized peoples

REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA

THE FEBRUARY REVOLUTION

  • tsar nicholas ii abdicated the throne

  • romanov dynasty disappeared

  • march revolution 1917, unplanned and incomplete

THE STRUGGLE FOR POWER

  • political power in russia went to provisional government and petrograd soviet of workers’ and soldiers’ deputies

  • soviets: revolutionary councils organized by socialists, appeared during russia revolution of 1905

    • control of factories and military

  • march-november, struggle between government and soviet

  • gov disbanded tsarist police, repealed all freedom limitations, abolished discriminitory laws, failed to end war or for land reform

    • “couldn’t make fundamental changes”

    • continue war until victory

  • soviet called for immediate peace

LENIN

  • vladimir ilyich lenin, revolutionary marxist who had been living in exile in switzerland

  • brother hung due to plans to assassinate tsar

  • viewed working class as incapable of revolutionary consciousness

    • thought they needed a leadership from a disciplined party, a workers’ vanguard

  • bolsheviks: the radical wing of the russian social democratic party

  • converted bolsheviks to fight for transfer of legal authroity to soviets and opposition to the war

THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION

  • bolsheviks gained control of the petrograd soviet

  • provisional government wanted to continue the war, weren’t able to feed the population, and refused to undertake land reform

  • bolsheviks slogans “all power to the soviets” and “peace, land, and bread”

  • army to seize power went to provisional government

  • 7 nov, passed power to lenin

  • “ten days that shook the world”

  • wanted to destroy traditional patters and values, challenge liberal society

TREATY OF BREST-LITOVSK

  • ended russia involvement in the great war by signing treaty with germany

  • gave germans control of a lot of russia’s territory and ¼ of its population

  • russia could deal with internal struggles

US INTERVENTION AND COLLAPSE OF THE CENTRAL POWERS

  • 1917, us entered the war for the allies

  • originally neutral but favored the allies, then wanted allied victory

ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS

  • us economy dipped first two years

  • dependent on war material sale

  • relied on selling supplies to allies, so neutrality would overall hurt them

  • allies took out loans with american bannks

SUBMARINE WARFARE

  • feb 1917, us decided to enter war after germany restarted unrestricted submarine warfare

  • germany calculated that submarine fleet would end britain in about 6 months

  • sank merchant ships without warning, against law

  • sunk ship lusitnia

    • killed 1198 lives

      • 128 americans

    • carried 4200 cases of ammunition

    • traveled through war zone

  • zimmerman telegram: diplomatic proposal for mexico to join central powers in the event of the us entering world war i on the triple entente side

    • mexico rejected proposal

AMERICA DECLARES WAR

  • president woodrow wilson

  • 2 april, congress adopt a war resolution

  • 6 april 1917, us declared war against germany

  • broke stalemate

COLLAPSING FRONTS

  • great easter rebellion: unsuccessful attempt to overthrow british rule in ireland

  • central powers suffered from food shortages due to british blockade

  • goverments jailed and beat strikers and those in food riots

  • german sailors revolted 1917 and 1918

  • french soldiers lost confidence, refused to attack 1917

  • germany started to focus on western front, 1918

    • failed, allies pushed germany back

  • 4 nov, austria-hungary surrendered

  • 11 nov 1918, germans accepted truce

AFTER THE WAR

  • left people dead, disabled, orphaned, or homeless

  • 15 million killed, 20 million wounded

  • starvation, malnutrition, epidemic diseases

THE INFLUENZA PANDEMIC OF 1918

  • mid 1919

  • left 20 million dead, mostly young adults

  • spanish flu, occured in spain first 1918

  • great war traffic contributed to spread due to constant travel

THE PARIS SETTLEMENT

  • conference to arrange postwar settlement for defeated nations

  • georges clemenceau, lloyd george, and woodrow wilson

    • representatives of france, britain, and the us

  • allies didn’t let central powers representatives participate

    • said they’d restart the war if agreement wasn’t accepted

  • soviet union not invited

WILSON’S FOURTEEN POINTS

  • woodrow wilson wanted a postwar peace settlement

  • wanted central powers to accept his fourteen points

    • open agreements of peace

    • absolute freedom of navigation on seas in peace and war

    • removal of all economic barriers and equal trade conditions among all nations

    • guarantees for reduction in military weapons

    • colonial dispute equal weight to interests of controlling government and population

    • call for “general association of nations”

THE PEACE TREATIES

  • french wanted destruction of german power

  • germany had to take responsibilty and guilt for causing the war

  • treaty of versailles: denied germans navy and air force, limited size of army to 100K troops

  • germany and austria couldn’t form a political union

  • central powers must pay for war cost

  • treaty of neuilly

  • austria-hungary unity fell under war

  • treaty of st germain and treaty of trianon

    • recognized austria-hungary’s breakup

  • hungarian territory decreased and took 20 M from 28 M population

  • treaty of sevres: dissolved ottoman empire, called for surrender

    • sultan didn’t like it but turkish nationalists did

  • allies recognized republic of turkey in the treaty of lausanne

ATATURK

  • aka mustafa kemal, president of the republic

  • modernization for economic development and secularism

  • secularism: separation of religion from civil affairs

  • government support of industries

  • secular insitutions of education and justice, emancipation of women + right to vote, adoption of european law, hindu-arabic numerals, roman alphabet, western clothing

  • germany wanted to expand prewar, didn’t

  • peace settlement was actually a 20 year truce

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS

  • forerunner of the united nations, the dream of american president woodrow wilson, potential limited due to refusal of the us to join

  • created to maintain world peace

  • had no power to enforce decisions

  • relied on collective security as a tool for global peace

    • aggression towards one state was aggression towards all

  • us senate rejected idea to join

  • germany viewed league as club of allied victors

  • japan saw it as imperialism and left the league

  • italy left because they got in trouble for their imperial adventures in ethopia

  • soviet union saw it as tool of global capitalism, joined, them got expelled

SELF-DETERMINATION

  • wilson felt self-determination was key to international peace and cooperation

  • self-determination: the process by which a country determines its own statehood and forms its own allegiances and government

THE MANDATE SYSTEM

  • tried to apply self-determination and nationality in europe, nowhere else

  • us rejected establishment of old-fashioned colonies

  • europeans came up with trusteeship

  • league of nations referred to land used to be owned by central powers as areas “inhabited by peoples not yet able to stand by themselves under the strenuous condiitons of the modern world”

  • mandate system: system that developed in wake of world war i when former colonies ended up mandates under european control, a thinly veiled attempt at continuing imperialism

  • promised arabs independence, mandate system violated that

CHALLENGES TO EUROPEAN PREEMINENCE

  • european power and prestige weakened, process of decolonization

  • nationalism rose in european colonies, they wanted independence

WEAKENED EUROPE

  • due to economic decline

  • loss of overseas investments and foreign markets

  • us used to owe a lot of money to europe, but they got it together

  • weakening grip on colonies

  • europe seemed weak, divided, and vulerable

REVOLUTIONARY IDEAS

  • revolutionary ideas in the colonies from war

  • due to the fourteen points and concept of self-determination