S3 History Lesson Notes - Topic 9: The First World War

Characteristics of a World War

  • Global Scale and Continental Reach:
    • Involved numerous nations spanning across multiple continents, including Europe, Asia, Africa, and others.
  • Devastating Human Toll:
    • Resulted in millions of military and civilian casualties.
  • Total War Mobilisation:
    • Mobilised all national resources—economic, industrial, social, and military—under the total war doctrine.
  • Employment of Modern Weaponry:
    • Deployed advanced industrialized armaments, including tanks, battleships, fighter aircraft, rapid-fire machine guns, and poison gas.
  • State-Controlled Political Propaganda:
    • Implemented systematic propaganda campaigns using media such as posters and leaflets to maintain home-front morale and demonise the enemy.
  • Post-War Accountability:
    • Convened post-war military tribunals to prosecute and punish war criminals.

European Political Situation at the End of the 19th Century

  • The Franco-Prussian War (1871) and German Unification:
    • In 1871, Prussia defeated France in the Franco-Prussian War, leading to the unification of Germany and the establishment of the German Empire.
    • France was compelled to cede Alsace-Lorraine—a border region exceptionally rich in coal and iron ore reserves—and pay enormous financial indemnities.
    • The German Empire was formally proclaimed in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles in France, which inflicted deep shame and national humiliation upon the French population.
    • France and Germany subsequently became permanent archenemies, with French policy consumed by a desire for revenge (revanche).
  • Disruption of the European Balance of Power:
    • The rapid industrial and geopolitical rise of the German Empire threatened established traditional European great powers, specifically Britain and the Russian Empire.
    • The declining power and influence of the Ottoman Empire in Southeastern Europe created a geopolitical power vacuum.
    • Both the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Russian Empire seized this decline as an opportunity to expand their respective spheres of influence into the Balkan Peninsula.
    • These competing imperial interests caused diplomatic and military tensions across Europe to become increasingly acute.

Foreign Policies of European Powers in the Early 20th Century

  • Britain:
    • Maintained a foreign policy centered on protecting global naval and maritime supremacy, which was directly threatened by rapid German naval expansion.
    • Actively abandoned diplomatic isolation to seek continental allies to compete against Germany.
  • Germany:
    • Pursued an aggressive policy of external territorial and imperial expansion (Weltpolitik).
    • Focused diplomatically on forming strong mutual defense alliances to isolate France and prevent French revenge.
  • France:
    • Concentrated on breaking German-engineered diplomatic isolation.
    • Aimed to avenge the defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and recover the lost provinces of Alsace-Lorraine.
  • Russia:
    • Aimed to establish control over the Balkan Peninsula and act as the protector and leader of fellow Slavs.
    • Sought to extend imperial influence southward to secure access to the Mediterranean Sea through warm-water ports.
  • Austria-Hungary:
    • Aimed to expand its sovereignty and influence into the Balkan Peninsula.
    • Sought to suppress and calm rising independence movements and nationalistic demands of Slavic ethnic groups within its borders.
  • Italy:
    • Held a relatively weak great power position; sought external imperial expansion while looking for powerful allies to protect its national security.

Long-Term Causes of the First World War

  • Growth of Extreme Nationalism:
    • In the late 19th century, European nationalism mutated into extreme, chauvinistic forms.
    • Required unconditional, absolute obedience to the state and advocated militant foreign expansion to display national power, prestige, and asserted racial superiority.
    • Worsened rivalries among European powers, as every nation prioritized its own interests above all else, rejected peaceful diplomatic compromises, and actively prepared for armed conflict.
    • Manifestations of Extreme Nationalism:
    • France: Focused on revenge against Germany to recover Alsace-Lorraine lost in 1871.
    • Germany (Pan-Germanism / 泛日耳曼主義): Originating in the early 19th century, German nationalists sought the unification of all ethnic Germans. By the late 19th century, the German Empire became heavily militaristic, utilized domestic authoritarian control, and pursued aggressive foreign expansion to establish a "Greater Germany" as a dominant world power.
    • Russia (Pan-Slavism / 泛斯拉夫主義): Asserted that all Slavic peoples, along with their ancestral territories across Eastern and Southeastern Europe, belonged under the protection and direct control of Russia.
    • Austria-Hungary: Pursued direct expansion into the Balkans to suppress nationalist independence movements and solidify dominance over the region.
    • Serbia (Greater Serbia Movement): Campaigned for the unification of all ethnic Serbs across the Balkan Peninsula into a single nation-state, which subsequently evolved into an ambition to unite and rule all Balkan Slavs under Serbian leadership. This movement enjoyed Russian sympathy and support, placing Serbia on a collision course with Austria-Hungary.
  • Formation of Rival Military Alliances:
    • The Triple Alliance (1882): Formed between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy to isolate France and deter French retaliatory aggression.
    • The Triple Entente (1907): In response to German power, France allied with Russia and Britain, formalising the Triple Entente in 1907 to counterbalance the Triple Alliance.
    • Strategic Impact: Polarised Europe into two heavily armed, opposing military blocs. Because alliance treaties imposed mutual defense obligations, a localized conflict involving two nations inevitably threatened to trigger wide-scale continental war.
    • Alliance Summary Table:
    • Triple Alliance: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy (Formed in 1882).
    • Triple Entente: Britain, France, Russia (Formed in 1907).
  • Scramble for Colonies among the Powers:
    • Following the Industrial Revolution, industrialized powers sought overseas colonial territories to secure raw materials and guaranteed consumer export markets across Asia and Africa.
    • By the end of the 19th century, a newly unified, rising Germany entered the colonial scramble, disrupting existing colonial distributions.
    • Led to recurring international crises and worsened relations, such as French diplomatic clashes with Italy and Germany over North African territories.
    • Britain held the largest colonial empire, followed by France, with Germany possessing a smaller colonial footprint.
  • Arms Races among the Great Powers:
    • European nations continuously escalated military expenditures from the late 19th century onward.
    • Major continental powers, particularly Russia and Germany, instituted peacetime military conscription to expand standing armies.
    • Naval race: Centered on building advanced, heavily armored battleships known as dreadnoughts, producing an intense naval building competition between Britain and Germany.
    • Instead of ensuring national defense, arms races fueled mutual paranoia, provoked hostility, and made powers resistant to international disarmament conferences.
    • Armament Expansions (1893–1913):
    • Germany doubled the size of its standing army and dramatically expanded its naval fleet.
    • Austria-Hungary formulated preemptive operational war plans against Russia and Serbia.
    • Britain expanded ground forces by establishing a dedicated British Expeditionary Force of 100,000 personnel.
    • Russia expanded its regular peacetime military to 1.3 million soldiers while accelerating naval construction and strategic railway lines toward its western frontiers.

Pre-War International Crises and Conflicts

  • International Conflicts in Europe and North Africa:
    • First Moroccan Crisis (1905–1906):
    • France and Germany competed for influence over Morocco in North Africa, a territory bordering the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean possessing critical strategic value.
    • Diplomatic hostilities erupted in 1905 when Germany challenged French hegemony.
    • At the subsequent conference, Germany received backing solely from Austria-Hungary, encountered severe diplomatic isolation, and was forced to yield concessions.
    • Second Moroccan Crisis (Agadir Crisis, 1911):
    • Clashes between France and Germany reignited over control of Morocco.
    • Britain openly backed France, forcing Germany to back down a second time.
    • Germany suffered significant diplomatic setbacks, intensifying anti-British and anti-French resentment in Berlin.
  • International Conflicts on the Balkan Peninsula:
    • Due to overlapping ethnic populations, conflicting territorial claims, and imperial meddling, the Balkans became known as the "powder keg of Europe".
    • Bosnian Crisis (1908):
    • Austria-Hungary formally annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina, provoking outrage in Serbia and Russia.
    • Germany offered unconditional military support to Austria-Hungary.
    • Russia, failing to secure military backing from its British and French allies, backed down alongside Serbia.
    • Serbian-Austro-Hungarian relations deteriorated sharply, and militant anti-Austrian sentiment spread throughout Serbia.
    • The Two Balkan Wars (1912–1913):
    • Two separate armed conflicts took place within nine months as small Balkan nations fought over the remaining European territories of the Ottoman Empire.
    • First Balkan War (1912–1913): Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, and other Balkan states formed an alliance and jointly defeated the Ottoman Empire. To prevent Serbia from securing an outlet to the Adriatic Sea, Austria-Hungary intervened diplomatically to establish the independent state of Albania on Serbia's southwestern border.
    • Second Balkan War (1913): Dissatisfied with territorial distribution, Bulgaria attacked its former allies. Serbia, Greece, Romania, and the Ottoman Empire banded together and defeated Bulgaria.
    • Outcome: Serbia emerged from the wars substantially enlarged in territory, population, and military confidence. Viewing a stronger Serbia as an existential threat to its multi-ethnic empire, Austria-Hungary resolved to neutralize Serbia.
  • International Conflicts in East Asia:
    • By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, significant regions in East Asia had fallen under Western imperial rule or were partitioned into foreign spheres of influence.
    • In 1899, the United States introduced the Open Door Policy, demanding that all imperial powers maintain equal commercial and trading access within China.
    • Following the Meiji Modernisation, Japan expanded rapidly across East Asia:
    • Defeated the Qing government in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895).
    • Launched the Russo-Japanese War (1904), defeating imperial Russia and securing Japanese spheres of influence in Northeast China.
    • Formally annexed the Korean Peninsula in 1910.

Outbreak of the First World War

  • The Sarajevo Incident (28 June 1914):
    • Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir apparent to the Austro-Hungarian imperial throne, visited Sarajevo, the provincial capital of annexed Bosnia, accompanied by his wife Sophie.
    • Both were shot and killed by a Serbian radical nationalist, providing the immediate spark for the outbreak of war.
  • The Ultimatum and the Escalation to War:
    • On 23 July 1914, backed by unconditional German support, Austria-Hungary presented Serbia with a severe ultimatum consisting of 10 terms, demanding an unconditional response within 48 hours.
    • Key Demands of the Ultimatum:
    • Immediate cessation of all anti-Austrian publications and propaganda.
    • Dissolution of anti-Austrian nationalist and patriotic organizations.
    • Dismissal and punishment of anti-Austrian Serbian government officials and military officers.
    • Permission for Austro-Hungarian officials to enter Serbian territory to suppress subversive movements.
    • Authorization for Austro-Hungarian delegates to participate directly in the judicial investigation and trial of conspirators on Serbian soil.
    • Serbia accepted the vast majority of terms but rejected the demand allowing Austro-Hungarian officials to participate in investigations and trials inside Serbia, citing the violation of national sovereignty.
    • On 28 July 1914, Austria-Hungary rejected Serbia's conditional reply and declared war on Serbia.
  • Chain Reaction of Mobilisation and War Declarations:
    • 28 July 1914: Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.
    • 30 July 1914: Russia ordered general military mobilisation in defense of Serbia.
    • 1 August 1914: Germany declared war on Russia.
    • 3 August 1914: Germany declared war on France.
    • 4 August 1914: Britain declared war on Germany following the German invasion of neutral Belgium.
  • Opposing Coalitions:
    • Central Powers: Formed around the core of the Triple Alliance (excluding Italy) and joined by regional allies.
    • Allied Powers: Formed around the core of the Triple Entente and joined by associated states.

Major Participating Countries and Their Years of Entry into the War

  • Timeline of Entry by Major Belligerents:
    • 1914:
    • Central Powers: Austria-Hungary, Germany, the Ottoman Empire.
    • Allied Powers: Britain, France, Russia (which later withdrew following its 1917 revolution), Serbia, Belgium, Japan.
    • 1915:
    • Central Powers: Bulgaria.
    • Allied Powers: Italy (renounced membership in the Triple Alliance and switched sides to join the Allies).
    • 1916:
    • Allied Powers: Romania.
    • 1917:
    • Allied Powers: Greece, China.
    • United States Entry: The United States entered the war against Germany in April 1917; however, it maintained status as an associated power and was never an official member of the Allied Powers.

Military Campaigns and the Course of the War (1914–1918)

  • Main Theatres and Fronts:
    • Europe remained the primary theatre of military conflict, divided into two primary combat zones:
    • Western Front: Germany fought against France and Britain; combat quickly devolved into static trench warfare.
    • Eastern Front: Germany and Austria-Hungary fought against Russia across open, mobile battlefields.
    • Naval Front: Allied and Central naval forces fought for control of Atlantic and North Sea shipping lanes.
  • The Schlieffen Plan:
    • Formulated following the 1894 Franco-Russian Alliance by German Chief of Staff General Alfred von Schlieffen to prevent a two-front war.
    • Envisioned a rapid invasion of France through neutral Belgium, executing a wide encircling movement to capture Paris within six weeks.
    • Following a French defeat, German forces were to be transported rapidly by railroad to the Eastern Front to confront the slower-mobilizing Russian army in a protracted campaign.
    • Outcome: Belgian resistance and British intervention—triggered because Britain had guaranteed Belgian neutrality—slowed the German advance. The plan failed to achieve a rapid victory, trapping the Central Powers in a prolonged two-front war.
  • Nature of Trench Warfare on the Western Front:
    • Represented the dominant operational combat method on the Western Front.
    • Soldiers occupied deep, fortified defensive trench lines awaiting counterattacks or offensive orders.
    • Daily human life—sleeping, eating, writing correspondence, and emergency medical care—took place entirely within cramped, subterranean earthworks.
    • Opposing trench networks were separated by "no-man's land," an open expanse covered by barbed wire, artillery craters, and overlapping machine-gun fire where entering troops faced near-certain death.
    • Subterranean living conditions were defined by standing mud, cold water, lice, rampant bacterial infections, and rat infestations with rodents growing as large as cats.
    • Trenches protected soldiers from shrapnel and direct rifle and machine-gun fire, maintaining a defensive deadlock.
    • Primary weapons included rapid-fire machine guns, repeating bolt-action rifles, heavy artillery, and poisonous chemical gases.
  • Air Warfare:
    • The First World War witnessed the earliest large-scale aerial combat operations in military history.
    • Aircraft were initially deployed for aerial reconnaissance, artillery spotting, and military espionage.
    • Technological developments enabled synchronised machine guns to fire through propeller arcs in front of the cockpit, and bomb racks were mounted beneath fuselages and wings.
    • Aerial dogfights expanded warfare beyond land and sea, establishing air combat as a major branch of modern warfare.
  • The Chinese Labour Corps (中國勞工旅):
    • Between 1916 and 1918, approximately 140,000 Chinese labourers were recruited and transported to the Western Front in Europe.
    • Undertook essential, high-risk logistical support duties, including digging trenches, constructing supply roads, handling cargo, repairing military transport vehicles, and clearing and burying corpses.
    • Over 10,000 members of the corps died in Europe from diseases, direct artillery shelling, landmines, or severe injuries.

Chronology of Major Wartime Developments

  • 1914:
    • 28 July: Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.
    • August: Germany launched the Schlieffen Plan through Belgium; the offensive stalled at the Marne, ending German hopes for a quick victory and locking the Western Front into trench lines.
    • The Central Powers faced simultaneous, grinding military campaigns on both Eastern and Western Fronts.
  • 1915:
    • January: Japan issued the Twenty-one Demands to China, demanding control over former German colonial concessions and privileges in the Shandong Peninsula.
    • February: Germany launched unrestricted submarine warfare around the British Isles.
    • May: A German submarine torpedoed the British passenger liner Lusitania, killing over 1,100 passengers, including more than 100 Americans, sparking diplomatic outrage in the United States.
    • May: Italy signed the Treaty of London and entered the war on the Allied side.
    • July: German and Austro-Hungarian forces defeated Russian armies along the Eastern Front, capturing territory; Russia suffered heavy losses but refused to surrender.
    • October: Bulgaria joined the Central Powers.
    • November: Combined German, Austro-Hungarian, and Bulgarian forces overran and occupied Serbia.
  • 1916:
    • Characterised by prolonged, attritional stalemate across both major European land fronts, with massive casualties at Verdun and the Somme.
  • 1917:
    • February: Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare in an attempt to starve Britain into submission.
    • April: Provoked by submarine attacks on neutral shipping and diplomatic intrigues, the United States declared war on Germany.
    • August: China officially declared war on Germany and joined the Allied Powers.
    • November (October under the Old Style Julian calendar): The Bolshevik October Revolution erupted in Russia, overthrowing the provisional government; the new Soviet regime ceased military operations and subsequently exited the war.
  • 1918:
    • Early 1918: The German military launched its Spring Offensives on the Western Front; after initial gains, the attacks exhausted German reserves and failed.
    • Summer–Autumn: Allied forces, reinforced by fresh American troops and supplies, launched a massive Hundred Days Counter-Offensive, pushing back German lines.
    • September–Early November: The Central Powers coalition collapsed; Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire, and Austria-Hungary surrendered in rapid succession.
    • 9 November: Facing revolution at home and impending military collapse, German Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated his imperial throne.
    • 11 November: An armistice was signed between the German Republic and the Allied Powers, formally ending hostilities at 11:00 a.m.

Analytical Questions and Strategic Considerations

  • Geographical Advantage Between the Blocs:
    • Question on Alliance Positioning: Which camp held the geographic advantage during the confrontation between the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente?
    • The Central Powers held internal lines of communication, facilitating rapid rail transport of troops and supplies between the Eastern and Western Fronts; however, they faced geographic encirclement and Allied naval blockades.
    • The Triple Entente completely surrounded the Central Powers on both land flanks and controlled open sea lanes, but lacked direct, contiguous land connections between Russia and the Western European allies.
  • Relative Probability of Ultimate Victory:
    • Question on Coalition Strength: Which alliance bloc possessed a greater probability of achieving final victory?
    • While the Central Powers possessed cohesive land armies, centralized command, and initial operational advantages, the Allied Powers held overwhelming advantages in total population, colonial resources, industrial manufacturing capacity, naval dominance, and access to international capital markets, which proved decisive once reinforced by the economic and industrial power of the United States in 1917.