The First World War, the Interwar Period, and the Crisis of 1929

The First World War and International Relations in the Interwar Period

Introduction

• The political tension in the period known as the Armed Peace led to the outbreak of the Great War (later known as World War I).
• The war started in Europe but spread globally, excluding South America.
• Novelty: first war with modern military elements like aviation, tanks, chemical weapons, and machine guns.
• The war resulted in a new European political map.
• Economic recovery led to a decade of development: the Roaring Twenties.
• The economic crisis of 1929 was due to uncontrolled economic growth and financial speculation.
• Consequences of the crisis: economic, social, and political repercussions internationally, affecting industrialized nations the most.
• Nations tried to overcome the Great Depression independently, increasing tension and contributing to World War II.
• Study of the evolution of major world powers between 1914 and 1939 helps understand conflicts, changes, and crises in the global geopolitical order.

The First World War

Historiographical Debate on the Causes of World War I

• Academic debates are polarized between:
  • "Old diplomacy" and international alliances based on secret agreements.
  • Governments attempting to distract from internal problems via foreign policy and national solidarity.
• Germany's culpability has been a major point of debate since the Treaty of Versailles (1919).
• Revisionist historiography defended Germany's non-culpability:
  • Harry Elmer Barnes: Serbia, France, and Russia were to blame.
  • Sidney Bradshaw Fay: Theory of “collective responsibilities.”
• Antirevisionists defended German culpability:
  • Hermann Kantorowicz.
  • Pierre Renouvin.
  • Bernadotte Everly Schmitt.
  • Luigi Albertini.
• Division of blocks during the Cold War revived the debate; Western historians sided with revisionists.
• Fritz Fischer's 1961 work argued Germany was directly responsible for the conflict due to its desire to become a major world power. This caused the Fischer Controversy.
  • Divided historians between those who opposed (Wolfgang Mommsen, Jacques Droz, Holger Herwig, Annika Mombauer, Niall Ferguson) and those who supported (Arno Mayer, Henry Kissinger, Paul Kennedy).
• The centenary of World War I in 2014 reactivated the debate.
  • Christopher Clark's The Sleepwalkers emphasized Serbian aggression, British decline, Russian expansionism, French policy towards Russian imperialism, and ineffective foreign policy of central powers.
• Víctor Morales Lezcano and Hipólito de la Torre Gómez offered a multicausal view that the war was due to a shift in international relations.
  • Bismarck's policies had maintained peace despite conflicts; the Bismarckian systems were masterpieces but unstable.
  • Colonial race multiplied problems.
  • Rivalry between developed nations for markets, protectionist measures, and imperialism.
• Militarism was fueled by industrial interests, with the steel industry supporting colonial policy to increase production of ships and arms.
• Nationalism in the Balkans played a role as Austria-Hungary repressed it against Serbia's interests.
• Franco-German relations after the 1870 war: French revanchism due to the loss of Alsace and Lorraine.
• Germany aimed to create a Greater Germany, while Italy sought territorial gains (annexation of Trieste and Tirol).

New Dimensions of the War

• World War I was the first major global conflict resembling modern wars.
• The conflict lasted four years, three months, and fourteen days.
• Germany had over 1.9 million soldiers at the start.
• Austria-Hungary had an army of 160,000.
• Russia had over 2 million soldiers.
• The United Kingdom used colonial troops and naval power.
• Technological developments from the First and Second Industrial Revolutions were applied to weaponry.
• New weapons: repeating rifles and machine guns.
• Cavalry became less important.
• New organizational schemes (section and platoon) and tactics (trench warfare).
• The use of tanks initiated armored warfare.
• Artillery increased calibers and ranges.
• Asphyxiating gases introduced in 1915 led to biological and chemical warfare.
• Air warfare involved independent aerial battles and the use of bombers and aircraft carriers.
• The British fleet was the most powerful, followed by the German fleet.
• German submarines targeted British convoys in the Atlantic and North Sea.
• Many nations participated in the war.
• The assassination of the Archduke of Austria-Hungary triggered a chain reaction due to alliance systems.
• Use of colonial resources and the entry of new powers like the U.S. and Japan.
• Women played a significant role in traditionally male jobs.
  • They worked in factories, drove trucks, assembled weapons, and served in military hospitals.
  • Some participated in espionage (Mata Hari) and cryptoanalysis (Elizabeth Friedman).
• This involvement led to legislative changes, including women's suffrage.

Stages of World War I: Dynamics and Development

• On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary was assassinated in Sarajevo.
• Austria-Hungary sought to attack Serbia, backed by Germany.
• On July 23, Austria sent Serbia an unacceptable ultimatum, leading to a declaration of war five days later.
• Russia mobilized its troops on July 29, and France and the United Kingdom warned Berlin they would not remain neutral.
• On July 30, Russia mobilized its army against Austria-Hungary and Germany.
• On August 1, Germany declared war on Russia, and on August 3, on France. Germany invaded Belgium on August 4, leading the United Kingdom to enter the conflict.

War of Movement (1914)

• In the Western Front, the German offensive used the Schlieffen Plan, prioritizing a rapid attack on France.
• The German advance was quick, reaching the gates of Paris by September 2.
• Marshal Joseph Joffre halted the Germans at the Marne River.
• Trench warfare began.
• Germany took Bruges, Ghent, and other ports.
• The Western Front stabilized.
• In the Eastern Front, Germans defeated Russians in Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes (1914).
• The Russian army advanced against Austrians in the Balkans.
• German reinforcements in the Balkans halted the Slavic advance.

War of Positions (1915-1916)

• Balanced forces led to a stalemate, with armies retreating into trenches by winter 1914.
• Tanks, chemical weapons, and aviation were used for the first time.
• Other countries awaited to join either side.
• The Ottoman Empire aligned with Germany, and Japan with the Allies.
• The Allies launched the Champagne offensive, failing to break the Western Front.
• Germany attacked Lithuania and launched the Vistula offensive, forcing Russia to retreat.
• In 1915, Italy joined the Entente, and Bulgaria sided with Germany.
• The Anglo-French landing in Gallipoli failed to defeat the Ottoman Empire.
• Germany concentrated its forces in Verdun in 1916, initiating an unprecedented offensive. Marshal Philippe Pétain resisted.
• The Allies responded with an offensive at the Somme, also failing.
• These battles increased attrition on both sides.
• Romania joined the Entente in 1916, opposing Bulgaria.

The Key Year of the War (1917)

• The Western Front remained largely unchanged, leading Germany to intensify submarine warfare, risking American intervention.
• The aim was to cut Allied supplies and win the war before U.S. troops arrived.
• Oceans became a new conflict zone.
• From 1917, German submarines intercepted convoys in the Atlantic supplying the Allies.
• The U.S., under President Woodrow Wilson, remained neutral until April 2, 1917.
• The sinking of the Lusitania in 1915 strained relations with Germany.
• In January 1917, Arthur Zimmermann sent a telegram to Mexico, intercepted by British intelligence, leading the U.S. to enter the war.
• Other reasons included disruption of North American trade in the North Atlantic.
• U.S. intervention marked the start of German collapse.
• Russia exited the conflict due to the Russian Revolution.
• Vladimir Lenin returned from exile via Germany, agreeing to take Russia out of the war in exchange for safe passage.
• After the October Revolution of 1917, Leon Trotsky signed an armistice with Germany in December, and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed in March 1918.
• Russia renounced Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, Bessarabia, Batumi, Kars, and Ardahan.

The Last Phase of the War in 1918

• Erich Ludendorff concentrated troops for an offensive in March 1918 on French Picardy.
• The offensive broke the trench front, putting the Allies in a difficult situation.
• Unified Allied command under Ferdinand Foch could not halt a second German offensive.
• Economic deterioration prevented Germans from supplying troops, and their advance was blocked by spring 1918.
• In June, the Allies launched a decisive offensive supported by American potential, causing the German front to collapse.
• Austrian troops attacked Italy but were defeated, leading to Austrian surrender.
• The Turks surrendered in October.
• Germany capitulated in November after Wilhelm II abdicated.
• Karl I of Austria and IV of Hungary also abdicated.

The End of World War I: Peace Treaties and Consequences

• Peace agreements began in March 1919 in Paris, with 30 countries represented, excluding the defeated.
• Negotiations were led by the Council of Four: the U.S., the United Kingdom, France, and Italy.
• Treaties of Versailles, Saint-Germain, and Neuilly (1919) and Trianon and Sèvres (1920) aimed to establish a new order in Europe.
• The U.S. and the United Kingdom sought future peace, while Italy and France wanted economic and territorial reparations and German weakening.
• The basis for peace treaties were Wilson's 14 points, including open diplomacy and the creation of a League of Nations.

The Victors

• France regained Alsace and Lorraine, received Togo and Cameroon.
• The British Empire received Tanganyika and German West Africa but began to decline due to war costs and American economic competition, leading to the formation of the Commonwealth.
• The United States became the leading economic power and created the League of Nations.
• Romania was enlarged with Transylvania, Bessarabia, Bukovina, and Banat.
• Italy gained Trieste, Istria, Dalmatia, and the Upper Adige valley.
• Greece obtained Smyrna and Thrace.
• Serbia saw its imperialist desires fulfilled with the creation of the Kingdom of Croats, Serbs, and Slovenes.
• Japan took German possessions in China and the Pacific.

The Defeated

• The German Empire lost territories in the east (part of Silesia) and was divided by the Danzig corridor.
• It lost a duchy to Denmark in the north.
• Alsace and Lorraine were lost in the west.
• All colonies were distributed among the victorious powers.
• Germany was forced to pay war reparations and disarm, becoming a republic.
• The Austro-Hungarian Empire disintegrated into Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia.
• The Ottoman Empire was diminished and transformed into the Republic of Turkey under Mustafa Kemal.
• Bulgaria was disarmed and lost territories.
• In 1922, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was formed.
• The war resulted in over ten million deaths and thirty million wounded, marking the decline of European powers.
• Harsh conditions imposed on the defeated foreshadowed World War II.

International Relations in the Interwar Period

The Roaring Twenties

• The war ruined the prosperous economic order of pre-1914 Europe.
• From 1919 to 1929, the postwar years ended when economic production recovered to pre-conflict levels.
• Europe declined, while the U.S. and Japan developed greatly.
• The Washington Conference (1921-1922) agreed on naval fleet ratios, benefiting the U.S. and the United Kingdom.
• Germany and the RSFS resolved differences in the Treaty of Rapallo (1922), renouncing mutual war debts.
• The United Kingdom covered half of its military expenses by increasing economic contributions from its empire, while other countries resorted to U.S. credit.
• France lost investments in Russia when the Soviet regime renounced the tsarist public debt, distancing the USSR from Western capitalist economies.
• Germany was forced to pay war reparations, leading to hyperinflation in the early 1920s and devastating the German middle class.
• The Franco-British thesis aimed to link debt payment to German reparations.
• In 1923, delayed German payments led to the annexation of the Ruhr.
• The German government requested an investigation into its economy, leading to the Dawes Plan in April 1924.
• Germany's annual payments were fixed at 2.5 million gold marks, and it received substantial credits.
• The plan succeeded: the German economy recovered, France withdrew from the Ruhr in 1925, and a new international climate favored cooperation and peaceful conflict resolution.
• The Locarno Treaties were signed on December 1, 1925, confirming German borders with Belgium and France and demilitarizing the Rhineland.
• Germany was admitted to the League of Nations in 1926.
• The Briand-Kellogg Pact was signed in Paris in August 1928, by which signatory countries, including the United Kingdom, France, the USA, Germany, Italy and Japan, renounced war as a means of resolving conflicts.
• The Young Plan (February 1929) reduced German war debt by 75 \% and extended payment deadlines.
• The Great Depression of October 1929 destroyed the spirit of Locarno, leading to insecurity, violence, and tension in international relations throughout the 1930s.

The Tragic Thirties

• The crisis of 1929 brought unemployment, poverty, heightened nationalism, discredited democratic systems, and the rise of Nazism.
• Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany in 1933 destabilized Europe.
• Hitler renounced the Treaty of Versailles, rearmed Germany, aimed to unite with Austria, threatened the Sudetenland and Danzig, and sought