The World at War World War I M

The World at War World War I

M. A. I. N causes of WWI • M – Militarism • A – Alliances • I –Imperialism • N – Nationalism

Militarism • 1800’s was marked by a rise in Militarism, glorification of the military. the • This grew out of the way of thinking called Social Darwinism, “survival of the fittest”. • Competition led to arms race and large expansion in armies and navies. • Germany, France and Britain all spent a great deal of their nation’s funding on their navies. • Military leaders gained more power as governments turned towards them for advice.

Militarism: Expenses Total Defense Expenditures for the Great Powers [Ger. , A-H, It. , Fr. , Br. , Rus. ] in millions of £s. 1870 1880 1890 1900 1914 94 130 154 268 289 398 1910 -1914 Increase in Defense Expenditures France 10% Britain 13% Russia 39% Germany 73%

Alliances • Distrust among nations lead to signing of secret treaties, pledging to defend one another. • Alliance, formal agreement between two or more nations or powers to cooperate and come to one another’s defense. • In 1882, foreseeing the competition of nations, Otto Van Bismark formed the alliances with Italy and Austria-Hungary • In 1914, the war erupted and Germany and Austria-Hungary formed the Central Powers.

Alliances • In 1894, France and Russia formed an alliance • France signed an entente, a nonbinding agreement to follow common policies • This lead to close diplomatic and military ties • Germany signed a treaty with the Ottoman empire, while Britain drew close to building relations with Japan. • France, Russia and Britain would later come together and form the alliance called the Triple Entente or Allied Powers.

Imperialism • Imperialism, domination of one country of the political, economic, or cultural life of another country or region. • There was a competition of colonies between France and Germany. • Germany wanted to prevent France from imposing a protectorate on Morocco. • A protectorate is where a larger country promises to protect a smaller country.

Nationalism • Nationalism, a deep feeling of pride and devotion to one’s nation, was spreading throughout all of Europe. • This created competition and rivalry between nations for territory and markets on a global scale. - Ex. France & Germany fighting over Alsace. Lorraine. (Strategic locations and rich in iron resources) • Germany was proud of empires military and industrial leadership. • France yearned to regain supremacy in Europe and was bitter about defeat in Franco-Prussian war.

Aggressive Nationalism • Britain felt threatened by German’s rapid economic growth. By 1900’s Germany’s factories were outproducing Britain’s older ones. • Germany was upset because they felt no respect from the other great powers. • Russia developed a strong sense of nationalism called Pan-Slavism, all Slavic peoples shared a common nationality. - As the largest Slavic country, it’s duty was to protect all Slavs.

Balkans = Powder Keg • Austria-Hungary feared nationalism because they were a multinational empire with many minority populations. Nationalism could turn into rebellions. • Ottoman Turkey felt threatened by newly created nations such as Serbia and Greece. • 1912 – Several Balkan states attacked Turkey. Years later new Balkan states were fighting among themselves over the spoils of war. • The battles of the Balkan wars created tension in the area. This area would later be called the “powder keg” of Europe because it would be the spark that would lead to an explosion.

Pan-Slavism: The Balkans, 1914 The “Powder Keg” of Europe

The Spark that set off a War • The spark that set off the chain reaction was the assassination of Austria-Hungary’s, Archduke Franz Ferdinand. • The Archduke was visiting in Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia was home to several Slavs and Serbians. • Royal visit upset Serbian nationalist because the day of the visit happened to be the same day in 1912, when Serbia freed itself from Turkish rule. • Assassination was carried out by Serbian terrorist group called Unity or Death, most commonly known as the Black Hand.

Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand • Gavirlo Pincip shot and killed the Archduke Ferdinand his wife, Sophie. • The death of his nephew stunned Austrian emperor, Frances Joseph. He was still reluctant to go to war but government saw things differently. • Austria-Hungary saw this as an opportunity to crush Serbia for good. • Austria sent Serbia a hefty ultimatum, or final set of demands.

The Assassin

Austria’s Ultimatum Terms of the ultimatum: 1. 2. 3. Serbia must end all anti-Austrian agitation Must punish any Serbian official involved in the murder Must let Austria join the investigation • Serbia, agreed to most, but not all of the terms. They refused to let Austria join the investigation • This gave Austria the opportunity it had been waiting on. On July 28, Austria declared war on Serbia. ! This type of conflict was familiar in the Balkan area but diplomatic ties drew great powers deeper into the conflict.

Retaliation • Austria-Hungary might not have pushed Serbia into war without the backing from its ally, Germany. • In Berlin, Kaiser William II was horrified by the event and advised Francis Joseph to stand firm toward Serbia. - Germany’s emperor assured full support, thus giving William II of Austria a “blank check” • In retaliation, Serbia called upon Russia, the champion of Slavic nations. Russia’s czar, -Nicholas II, urged Austria to soften demands but the plea failed. • Russia then begins to mobilize, or prepare military forces for war.

Retaliation • Germany responded by declaring war on Russia. • Russia, in turn, appealed to its ally, France. French nationalists were eager for revenge of the Franco. Prussian war. • Hesitant at first, France ended up giving Russia the same kind of backing German offered Austria. • Germany demanded France stay out the conflict, but France refused. • On August 3, 1914, Germany declared war on France

The Schlieffen Plan • Years earlier, General Alfred von Schlieffen developed a plan of attack against France. • The Schlieffen Plan was designed to avoid a twofront war against France on the west and Russia on the east. • Schlieffen reasoned Russia’s meek military would be slow to mobilize. • Under this plan, Germany would defeat France first on the western front and then turn all efforts toward Russia.

Britain Enters the War • Up till now, Italy and Britain remained uncommitted. Italy chose to remain neutral for the time being. Neutrality is a policy of supporting neither side in a war. • To ensure a quick victory, the plan required Germany to march through Belgium, then swing south behind French lines. On August 3, Germany invades Belgium. • Conflict rose because Britain and other European powers had signed a treaty guaranteeing Belgian neutrality. • Enraged by the invasion of Belgium, Britain declared war of Germany.

Nations’ Reasoning • Austria-Hungary wanted to punish Serbia for encouraging terrorism • Germany felt it must stand by its only dependable ally, Austria-Hungary • Russia saw the Austrian ultimatum to Serbia as an effort to oppress Slavic people • France feared if they didn’t support Russia now, they would face Germany alone later • Britain was committed to protect Belgium and feared their powerful rival, Germany

War on Two Fronts: Western Front • Germany soon violated the Schlieffen Plan as Russia mobilized more quickly than expected. • Russian forces won a few small victories in eastern Prussia and Germany decided to shift some of their troops to the eastern front. - This weakened German forces in the west. • At the battle of Marne in France, French and British forces pushed back the German offensive. • This crushed Germany’s hope for a quick victory and lengthened the conflict out into a deadly stalemate, a deadlock in which neither side is able to defeat the other.

Western Front: Trench Warfare • Trench Warfare was a vast system of trenches, stretching from the Swiss frontier to the English Channel. An underground network linking bunkers, communications, and gun emplacements. • Soldiers roasted in the summer sun and froze during the long winters. Trenches were full of rats and lice. • The area of land between opposing trench lines was called the “no man’s land” • Both sides battled back and forth over a few hundred yards of territory. Battle lines in France would remain unchanged for four years

Important Battles Battle of Verdun • 1916, both Allies and Central Powers launched massive offensives to break the stalemate at the battle of Verdun. • French defenders held strong during the 11 -month struggle and cost more than half-million casualties on both sides. Battle of Somme • Allied offense at the Somme River was even more costly. In a single day, 60, 000 British soldiers were killed or wounded. In the five-month battle, over a million soldiers were killed, without either side winning an advantage.

Technology in Modern Warfare Modern weapons added greatly to the destructiveness of the war. • Machine Guns: Fired bullets rapidly and mowed down soldiers, making it nearly impossible to advance across “no man’s land” • Heavy artillery allowed troops to shell enemy lines and cities from more than 10 miles away. • 1915, Germany began using poisonous gas. Blinded or chocked victims or caused agonizing burns and blisters. ! Gas was an uncertain weapon because shifting winds could blow gas back on the side who launched it.

Machine Gun

Big Bertha: Heavy Artillery

Poisonous Gas

Technology in Modern Warfare • Tanks: 1916, Britain introduced armored tanks. Able to move across broken ground and barbed wire. Moved slow and broke down often. Did little to break stalemate. Aircraft: • German’s used zeppelins, large gas-filled balloons, to bomb the English. • Airplanes: used by both sides. At first used mainly for reconnaissance. Later, were equipped with a mounted machine gun. ! Known for their “dogfights in the sky”. Spectacular but had little effect on course of war. One of the most famous pilots from this time period was Germany’s, Red Baron.

Technology in Modern Warfare • Submarines: German U-boats, or submarines did tremendous damage to the Allied side, sinking merchant ships that carried vital supplies to Britain. • British began to use convoys, or groups of merchant ships protected by warships. • Nations realized that a modern, mechanized war required total commitment of their whole society. • This is what we today call total war, the channeling of a nation’s entire resources into a war effort.

Global Conflict: Eastern Europe • August 1914, Russian armies pushed into eastern Germany. • Then, at the battle of Tannenberg, Russia suffered one of the worst defeats of the war and caused them to retreat. • Russia was the least industrialized of the great powers and was poorly equipped to fight a modern war. • Troops sometimes lacked even rifles but were commanded to still fight.

Global Conflict: Southern Europe • 1915, Bulgaria joined the Central Powers and helped crush its old Balkan rival Serbia. • That same year, Italy declared war on Austria. Hungary and, later on Germany. Italy had signed a secret treaty with the Allies to gain Austrian-ruled lands inhabited by Italians. • 1917, Austrians and Germans launched a major offensive against the Italian position at Caporetto. Italian troops retreated in disarray. • British and French troops came in and stopped the Central Powers’ advance. • Caporetto would prove to be just as disastrous for Italy as Tannenberg had been for Russia.

Global Conflict: Outside of Europe • Japan, allied with Britain, used the war as an excuse to seize German outposts in China and islands in the Pacific. It also tried to impose a protectorate on China. • The Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers in 1914. - Turks closed off the Dardanelles, a vital strait connecting the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. • 1915, Allies sent massive force of British, Indian, Australian, and New Zealander troops to Gallipoli. • 1916, after 10 months and 200, 000 casualties, the Allies withdrew from Dardanelles.

Global Conflict: Middle East • Turks were hit hard in the Middle East. • Arab nationalists revolted against Ottoman rule. • Britain sent Colonel T. E. Lawrence, “Lawrence of Arabia” to support Arabs using guerilla attacks and blowing up bridges • Turks would eventually lose a great deal of territory to the Arabs, including the city of Baghdad.

Calling upon the Colonies • Allies overran scattered German colonies and dominions for troops, laborers, and supplies. • Canada, Australia and New Zealand sent troops to Britain’s aid. • Colonial recruits from British India and French West Africa fought on European battlefields. ! People of the colonies had mixed feelings about supporting the imperial powers. - Some felt the imperial powers were only using them and would go back to ruling over them after the war. + Others thought their support in the war would be a step toward citizenship or independence.

War’s Impact on Nations Economic Impact: • Both sides set up systems of recruit, arm transport, and supply. Armies numbered in the millions. • All nations except Britain imposed universal military conscription, or “the draft”, which required all young men to be ready for military or other service. • Germany set up a system of forced civilian labor as well.

War’s Impact on Nations How to raise funds for war: • Governments raised taxes and borrowed huge amounts of money to pay the costs of war. • Rationed food and other products, from boots to gasoline. • Price setting and forbidding of strikes.

War’s Impact on the Media • Total war required controlling public opinion. • Aim was to keep complete casualty figures and other discouraging news from reaching the people. • Censors on press, literature, motion pictures, and arts • Both sides waged propaganda wars. Propaganda is the spreading of ideas to promote a cause or to damage an opposing cause. • Allied propaganda played up Germany’s invasion of Belgium, described them as barbarians. • Germany encouraged feelings of hated toward their enemies. `

Women in World War I • As millions of men left to fight in the war, women took over their jobs and kept national economies going. • Many worked in war industries, manufacturing weapons and supplies. Some joined branches of armed forces or served as nurses • In Britain, the Women’s Land Army went to the fields to grow food for their nation. • Gave women a new sense of pride and confidence. • Most lost their jobs when men returned home from fighting but helped challenge the traditional view of women in many societies. • Helped in the effort of winning women’s suffrage in the United States.

French Women in a Factory

German Women in a Factory

Russian Female Soldiers

Collapsing Morale • By 1917, morale of both troops and civilians had plunged. • Germany was sending 15 year old recruits to the lines • Britain was on the brink of bankruptcy • High casualty reports, food shortages, and failure of generals to win promised victories led to calls for peace.

Russia pulls out of the War • Russia had been hit hard by three years of war. • Incompetent generals and corruption destroyed public confidence. • March 1917, bread riots in St. Petersburg mushrooms into revolution that brought down Russian monarchy. • At first Allies welcomed the overthrow of czar in hopes of a democratic government and stronger ally would follow. This would not happen. • A year later, V. I. Lenin came to power, promising to pull Russian troops out of the war. • 1918, Lenin signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany and ended participation in World War I.

Change of Line-up • With Russia, out of the war, Germany could concentrate its forces on the Western Front. • As Germany stood ready for the breakthrough they had been looking for, several incidents caused by the Germans would alter the course of the war and eventually lead the United States to entering World War I

Unrestricted Submarine Warfare • German submarine attacks on merchant and passenger ships carrying American citizens would help encourage the United States to become involved in the war. • President Woodrow Wilson wanted to keep America out of the war and stated they had a right to safe travel on the seas. • In May 1915 a German submarine torpedoed the British liner, Lusitania. Almost 1, 200 passengers were killed, including 128 Americans. • Germany justified attack, arguing Lusitania was carrying weapons.

Unrestricted Submarine Warfare • Wilson threatened to cut off relations with Germany and so Germany agreed to restrict its submarine campaign. Before attacking they would warn the ship and let neutral passengers escape. • December 1916, however, Germany announced that it would resume unrestricted submarine warfare. Woodrow Wilson denounced Germany. • Many American citizens supported the Allies, sympathizing with British & French democracy • Being a melting pot, some Americans had cultural ties with other European nations: German Americans favored Central Powers, Irish resented British rule over Ireland Russian Jewish Americans did not want to be allies with the czar

Zimmerman Telegram • In early 1917, British intercepted a message from the German foreign minister, Arthur Zimmerman, to his ambassador in Mexico. Zimmerman promised that, in return for Mexican support, Germany would Mexico, “reconquer the lost territory in New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona. • Britain revealed telegram to America and intensified anti-German feelings in the U. S. • In April 1917, Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany.

United States Enters WWI • United States needed months to recruit, train, supply, and transport a modern army. • Aided in the Western Front with good fighters and financial aid. Wilson the Peacekeeper • In 1918, Wilson created the Fourteen Points, list of terms for resolving WWI and future wars • Aimed at freedom of seas, free trade, large-scale reductions of arms and an end to secret treaties • For Eastern Europe, Wilson favored self-determination, the right of people to choose their own form of government.

The End is Near • Final showdown happened early in 1918. • Germans launched huge offensive and pushed Allies back 40 miles by July. • This exhausted the Germans though, and the Allies launched a counterattack, slowly driving German force back across France and Belgium. • In Germany, the people demonstrated their frustrations to the monarch as uprisings exploded among hungry city dwellers. • German commanders, advised the Kaiser to absolve, as the czar had done.

The End is Near • In November, William II fled to exile in the Netherlands. • The new German government sought an armistice, or agreement to end fighting, with the Allies at 11 A. M. on November 11, 1918. • By autumn, Austria-Hungary was also reeling toward collapse. • Subject nationalists revolted and splintered the empire of the Hapsburgs

The Costs of War • By the end, more than 8. 5 million people were dead after the war. Double that with wounded • Also in 1918, a influenza pandemic, a spread of a disease across a county, continent, or in this case whole world, would kill more than 20 million people. • Unrest also swept through Europe’s colonial empires. African and Asian soldiers had discovered that imperial powers were not as invincible as they seemed. Colonial troops returned home more cynical toward Europeans and with renewed hopes for independence.

Financial Costs • In France and Russia, homes, farms, factories, roads and churches had been shelled into rubble. • The Allies blamed the conflict on their defeated foes and insisted that the losers make reparations, or payments for war damage. • Central Powers were stunned, they had viewed the armistice as a cease-fire rather than a surrender. They then looked for scapegoats on whom they could blame their defeat. • The total costs of reparations would be close to $30 billion.

The Paris Peace Conference • Allied leaders met to discuss what should be done at the Paris Peace Conference The Big Three: 1. President Woodrow Wilson (American): pushed his fourteen points 2. David Lloyd George (British): knew his people demanded harsh punishment for Germany. Promised to build a postwar Britain (would cost lots of money though) 3. Georges Clemenceau (French) “the tiger” held a fierce anti. German war policy. His main goal was to weaken Germany so that it could never again pose as a threat to France

Treaty of Versailles • June 1919, peacemakers summoned representatives of the new German Republic to the palace of Versailles outside of Paris. Terms of the Treaty of Versailles: 1. Forced Germany to assume full blame for causing the war 2. Imposed huge reparations that would put an already damaged German economy under staggering burden ($30 billion overall) * Reparations not only covered destruction caused by war, but also pensions of millions of Allied soldiers, or widows or families. 3. Limited the size of the once-feared German military 4. Returned Alsace and Lorraine to France and stripped Germany of all overseas colonies

Self-Determination Creates new Nations in Eastern Europe Out of Russian, German, and Austrian old lands: • Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia Baltic states were created • Poland regained independence after 100 years of foreign rule Out of old Hapsburg heartland: • Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary were created • In the Balkans -Yugoslavia was dominated by Serbia

Self-determination Causes Problems • Vittorio Orlando, (Italian prime minister) insisted Allies honor secret agreement to give Italy lands once ruled by Austria-Hungary. Problem is this violated selfdetermination • Many people who had been ruled by Russia, Austria. Hungary, or the Ottoman empire now demanded national states of their own. • This made it impossible to satisfy all because the territories claimed by these peoples often overlapped. • Wilson had to compromise with his fourteen points but stood firm on one – He created the League of Nations, based on the idea of collective security, a system in which a group of nations acts as one to preserve the peace of all.

Limitations to Self-Determination Applied to only parts of Europe • Outside of Europe, victorious Allies added to their overseas empires. The treaties created a system of mandates, territories administered by western powers. • Britain and France gained mandates over German colonies in Africa and Ottoman lands in the Middle East. • In theory, mandates were to be held and modernized until they were able to “stand alone” • In practice, they became European colonies. • From Africa to the Middle East and across Asia, colonized people felt betrayed.

Aftermath Leaves Tension • Italy was angry because it did not get all the lands promised in its secret treaty with the Allies. • Japan protested the refusal of western nations to recognize its claims in China. • At the same time, China was forced to accept former German holdings. • Russia was excluded from the peace talks, resented the establishment of Poland three Baltic states on lands that had been part of the Russian empire.

A Step Toward Global Peace • The League of Nations was created out of the Paris Peace Conference. • More than 40 nations joined the League and agreed to negotiate disputes rather than resort to war • Promised to take common action – economic and military – against any aggressor • Unfortunately, Wilson could not convince his own Senate to ratify the treaty, and the United States never joined the League.