Transcript World War I

World War I
 Nationalism and the System of Alliances
 Liberals during the first half of the 1800s s hoped that the formation of
European nation-states would lead to peace.
 However, the imperialist states s that emerged during the second half of
the 1800sbecame highly competitive over trade and colonies.
 Two main alliances divided Europe: The Triple Alliance (1882) was
made up of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy; and the Triple
Entente (1907) was made up of France, Great Britain, and Russia.
 During the early 1900s, several crises erupted, particularly in the
Balkans, which created a great deal of anger and tension between the
nations of the two alliances. Each nation was willing to go to war to
preserve its power.
 European ethnic groups, such as Slavs in the Balkans and the Irish in the
British
 Empire, dreamed of creating their own national states, which also
increased tensions
 in Europe.
 Internal Dissent
 Another source of strife in Europe was dissent within nations.
 As Socialist labor movements became more powerful, they
used strikes to achieve their goals, which led to unrest.
 Conservative national leaders feared that revolutions would
break out.
 Some historians believe that these leaders may have been
willing to go to war in order to suppress internal dissent.
 Militarism
 After 1900 there was a huge increase in the size of European
armies, which increased tensions among nations.
 Conscription- compulsory service in the military-was common
in Europe before 1914.
 Between 1890 and 1914 European armies doubled in size.
 Prior to 1914, European countries aggressively prepared for
war. This militarism led to the increased power of military
leaders, who created complex war plans.
 Because powerful military leaders did not want to alter their
war plans, they greatly limited the choices of political leaders
in time of international crisis.
 The Outbreak of War: Summer 1914
 The outbreak of fighting stemmed directly form events in the
Balkans in 1914.
 States in southeastern Europe had long struggled for
independence from the Ottoman Empire.
 Russia and Austria-Hungary competed for control of these new
states.
 In 1914, Serbia wanted to form a large Slavic state in the
Balkans. Serbia was supported by Russia and opposed by
Austria-Hungary.
 Many Europeans were afraid that this conflict in the
Balkans would lead to war.
 In June of 1914, Archduke Francis Ferdinand of AustriaHungary and his wife were killed by the Serbian terrorist
Gavrilo Princip in the city of Sarajevo. The Siberian
terrorists wanted Bosnia to become independent from
Austria-Hungary.
 The Austro-Hungarian government wanted to declare
war on Serbia but was worried that Russian would come
to Serbia’s aid. Austrian leaders asked for help from its
German allies. Emperor William II agreed to give
Germany’s full support. In July,1914 Austria-Hungary
declared war on Serbia.
 Russia responded by supporting Serbia. Czar Nicholas II
ordered partial and then full mobilization of the Russian
army. Austria-Hungary and Germany considered the
mobilizations acts of war.
 The Germans warned the Russians to halt mobilization,
and the Russians refused. Germany then declared war on
Russia on August 1. Because Russia and France were
allies, Germany had planned its strategy against Russia
and France, which was to defeat France first and then
attack Russia with full force. This plan, designed by
General Alfred von Schlieffen, was called the Schlieffen
Plan. Germany declared war on France on August 3.
 The Germans demanded that Belgium—a neutral
country—allow German armies to pass through on
the way to France. This action led Britain, who was
allied with France and Russia, to declare war on
Germany. By August 4, World War I had begun.
Section 2
 The events of August 1914 shattered two previously
held ideas: that war was not worth fighting and that
diplomats could prevent war.
 Government propaganda- ideas spread to influence
public opinon- stirred up national hatreds before the
war.
 All European wars since 1815 had only lasted a few
weeks. In August, 1914, most people thought the war
would be over by Christmas.
 Germany invaded Belgium and got within a few
miles of Paris where they were stopped at the First
Battle of the Marne.
 Both fronts were caught up in a stalemate which
started the trench warfare.
 For four years both sides stayed in the same trenches
in the same place.
 The Russian army moved into eastern Germany only
to be defeated at the Battle of Tannenberg and the
Battle of Masurian Lakes.
 The Russians drove Austria-Hungary out of Serbia
and Italy broke their alliance with Austria-Hungary
and attacked them in 1915.
 A series of battles with the Germans and a revolution
at home drove the Russians out of the war.
 Germany was now able to devote all of its attention
to the Western front.
 The trenches on the Western Front included massive
tangles of barbed wire, machine guns, gun batteries,
and heavy artillery.
 The territory between the two sides became known
as no man’s land.
 Military leaders did not know how to fight trench
warfare. They sent masses of soldiers to attack the
other side to try and break through.
 Thousands of men where made vulnerable to
machine guns. In 1916, 700,000 men were killed in
France within 10 months.
 Airplanes where first used in World War I in several
ways.


Spot enemy positions
Mounted machine guns allowed the pilots to fight each other
in the air and ground forces.
 The United States tried to stay neutral in the first
years of World War I.
 Unrestricted submarine warfare- submarines sinking
both military and civilian ships.
 In 1915, the Germans sank the British ship
Lusitania, killing 1,100 civilians and causing strong
protests from the American government.
 Germany stopped the unrestricted submarine
warfare but Admiral Holtzendorff convinced the
emperor to resume the practice.
 World War I became a total war that required a complete
mobilization of people and resources. Woodrow Wilson,
U.S. President saw all citizens as part of the war effort.
 As the war dragged on, governments had to increase
their powers in order to obtain the manpower and
supplies thy needed.
 Planned economies- economic controls, food and
material rationing, regulated transportation, and
controls on imports and exports.
 As casualties increased support for the war started to
fade. Governments began to curtail the descent by
exercising control of news sources and using new
propaganda techniques.
 Women assumed new roles during World War I,
taking over jobs previously held only by men,
including factory and trucking jobs.
 In Germany, Austria, and the United States women
were given the right to vote not long after the war.
 Women in Britain were given the right to vote in
1918 before the end of the war.
 Russia’s military had very little training before
World War I.
 Czar Nicholas II was the sole military leader of the
Russian army.
 Due to the lack of technological advances in Russia,
many soldiers trained with broom sticks because of
the lack of weapons.
 While the Czar was away from the throne during the
war his wife, Alexandra, made all of the important
decisions.
 She had little experience
in political matters so
she relied on Grigori
Rasputin to give her
guidance on political
matters.
 Rasputin was a self
proclaimed holy man
that had supposedly
stopped Alexandra’s sons
bleeding and saved his
life.
 Rasputin gained much
power and influence by
becoming Alexandra’s
counselor.
 Many who supported the
throne saw a need for
change.
 A political group that
supported the Czar, shot
Rasputin three times and
tied him up and threw
him in the river.
 Women factory workers
were standing in line
waiting for bread.
 Bread had begun to be
rationed out because of
the war efforts.
 Exhausted from working
12 hour shifts, the
women became uneasy.
 A series of strike lead by
working class women
broke out in Petrograd.
 Factory workers came
 The Duma asked the
together and called a
strike demanding for
peace and bread.
 By March 10th all
factories had been shut
down.
 Nicholas II ordered the
military to disband the
crowds and to shoot
them if need be.
Czar to step down.
 Nicholas stepped down
on March 15th.
 Alexander Kerensky
became ruler and kept
Russia in the war to
preserve her honor.
 Did not sit well with the
people of Russia.
 Soviets were groups that
represented the working
class in Russia.
 They began to challenge
the government’s authority.
 Mostly made up of
socialists.
 Socialism is an economic
system characterised by
social ownership of the
means of production and
co-operative management
of the economy.
 Began as a small faction of
 The Bolsheviks promised:
a Marxist party called the
Russian Social Democrats
 Their leader was V.I. Lenin.
 Believed in a violent
Revolution to destroy
capitalism.
 With the provisional
government in place
Germany sent Lenin to
Russia to try and create
more disorder in Russia.
 End to the War
 Redistribution of land to
the peasants
 Transfer of factories and
industries from capitalists
to committees of workers
 The transfer of government
power from the provisional
government to the soviets.
 Leon Trotsky was a
 Lenin turned over power to
dedicated revolutionary
and head of Petrograd
Soviet.
 November 6 Bolsheviks
seized the Winter Palace.
 Seat of provisional
government
 Seized power with little or
no bloodshed
the Congress of Soviets
 However real power was
passed to the Council of
People’s Commissars which
was headed by Lenin.
 On March 3, 1918 Lenin
signed Treaty of BrestLitovsk with Germany and
gave up eastern Poland,
Ukraine, Finland, and
Baltic Provinces.
 Many in Russia were opposed to the Communist




government.
Allies sent thousands of troops to Russia to try and
keep them in the war.
First threat to the Communist was in Siberia
Anti-Communist movement attacked westward and
advanced to the Volga River and was stopped.
The Communist would eventually overpower these
movements.
 Royal family had been taken into captivity after the
takeover.
 In April 1918 they were moved to a small town in the
Ural Mountains.
 On the night of July 16, members of the local soviet
murdered the czar and his family and burned their
bodies in a nearby mine shaft.
 Communist won the war because of several reasons.
 They had a excellent army land the commissar of
war, Leon Trotsky had brilliantly organized the army
and instituted rigid discipline.
 The opposition to the Communists was not unified
and was torn by political differences and mistrust.
 War Communism- controlling banks, farms and
industries to serve the communist war effort.
 When Allied troops were sent to oppose the
Communists they appealed to Russian patriotism.
 By 1921, the Communists had complete control of
Russia.
 The country had become a centralized state
dominated by a single party.
 Because of the role of the Allies in the civil war, the
Communist mistrusted them and remained hostile.
The Last Year of the War
 The addition of more than 2 million American troops




helped the Allies begin to advance toward Germany.
By this time the Germans new that the war was lost.
The Allies were not willing to negotiate with the German
government under Emperor William II.
The German people began to revolt and set up their own
councils. By November the Emperor had left the country.
The German Social Democratic Republic, led by
Friedrich Ebert, declared Germany a democratic
Republic and on November 11, the new German
government signed an armistice with the Allies.
Communist Takeover
 The German Communist Party attempted to take
control of Germany but were defeated by the new
government because they had the backing of the
military.
 The attempt by the Communist to take over the
government left many middle- class Germans deeply
afraid of communism.
 At the end of the war, ethnic groups in Austria-
Hungary sought independence.
 The Austro-Hungarian Empire disintegrated into the
independent republics of Austria, Hungary,
Czechoslovakia and Yugolavia.
Peace Settlements
 Representatives of the Allied nations met in Paris to
make a final settlement of the war.
 President Woodrow Wilson outlined his “Fourteen
Points” at the conference and suggested creating an
association of nations to guarantee political
independence for all countries.
 The Paris Peace Conference was complicated by
many factors. British Prime Minister David Lloyd
George wanted to make the Germans pay for the war.
 The French wanted to insure national security.
 They stripped Germany of all weapons.
 Forced Germans to make huge payments, called
reparations.
 Created a buffer state between Germany and France
in the German Rhineland.
 The United States, Britain, and France, known as the
Big Three, made most of the important decisions at
the Paris Peace Conference. Germany was not
included.
Treaty of Versailles
 Treaty of Versailles was the final peace settlement of
World War I. It was five separate treaties with the
defeated nations.
 The treaty declared that the Germans were guilty of
starting the war.
 It ordered Germany to pay reparations for all
damages suffered by the Allies.
 The treaty required Germany to greatly reduce its
military forces and return the territories of Alsace
and Lorraine to France.
 German land on both sides of the Rhine was turned
into a demilitarized zone to prevent future
aggression toward France.
 The German government accepted the peace terms
because it had no choice.
 The treaty outraged and angered the German people,
who felt the Treaty of Versailles was a harsh and
unfair peace.
Ottoman Empire
 The peace treaty also broke up the Ottoman Empire.
 The Allies promised Arab states within the Ottoman
Empire that they would be independent after the
war.
 France and England received new mandates in order
to prevent new colonial acquisitions after the war.
 Mandates- a country controlled another as a
mandate on behalf of the League of Nations but did
not officially own the territory.
 World War I undermined the previously held idea of
human progress.
 Entire populations had slaughtered each other in
unprecedented ways.
 The devastation of the war also opened the door to
revolutions and further instability.