Transcript End of the War

Ch. 19
The First World War
(1914-18)
Act I
1
Introduction
th
28
On the
day of June in 1914, the heir
to the throne of Austria-Hungary was shot
by a Serbian nationalist.
Within a month, most of Europe would be at
war that would kill 16 million people and
leave another 20 million wounded…
2
The Causes of WW1
Militarism
Alliances
Imperialism
Nationalism
Significant Individuals
3
Militarism 1: An Arms Race
 Germany competing
with the UK to build
battleships.
 The British feared an
attack on their
Empire
4
Militarism 2: building armies
 Germany competing
with Russia and France
to expand their armies
 Germany
 France
 Russia
1880
1914
1.3m
730K
400K
5.0m
4.0m
1.2m
5
The Alliances
Triple Alliance
Germany
Austria-Hungary
Italy
Triple Entente
Great Britain
France
Russia
6
7
Imperialism
 The Great Powers had competed in the
late 1800s for colonies & territory (in
China and mainly Africa)
why? For natural resources and markets
 The British and Germans feared one
another’s growing influence in Africa.
 The Austrians feared both Serbia &
Russia in the Balkans
8
9
Nationalism
This was an era when nations wanted to
assert their power and influence.
 In Europe, the Slavs, aided by Serbia and
Russia, wanted to be free of Austrian rule.
Serbia’s
national
flag
10
Significant Individuals:
A European “Family Affair”
The royal cousins whose personal rivalry mirrored Europe’s diplomatic
rivalries (from L to R): Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany; King George V
of Britain; Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.
11
The Crisis 1.
 June 28,1914
 Heir to Austrian throne
Franz Ferdinand visits
Sarajevo.
 Capital of Bosnia,
recently grabbed by
Austria.
 Hotbed of Slav
nationalism
Seal of the
Black Hand
12
The Crisis 2.
 “Black Hand”
terrorists attack the
Archduke
 Bomb attempt fails in
morning
 Gavrilo Princip shoots
Archduke and wife in
the afternoon.
 Austrians blame Serbia
for supporting
terrorists.
13
The Crisis 3.
 Austria, supported by




Germany, sends Serbia a
tough ultimatum.
Serbia agrees to all but two
terms of the ultimatum.
7/28: Russia mobilizes her
troops to support Serbia
Germany demands that
Russia stands her armies
down.
8/1: Germany declares war
on Russia
“Demands must be
put to Serbia that
would be wholly
impossible for them
to accept …”
14
The Dominos Fall…
8/3: (A) Germany invades
neutral Belgium
(B) France declares
war on Germany
8/4: Gr. Britain declares
war on Germany
(other members of British empire
soon follow – Australia, Canada,
N. Zealand, others…)
German troops, 1914
15
“a general state of war exists…”
 With the Ottoman Empire soon siding
with Germany, most of Europe is at
war…60 nations around the world
 NOTE:
1. Germany & allies: “Central Powers”
2. Britain/France/Russia: “the Allies”
16
End of Act I
17
The Great War
Act II
18
The Western Front: Schlieffen Plan
 Destroy France before Russia could mount
an effective offensive…then focus all
troops on Russia
 Avoid French defensive line by invading
Belgium…capture Paris and France would
fall
Alfred von Schlieffen
(1833-1913), chief of the
German general staff
19
1st Battle of the Marne Sept.-Nov. 1914
•German invasion
stopped by French at
the Marne River
•Both sides dig
defensive trenches
•Trenches “popcorn”
out rapidly until…
20
TRENCHES – 400 MILE LINE FROM NORTH SEA TO SWITZERLAND
21
Aerial View of trenches
Trench Warfare and Stalemate
 Trench warfare was
characteristic of the
Western Front
 Massive casualties in
weeks-long battles
over control of a few
hundred yards of
territory.
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WEAPONS OF DESTRUCTION
• Industrialization & advances in technology:
•submarines (u-boat)
•aircraft and bombs
•flame-thrower, tank, poison gas, grenades
•the machine gun
•Long-range artillery
Modern warfare strategies had not yet
adapted to these new weapons.
•
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The Machine Gun
British Vickers—fired 8 rounds per second, at
a distance of 2,900 yards.
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Super Killing Machines:
•They drove men into trenches and foxholes.
•War, became a battle of inches (stalemate)
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Artillery
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CHEMICAL WARFARE
Types: Mustard, Chlorine, & Phosgene
•Drifted in the wind—often affected their own
troops
Germans 1st to use poison gas: Battle of Ypres (1915)
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•Burned body & lungs
•caused blindness,
asphyxiation, & death
•Chemical Warfare banned
after World War I
Survivors of a Gas Attack
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Battle of Verdun (1916)
 The French suffered
371,000 casualties;
the Germans suffered
337,000 casualties.
 The battle became a
symbol of French
determination to hold
ground and repel the
enemy at any cost.
30
Battle of the Somme July-Nov. 1916
•British & French felt a massive assault on German forces
would turn tide of war.
•After a week of constant bombardment, the British went
“over the top”
•By the end of the first day, British casualties were 110, 000
(19,000 dead).
31
Battle of Verdun 1916
24 million shells
used equates to
1,000 shells per
square meter of
the battlefield.
32
Few from either side made it
out of “No Man’s Land”
33
Great War was World War
The Southern Front:
Gallipoli –British Campaign to
secure Dardanelles Straits,
1915
 Colonial Troops—Australia
and New Zealand
 As many as 250,000
casualties on each side
before British withdrawal
34
Why did it take so long for America to
get involved in the war?
 America was isolationist
 Many saw the War as a “European problem”
35
Who should the US ally with?
Central Powers:
Allies:
• 11 million GermanAmericans
• Close cultural ties
• Irish-Americans
hated Great Britain
• Big business loaned much
$ to allies
US Exports to both sides:
Nations
Britain
France
Germany
1914
1915
1916
$594,271,863 $911,794,954 $1,526,685,102
$159,818,924 $364,397,170 $628,851,988
$344,794,276 $28,863,354
$288,899
36
What did it take to get the US involved?
1. Blockades
Britain blockaded all German ports…nothing in or out
Germany announced a submarine war around Britain
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What did it take to get the US involved?
1. Blockades
In May, 1915
Germany told
Americans to stay off
of British ships
They could/would
sink them
38
What did it take to get the US
involved?
 1. Blockades
May, 1915
Lusitania
torpedoed, sunk
with 1200
passengers and
crew (including
128 Americans)
Was eventually
found to be carrying
4200 cases of
ammunition
German Propaganda Justifying Lusitania sinking
39
What did it take to get the US
involved?
The US sharply
criticized Germany for
their action
Sussex Pledge
Note in Bottle After
Lusitania Disaster
Germany agreed not to
sink passenger ships
without warning in the
future
40
What did it take to get the US involved?
2. Unlimited Submarine Warfare
1917: To break the British blockade and the
stalemate in the war,Germany announced
“unlimited submarine warfare” in the war
zone
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What did it take to get the US
involved?
 3. The Zimmerman Note
US intercepted a note from Germany
to Mexico
It promised Texas, New Mexico,
and Arizona back to Mexico in
return for an alliance
42
What did it take to get the US involved?
Zimmerman Note & the sinking
of 4 unarmed American ships
led to a declaration of war
43
April, 1917
Woodrow Wilson asks
Congress for a
declaration of war
44
Mobilizing America for war
Objective 1:
Shift US economy from producing
consumer goods to military goods
To accomplish this: necessary to expand
powers of federal gov’t.
(allow the gov’t. to do things that we had never allowed
b4!)
45
Wilson given greater control over US
economy:
1. Created War Industries Board under
direction of Bernard Baruch (leading US
businessman)
 Set production quotas
 Decided who got what raw materials
 Coordinated production
OUTCOME?: production up 20%
46
Wilson given greater control over US
economy:

Other gov’t. controls:
1. Created RR Administration
- Direct what got moved where & when
2. Created Fuel Admin.
- controlled coal production
- rationed gas & heating oil
3. Created Food Admin.
- food production
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Objective 2
 Finance (pay for) the War
 1/3 of money from taxes
 2/3 from public borrowing by selling
war bonds
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Objective 3: rally public support
US Gov’t created propaganda agency:
Committee on Public Information
1. CPI hired artists & ad agencies to
create all sorts of propaganda:
- paintings
- posters
- cartoons (movie theater)
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(Renner calls a timeout for a Quick Review)
 “MAINS” sent Europe spiraling towards
war
 Strong isolationist sentiment in US
 War quickly mired in stalemate
 Germany resumed “unltd. sub warfare”
 Zimmermann telegram “last straw”
pushing US into War
 US mobilized: gov’t. control of
production, food, fuel, propaganda,
resumed the draft to raise an army
57
1916 Presidential Election
And the Winner is…
Woodrow Wilson
Campaign slogan:
“he kept us out
of the war”
New Stuff: Russia Exits the War
by March, 1917: Russia on verge of
collapse
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Staggering losses in the war
Mutinies on Russian ships
Mass desertions from army
Strikes by Russian workers
Starvation in cities
Enter Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924)
 Exiled by the Czar b/c
of revolutionary
agitation
 Germans helped him
return to Russia to
incite revolution
March, 1917
Russian people
revolt…Nicholas II
abdicates the throne
Ends 300 yrs of rule
by Romanov dynasty
Control of Russia
 6 months of civil war…Lenin’s Bolshevik Party
defeat political rivals…win power
 Czar and entire family murdered
 Or were they??? Proof that Anastasia escaped…….
Duhhh…how else could she have starred in the movie?
62
But back to the Russian Revolution…
 Russia quits the War…signs Treaty of
Brest-Litovsk w/Germany March, 1918
 Impact: Germany moves troops from
Russia to the Western Front
63
Back on the US homefront:
Enforcing Loyalty
Strong backlash against all things German:
• People w/German names fired from jobs
• Books by German authors removed from shelves
• Orchestras refused to play works by Mozart, Bach
• Schools stopped teaching German as for. language
Individual freedoms lost?
US Congress passed
 The Espionage Act (1917)
 The Sedition Act (1918)
Heavy fines and jail time for
persons interfering with war effort
or saying anything disloyal to the
US
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 US gov’t used the laws to try and crush
labor unions:
 Eugene V. Debs (Amer. Railway Union)
opposed the war…10 yr. jail sentence
 Big Bill Haywood (the IWW) facing lengthy
jail sentence…jumped bail, fled to Russia
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American Troops Arrive in France
 General John J. Pershing commands the
AEF (American Expeditionary Force)
 Thru enlistments and the draft, US
trained an army of 2 million men
 Huge morale boost for the European
allies
1918
 4 yrs of stalemate…food shortages in
Germany
 Germany plans all-out offensive to win
the war (troops from Russian front
arrive)
 The Spring Offensive: Germany
pushes deep into France
 Buoyed by arrival of Americans, Allies
begin to drive Germans back
68
AEF plays key role
 Allies continue to drive Germans back
 Key battles:
 Chateau-Thierry (June, 1918)
 Belleau Wood (June, 1918)
 2nd Battle of the Marne (July, 1918)
 Argonne Forest (Sept-Nov., 1918)
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The Tide Turns…
End of the War (1918)
 Central Powers Crumble:
 Revolution in Austria-Hungary
 Ottoman Empire surrenders
 German soldiers mutiny, public turns
against Kaiser Wilhelm II
Armistice at Last
 After failure of German
Spring offensive, Kaiser
abdicates power
 Germans want cease fire
 Armistice signed on
November 11, 1918 in a
railway car (left)
 War that was supposed to
end by Christmas ends…
4 years later
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Ending the War (con’t.)
The Paris Peace Conference
 Meeting of the “Big Four” at the Paris
Peace Conference
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David Lloyd George – Gr. Britain
Georges Clemenceau – France
Vittorio Orlando – Italy
Woodrow Wilson – USA
 NOTE: Germany and Russia NOT invited
Wilson’s Idealism
Fourteen Point Program
The main points:
• No secret treaties
• No reparations
• Freedom of the seas
• Free trade
• Reduction of arms
• Self-determination
• League of Nations
David Lloyd George (Gr. Britain)
 1 goal in mind –
make Germany
suffer for the war:
 pay reparations
 put Kaiser William I on
trial
 However, he did not
want the Germans to
be totally crippled
economically or
politically
Georges Clemenceau (France)
 France had been invaded
twice since 1871
Clemenceau wanted to
make sure it would not
happen again.
 Clemenceau wanted
Germany to pay fully for
the costs of the war,
stripped of all weapons,
and be given a buffer
state out the German
Rhineland (this took most
of the German industrial
area).
Treaty of Versailles
 War Guilt Clause
 German military dismantled
 Break up of German, Austrian, Russian
and Ottoman Empire…map of Europe
redrawn (will be problematic up to present day)
 Reparations: $33 billion
 League of Nations
 Legacy of bitterness and betrayal…
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A re-shaped map of Europe
• 8 new nations: Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia,
Yugoslavia, Finland, & the Baltic States
(Latvia, Estonia, & Lithuania)
• 4 new mandates in the Middle East (from Ottoman
Empire): Syria, Trans-Jordan, Iraq, Palestine
• League of Nations--attempt to create an international
organization to settle disputes before they escalated to war
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Europe Before and After World War I
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Impact of the Great War in U.S.
 End of laissez-fair society: people see the
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huge power of government as a tool
America becomes THE leading world
economic power
U.S. Senate rejected the League of
Nations…return to isolationism?
Post-war cynicism: human progress?
African Americans move to northern cities
from the South