Transcript World War One Unit 2013-2014 - Lesson 10

L10: Russia Exits, The U.S. Enters, and the War
Takes a Turn in 1917
Agenda
Objective:
To understand…
1. Possible strategies for
ending the war in 1916.
2. How and why Russia exits
the war in 1917.
3. How and why the United
States enters the war in
1917.
4. Possible strategies for
ending the war in 1917.
Schedule:
1. Lecture & Discussion
Homework
1. Pre-Writing Check
#2 Due Mon 2/3
Now What?
• By 1916, World War One had settled
into a war of attrition.
• Attempts to end the war through
massive creeping barrage assaults
(Verdun and the Somme) have failed.
• How do we end this war?
Triple Entente’s Strategy…
• Persist with the fighting of an offensive
war, despite causalities, and despite the
failure to have a major victory or
success with the war of attrition.
– What does this say about the rationality of
this war?
Soldiers’ Reject this Strategy
• French troops desert and mutiny in the
early months of 1917
– Approximately 30,000 refuse orders to go
to the Front
• Russian soldiers and civilians begin an
all out revolt…
Conditions in the Russian Army
• Problems on the Eastern Front
– Irregular leave, bad food
• Problems on the Home Front
– High inflation
– Inequality in military service: skilled workers out, the poor in
– Massive fuel and food shortages
• Merge to create particularly
problematic conditions for
peasants
– Low wages, high inflation,
mandated war service, no fuel,
and no food.
February Revolution (1917)
• Protests over food shortages break out in
Petrograd
• Workers join in the protests
• Soldiers stationed in Petrograd are ordered to
fire on the crowd, they refuse, and join the riots.
• Revolution begins!
• Tsar Nicholas II stepped
down.
Russia Forms a Provisional
Government
• A provisional democratic government is formed under
the leadership of Alexander Kerensky
• Government continues to support Russia’s
involvement in World War One
• However, soldiers no longer support the war effort.
There is massive looting
and desertion at the front.
• Support began to grow for
a new political party, who
was challenging the
provisional government:
The Bolsheviks.
Germany Strikes at Russia with Its
Secret Weapon
In 1917, the Germans sent a train from Switzerland to
Russia. It was heavily armored and guarded by
soldiers with orders to shoot to kill anyone who
approached the train too closely. The train carried a
weapon that Germany hoped would knock the
Russians out of World War One. What is inside the
train?
Bolsheviks Gain in Power
• The return of Lenin to Russia in April of
1917, strengthened the Bolshevik party
and they began to advocate their
platform:
– Peace (End Russia’s involvement in WWI)
– Land (Nationalize land)
– Bread (End food shortages)
The October Revolution (1917)
• Lenin and the
Bolsheviks launch a
coup against
Kerensky and the
provisional
democratic
government.
• The Bolsheviks
declare themselves
the new leaders of
Russia.
Russia Exits the War
• In March of 1918 the
Bolsheviks sign the Treaty
of Brest-Litovsk with
Germany.
• The treaty ends Russian
involvement in World War
One.
– Treaty required Russia give
Germany territory in the West
that contained:
• 25% of Russia’s population
• 25% of Russia’s industry
• 90% of its coal mines
The Eastern Front Closes and
Germany is Reinvigorated
• With Russia’s exit from the war, the Eastern
Front closes.
• The Germans’ secret weapon worked--they are
now fighting
a one front war.
• The Germans now
turn their attention
to the war along the
Western front and
they believe that
victory is now within their reach.
Germany’s Strategy to Win on the Western
Front: Unrestricted Submarine Warfare
• By 1917, after a failed attempt to break the stalemate at
Verdun, Germany began to believe more firmly that their victory
on the Western front lay in the total war strategy of unrestricted
submarine warfare.
• German generals began to argue that a deepening of the
practice, begun in 1915,
would within 5 months bring
Britain to the brink of
starvation, while also
depriving France of British coal
essential to the working of their
economy.
Unrestricted Submarine Warfare
• In the spring of 1917, Germany
ordered 100 submarines to sink 20
million tons of British shipping.
• As part of this strategy the
Germans also started sinking
American ships on the grounds that
the Americans were supplying the
British military with weapons.
– In March of 1917, Germany sank 3
American merchant ships, these
sinkings, coupled with the 1915
sinking of the Lusitania, began to
push the American public toward
supporting US entry into the war.
The Zimmermann Telegram
• In March 1917 a
telegram sent from
Germany to Mexico was
intercepted by the British
and released to the
Americans.
• The telegram stated…
Zimmermann Telegraph
• FROM 2nd from London # 5747.
"We intend to begin on the first of February unrestricted submarine
warfare. We shall endeavor in spite of this to keep the United
States of America neutral. In the event of this not succeeding, we
make Mexico a proposal of alliance on the following basis: make
war together, make peace together, generous financial support
and an understanding on our part that Mexico is to reconquer the
lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. The settlement in
detail is left to you. You will inform the President of the above most
secretly as soon as the outbreak of war with the United States of
America is certain and add the suggestion that he should, on his
own initiative, invite Japan to immediate adherence and at the
same time mediate between Japan and ourselves. Please call the
President's attention to the fact that the ruthless employment of
our submarines now offers the prospect of compelling England in
a few months to make peace." Signed, ZIMMERMANN
The United States Enters the War
• The escalation of unrestricted submarine
warfare against American ships and the
release of the Zimmermann telegram lead
American President Woodrow Wilson to
request a declaration of war against Germany
from Congress.
• In April of 1917,
the United States
enters World War
One.
The American Army Heads for
Europe
• In April 1917, the United States Army had only 108,000
soldiers and the U.S. Marine Corps had only 15,000
men.
• The United States thus
enacted a draft in
order to raise 2
million troops to
send to France by 1918.
How Do We End This War?
• By early 1918, both the Germans and
the French/British/Americans were clear
that the war was heading toward its
end, but…
• How do we end this war?