Lecture 22:  World War I

A. 1914 as real end of nineteenth century.  World War I shatters 
Victorian platitudes and illusions, beliefs in the individual, in 
rationality, in progress and humanity.  Horrors of modern 
mechanized warfare confronted people still thinking in terms of 
heroic cavalry charges. By 1918, Hohenzollerns, Romanovs and 
Habsburgs all gone; war leads to revolution.  The war is the final 
nail in the coffin of the Congress of Vienna.

B. Long-term causes of WWI.
	1. Unifications of Germany and Italy in 19th c., overturning 
balance of power.
	2.  Alliances.
		a. The Triple Alliance of the Central Powers: Germany, 
Austria-Hungary, Italy.
		b. 1894, French and Russian military alliance.
		c. What of Great Britain?  In 1890s, seems unlikely the 
British would join with France or Russia.
		d. Yet by 1907, Triple Entente includes Great Britain, 
along with France and Russia.
  
C. Medium-term crises
	1. Arms race of 1898-1914 over battleships.
	2. Imperial crises.  Moroccan Crises of 1905, 1911.
	3. Balkan Wars of 1912, 1913. 
		A. Ottoman Empire falling apart, leading to great 
instability in former European possessions.
		b. 1908, Austria annexes Bosnia-Herzegovina
		c. 1912, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Montenegro 
declare war on Turks
		d. 1913, Bulgaria attacks Greece and Serbia.  Romania 
and Turkey side with Greeks and Serbs.

D. Short-term causes. 
	1. June 28, 1914:  Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to Habsburg 
Empire, assassinated in Sarajevo, Bosnia, by Bosnian Serb.
	2. Five weeks of ultimatums and crises leading to WWI. Balkan 
instability and nationalism on the fringe of Europe leads to war 
between the Great Powers.
	3. Before making demands on Serbia, Austria seeks assurance 
from its ally, Germany. Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg assures 
Austria of German support.
	4.  July, 1914; French President Poincare and Premier Viviani 
visiting St. Petersburg, conferring with Czar Nicholas II.
	5. Austria delivers ultimatum to Serbs, giving them 48 hours 
to comply. Austria declares war on Serbia July 28.
	6.  Russia begins mobilizing its army; Germany demands that 
all Russian mob. cease; when it does not, Germany mobilizes its 
army Aug. 1, 1914, declares war on Russia 3 hours later.  France, 
standing by Russian ally, mobilizes at 3:55 P.M., August 1. 
	7. Military timetables preempt diplomats’ freedom of action.
	8.  The Schlieffen Plan.  German plans for danger of two-
front war.
	9.  Aug. 3, Germans invade Belgium, solidifying British 
sentiment against them.  Britain guaranteed Belgian neutrality 
since 1839; declared war on Germany.

C. World War I--the nature of Total War
	1. Spirit of August, 1914.
		A. Profound feeling of unity overcomes class 
antagonisms.
		b. French plans to arrest union leaders and socialist 
militants discarded; German socialists vote war credits in the 
Reichstag.

	2. First Battle of the Marne.  German army fails to deliver 
knock-out punch against France, stopped Sept. 10 at the Marne 
River War of movement turns into stalemate.  Barbed war, trenches, 
and machine guns define area of no-man's-land.  


	3. War of Attrition. 
		a. Defense over offense at this technological stage of 
warfare. 
		b. Great battles of 1916, Verdun and the Somme. 
		c. Search for technological breakthroughs: poison gas, 
airplanes, tanks.
		d. Great gulf in comprehension between the front and 
the folks back home: theme of war novels such as All Quiet on the 
Western Front, by German Erich Remarque. Bitterness captured in 
the British war poetry of Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon.

	4. Total War.
		a. As it becomes clear there would be no quick victory 
at the front, each nation organized all human and material 
resources of the nation for victory. 
		b. By 1918, 650,000 French women in war-related 
industries.  In Great Britain, total number of woman workers up 
from 250,000 in 1914 to 5,000,000 by war's end.  
		c. Govt. Ministries established to direct economic 
activities.  Strikes outlawed, working hours increased.
		d. Maintaining morale crucial too, leading to 
propaganda and censorship, convincing home front that defeat would 
mean destruction of all that life held dear.

	5.  Failure of offensives on Western Front matched by German 
successes in the east against Russia, which badly needed supplies. 
			a. 1915, British try to open Dardanelles, to 
supply Russia through Black Sea. Face Germany's Turkish ally at 
Gallipoli. 
		b. To weaken Turks, stir up Arab nationalism, most 
famously with T.E. Lawrence leading Arab tribes
		c. 1917, British promise Jewish settlers in Palestine a 
future Jewish homeland in Balfour Declaration.

	6. Turning point came in 1917.
		a. Russians revolted and dropped out of war.
		b. French troops mutinous.
		c. German submarine warfare brought U.S. into war
		d. Failure of German offensive of 1918, Allies 
advanced, enclosing German armies in Argonne forest.  Kaiser 
abdicated, a republic was declared in Germany by the socialists, 
armistice signed on Nov.11, 1918.  Great Influenza epidemic of 
winter of 1918-19 claimed more lives than entire war, about 20 
million worldwide.

	7. Versailles Peace Conference
		a. Met in world of death, upheaval and revolution.  
Fear of Bolshevism spreading Westward, with Communist uprisings in 
Germany and Hungary in 1919. 
		b. January, 1918, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson issues 
Fourteen Points: offers national self-determination to all 
peoples, an end to secret diplomacy, freedom of the seas, and a 
League of 			c. Peace conference meets on Jan. 18, 1919, 
in Paris.  Big Four dominate conference: Wilson of U.S., 
Clemenceau of France, Lloyd George of U.K., Orlando of Italy.
		d. Prime Minister Clemenceau of France most security 
conscious, wanting to guarantee French borders from any future 
German aggression. Wilson compromised with Allies in return for 
League.  U.S. Senate failure to ratify Versailles treaty or join 
League of Nations effectively killed it. 
		e. Fate of Germany: colonies handed over to French, 
British or Japanese as League of Nations mandates, for eventual 
self-govt.  France controlled Syria and Lebanon, Britain 
Transjordan, Palestine and Iraq.  Heavy reparations demanded. 
Article 231 conferred sole responsibility for starting war on 
Germany.
		F. Stern treaty and war guilt clause embittered 
Germans, provided propaganda to Nazis. Habsburg Empire fell apart, 
with components declaring themselves national states:  Poland; 
Bohemia, Moravia, Slovaks and some Germans becoming 
Czechoslovakia; south Slavs creating Yugoslavia around Serbia, 
with the capital in Belgrade.

	8.  Casualties: winners (were there any?) and losers.