1914-1919 The World at War The lights are going out all over Europe: we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime. Sir Edward Grey English Foreign secretary.

1914-1919The World at

War“The lights are going out all over Europe:

we shall not see them lit again

in our lifetime.”Sir Edward Grey

English Foreign secretaryMonday, March 8, 1914

(4 months prior to outbreak of WWI)

Preparation for War

Largest ever peacetime armies / reserves German desire for “place in the sun”

– Recognition of power – like Britain– French disagree: Alsace-Lorraine 1871– English disagree: industrial / colonial

competition Alliance systems: Designed by Bismarck as

prevention of German shut-out

– first Germany w/Russia / Austria – vs. France– Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II unable to

maintain Bismarck’s complex relationships• SO France allies with Russia (odd combo

rad/conserv)• THEN GB and Russia enter alliance

Alliances after 1871Three Emperors’ League (Dreikaiserbund), 1873

Austro-German Alliance, 1878-1918

Alliance of 3 Emperors, 1881-1887

Triple Alliance, 1881-1915

Russo-French Alliance, 1892-1917

Germany

Aust.-Hung.Russia

Italy

France Triple Entente, 1907-1918

GB

Reinsurance Treaty, 1887 (Germany & Russia, secret treaty)

1902 GB allied w/ Japan

1904 = entente cordial btw. GB & Fr.

End of GB’s “splendid isolation”

Technology and Warfare

The Great Arms Race !!!! Weapons were ahead of tactics

– Machine guns– Barbed wire– Trench warfare– Hand Grenades– Heavy artillery– Tanks (Somme)– Gas Warfare –

mustard and nerve gas (see. CfL, 66-67)

British munitions plant

Technology and Warfare

Trench Warfare

The War at Sea

Heavy battleships – “Dreadnought”– Competition with

these ships began in the 1890s

– Each nation built heavier and larger ships

Submarines– Germans =

unlimited use– sparks US conflict

Sinking of the Lusitania

Germany sinks Lusitania – May 7, 1915 - 198 civilians, including 128 U.S. citizens killed

Great Britain and USA force Germany to adopt limited use of submarines

Jan. 1917 Germany returns to unrestricted use of subs – by April 1917 USA enters WWI!

The War in the Air

German Aircraft

US 94th

Why War? Crises:

– Balkans: tensions increase –Austria/Russia•Crisis 1: 1908 Austria annexes Bosnia &

Herzegovina– Russia intervenes on behalf of the Slavs – Germany intervenes and Russia defeated &

humiliated

•Crisis 2: 1st & 2nd Balkan Wars– 1912 Balkan League (Se, Bu, Mo, Gr) vs. Ottomans – 1913: Gr, Se, Ro, OE vs. Bu over Macedonia &

Albania = Serbia blocked; Albania independent

•Crisis 3: June 28, 1914 Serbian Gavrillo Princip of “Union of Death” / Black Hand kills Archduke Franz Ferdinand – heir to throne!

War Begins Austria: must subdue Serbian

separatism – July 23, 1914: 10-pt. Ultimatum to Serbia

“blank check” from Germany • July 25: William II & Theobald von Bethmann-

Hollweg– War declared

• Austria vs Serbia, July 28; vs. Russia, July 30• Russia & France mobilized – Germany declares

war vs. Russia, Aug 1 / vs. Belgium, Aug 3 Von Schlieffen Plan:

• Germany invades Belgium & violates Belgian Neutrality treaty of 1839 – France declares war, Aug 4

• 2-front: knock out France through Belgium, then on to Russia – trains troops for two fronts

– Result• Great Britain declares war on Germany, Aug 4• Aug 23 Japan (GB ally) declares war on Germany

Western Front - 1916

Western Front: focus on FranceBattle of the Marne: September 6-10, 1914 – Trench Warfare: GB & Fr halt German advance on Paris

First Battle of Ypres: Oct. 14, 1914 / Second Battle of Ypres: April 22, 1915

Battle of the Somme, 1916: Allied offensive

8 miles gained --- 2 ½ men die per inch; “I am staring at a sunlit picture of hell” Siegfried Sassoon

Battle of Verdun, 1916: German offensive

Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele): July 1917---stalemate continues – in water!

Second Battle of the Marne: March-August, 1918 – last decisive round of battles (w/ involvement of USA)

Third Battle of Ypres: Passchendaele

Eastern FrontEastern Front & Beyond:

Battle of Tannenburg – Aug. 30, 1914 (Gens. Hindenburg & Ludendorff)

Battle of Masurian Lakes – Sept. 9, 1914

Italy 1915 – abandons Germany & joins Allies by declaring war on Austria-Hungary

Gallipoli – British & Australians vs. Turks – April 1915

Ottoman Empire: Lawrence of Arabia—in 1917 British Col. T.E. Lawrence encourages Arabic revolts against Ottomans

The United States Weighs In

Jan. 1917: Wilson pushes for “peace without victors”

America not involved directly until April 6, 1917

Major incident:– Zimmerman Tele. 2/17:

Germans use US telegraph lines to relay to their embassies in US and Mexico that unrestricted use of submarines will resume

The War on Land

1917…little hope… BUT…

1917…Russian Bolshevik Revolution begins

March 3, 1918…Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, see pg. 739

Germany can move West

BUT….

1918…US enters the war! – 2nd Battle of the Marne Aug 8, 1918 German General Lundendorff admits defeat

Germany defeated…

Germany’s defeat…Sept. 1918– October 6, 1918 German gov’t.

requests armistice talks– Arguments over armistice ---

soldiers revolt and est. revolutionary councils (“soviets”)

– Nov. 9, 1918 Wilhelm II abdicates – flees to Holland

Nov. 11, 1918: Friedrich Ebert declares the first German Republic in Weimar (Weimar Republic) and official armistice

Kaiser Wilhelm II

Victors– Great Britain– France– United States– Italy– Belgium– Portugal

Difficulty in Making Peace

Directly Defeated

–Germany–Austria-Hungary–Ottoman Empire–Bulgaria

Indirectly Defeated

–Russia

Major Personalities

Georges Clemenceau: France “The Tiger”

Woodrow Wilson: USA

David Lloyd George: Great Britain

“squeeze the orange until the pips squeak”

Vittorio Orlando: Italy

The Treaty of Versailles: a difficult peace

January 1919 – Paris – US, France, Great Britain, (Italy) +23 others– No Germany or Russia

The fight begins:– France: desire to punish Germany

• Demilitarize• Rhineland as buffer state

– Woodrow Wilson: desire for “Peace without Victors”• League of Nations (Jan 25, 1919); “open covenants of

peace”, reduction of armaments; self-determination

– GB: prevent France’s “buffer state”; make Germans pay $$

In the End– 5 sep. treaties w/ G, Au, Hu, Bu & OE

Results of Treaty of Versailles (& others)

Results: Germany is blamed for the war (Article 231 War Guilt Clause)– Army can be no bigger than 100,000– Reparations: for causing war - 32 billion dollars– Navy to be no larger than 24 ships – no subs– No new developments in air force– Demilitarize the Rhine area (but not a buffer state)– Lost 27,500 square miles of land League of Nations

(Alsace Lorraine, part of Prussia) New nations—imperialism continues

– Austria/Hungary:• Austria / Hungary / Czechoslovakia / Romania / Poland /

Yugoslavia– “Polish Corridor” to Baltic– France: Lebanon / Syria = mandates– GB: Iraq / Palestine (w/Jewish Nat'l. home) =

mandates– Japan: Germany’s holdings in China

Results

The beginning of the end of 19th century imperialism…

Total number dead - over 9 million – France 1,500,000 Britain 1,000,000– Italy 500,000 US 116,708– Russia 1,700,000 Germany 2,000,000– Austria 1,250,000

A peace…made in quicksand