World War I 1914-1918 Presentation By Kathryn Raia Our Lady of Mercy Academy.

World War I1914-1918Presentation By Kathryn RaiaOur Lady of Mercy Academy

The Great War• Lasted from 1914-1918 and the

Paris Peace Conference was in 1919.

• People knew that the “Great War” was coming and evidence can be seen in art and literature leading up to the war.

• Turning Point in warfare due to new technology

• To try to ease tensions, Europe brought back the Olympic games in Athens 1896.

• In addition the Hague Tribunal is created. This organization was an pen forum where countries could discuss their problems without warfare.

Path to War: Long Term Causes

1. Rival alliances: Triple Alliance vs. Triple

Entente• 1870: Balance of power of Europe

upset by decisive Prussian victory in Franco-Prussian War.

• Bismarck feared French revenge; negotiated treaties to isolate France; also feared Russia after the Congress of Berlin 1878

• 1879 Dual Alliance: Germany and Austria

• Wanted to stop Russian expansion• Germany supported Austria in

struggle of expansion in the Balkans

• Became a feature of European diplomacy until after World War I

Triple Alliance, 1881: Germany, Austria and Italy

Italy joins Austria and Germany in looking for

support for its imperialistic ambitions.

Long-Term Causes Continued

Russian-German Reinsurance Treaty of 1887:

• promised neutrality if other was attacked

• Kaiser Wilhelm II refused to renew reinsurance treaty after removing Bismarck in 1890

• Germany developed closer ties to Austria

• France courted Russia and the two became allies

"Splendid Isolation": • After 1891, Britain was the only

uncommitted power

 Anglo-Japanese Alliance (1902): • Britain sought Japanese

agreement to "benevolent neutrality" to counter possible Russian threat in India.

Entente Cordial (1904): •In the face of Anglo-German naval arms race, Britain and France settled all outstanding colonial disputes in Africa.

Triple Entente, 1907: •Britain, France and Russia; formed to check Triple Alliance

Long Term Causes ContinuedMilitarism and the Arms Race

• Anglo-German arms race• Militarism led to a belief in the inevitability of

European war.• Germany overtook Britain industrially in the 1890s• British policy was have their fleet larger than

combined fleets of any two rival nations• 1898, Kaiser Wilhelm II began expansion of German

navy to protect a growing international trade and colonialism

• Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz led the naval buildup for Germany.

• Bertha von Suttner (Austrian) – first woman to win Nobel Peace Prize; opposed arms race

• Lay Down Your Arms (1889) contributed to founding of Peace Societies in Austria & Germany

• Haldane Mission (1912): British tried unsuccessfully to end naval arms race with Germany

• By World War I, both Britain and Germany possessed Dreadnoughts – new super battleships with awesome firing range and power

Long Term Causes Continued

Imperialism• Imperialism led to increased tensions between

the Great Powers over Africa• Berlin Conference, 1885: Germany's late coming

into imperialism led Bismarck to establish rules for carving up Africa

• Kruger Telegram (1902): triggered British anger at Germany for congratulating Boers on their victories over British troops in South Africa.

• 1906: Algeciras Conference settled First Moroccan Crisis

• Kaiser had urged Moroccan independence despite it being a French colony

• Britain and Italy supported French hegemony in Morocco and Tunisia

• Britain, France, Russia, & U.S. saw Germany as potential threat to dominate all Europe

• Germany isolated (except for Austria's support)• Cried "encirclement" by other powers to block

Germany's emergence as world power• Second Moroccan Crisis (1911)

• German gunboat sent to Morocco to protest French occupation of the city of Fez.

• Britain supported France again; Germany backed down for minor concessions in equatorial Africa.

Long Term Causes Continued

Nationalism• Nationalism created a "powder keg" in the

Balkans• The Ottoman Empire (“the sick man of

Europe”) receded from the Balkans• Pan-Slavism, a nationalist movement to unite

all Slavic peoples, encouraged the Serbs, Bosnians, Slovenes, and Croats to seek a single political entity in Southern Europe

• As southern Slavs’ “big brother” to the east, Russia focused on Balkan regions in Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires after its humiliating loss in the Russo-Japanese War.

First Balkan Crisis• Young Turks led by Ataturk (Mustafa Kemal

Pasha) set up parliamentary gov't in Ottoman Empire; seemed weak to others

• 1908 Austria annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina while Russia failed to gain access, Serbia frustrated

• Austria's action violated the Congress of Berlin (1878)

• 1911-12, Italy took Turkish province of Libya; showed how weak Ottomans had become

• War was averted because Russia was not yet ready and Franc was not willing to fight over the Balkans    

NationalismFirst Balkan War (1908)• Serbia, Greece, and Bulgaria allied to

drive the Turks out of the Balkans• Serbia sought spot on the Adriatic;

rebuffed when Austria created Albania to deter Serbia.

Second Balkan War (1913)• Bulgaria was angered that Serbia and

Greece had acquired significant territory in Macedonia and thus attacked both countries.

• Serbia defeated Bulgaria over Macedonia and gained Albania;

• Russia backed Serbia• Austria, with German support against

Russia, prevented Serbia from holding Albania

• Serbia frustrated it had no access to Adriatic Sea; Russia humiliated

• "Third Balkan War" between Austria and Serbia became World War I

Immediate Causes to World War I

• Serbia wanted to create a South Slav State (Pan-slavism) and wanted to annex Bosnia which belonged to Austria

• June 28, 1914: Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Austrian heir to throne, assassinated by Serbian nationalist Princip (member Serbian "Black Hand") while visiting Bosnia-Herzegovina.

• Austria Issues Serbia an ultimatum: Punish those involved and end all anti-Austrian aggression or else.

Immediate Causes Cont..

Kaiser Wilhelm II pledges unwavering support to Austria to punish Serbia: "the blank check"

• July 28, Austria declares war on Serbia

• Claimed that Serbia did not meet the ultimatum

• First military act of the war was the Austrian bombing of Belgrade.

• Russia mobilizes against Austria & Germany;

• France mobilizes on Germany's western border

Immediate Causes

Aug 1, German declares war on Britain and France

Aug. 3, Germany invades Belgium; France declares war on Germany

Aug 4, Britain declares war on Germany

European TheatreTwo opposing alliances• Central Powers (Triple Alliance): Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman

Empire (also Bulgaria)• Allies (Triple Entente): Britain, France, Russia (later, Japan, Italy and U.S.)

Europe from Another Perspective

The Western Front

• Schlieffen Plan: German plan to invade France through Belgium, defeat France quickly (6 weeks) by sweeping around Paris, and then move to the east to defeat Russia

• Why did it fail?• Belgian resistance slowed

German advance• German line could not lure

French into Alsace Lorraine• Russia mobilized too quickly.

Early Battles – Western Front

• Battle of the Marne (Sept. 1914): After Germans came within sight of Paris, French and British forces pushed German forces back. Led by General Joseph Joffre

Trench Warfare

• Trench warfare developed after Battle of the Marne; lasted four bloody years

•A long line of trenches stretched from the North Sea to the Swiss border in the south

•Despite massive causalities on both sides, few gains were made

•Creation of a four year stalemate

Trench Warfare

Trench Warfare

Trench Warfare

Early Battles – Western Front

• 1916: Battle of Verdun • Germans wanted to “Bleed

France White” and force it to sue for peace

• Franc lost 540,000 men and Germany lost 430,000

• and Battle of the Somme; horrific casualties; neither side could break through

• British and French offensive to break through German lines

• Losses men: Britain 420,000; France 200,000; Germany 650,000

Trench Warfare

• Erich Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front (1929) illustrated horrific trench warfare.

Three o’clock in the morning. The breeze is fresh and cool. The pale hour makes our faces look gray. We trudge onward in single file through the trenches and shell-holes and come again to the zone of mist. Katczinsky is

restive, that’s a bad sign. “What’s up, Kat?” says Kropp.

“I wish I were back home.” Home - he means the huts. “We’ll soon be out of it, Kat.”

He is nervous. “I don’t know, I don’t know --- “ We come to the communication trench and then to the open fields. The little wood reappears. We know every foot of ground

here. There’s the cemetery with the mounds and the black crosses. That moment, it breaks out behind us, swells, roars and thunders. We duck down - a cloud of flame shoots up a hundred yards ahead of us. The next minute under a second explosion part of the wood rises slowly in the air, three or four trees sail up and

then crash to pieces. The shells begin to hiss like safety valves - heavy fire. “Take cover!” yells somebody, “Cover!”

The fields are flat, the wood is too distant and dangerous - the only cover is the graveyard and the mounds. We stumble across in the dark and as though he had been spat there every man lies glued behind a mound.

Not a moment too soon. The dark goes mad. It heaves and raves. Darknesses blacker than the night rush on us with giant strides, over us and away. The flames of the explosions light up the graveyard. There is no escape anywhere. By the light of the shells I try to get a view of the fields. They are a surging sea, daggers of flame from the explosions leap up like fountains. It is impossible for anyone to break through it. The wood vanishes. It is pounded, crushed, torn to pieces. We must stay here in the

graveyard. …

Before me gapes the shell-hole. I grasp it with my eyes as with fists. With one leap I must be in it. There, I get a smack in the face, a hand clamps onto my shoulder - has a dead man woken up? The hand shakes me. I turn my head in the second of light I stare into the face of Katczinsky. He has his mouth wide open and is yelling. I hear nothing. He rattles me, comes nearer, in a

momentary lull his voice reaches me: “Gas – Gaas – Gaaas - Pass it on.”

An Industrialized War

•   Technological advancements in war: machine gun, tanks, airplane, poison gas, Zeppelins, U-boats

War on The Eastern Front

• General Von Hindenburg & General Von Ludendorf defeated invading Russian armies at Tannenburg; turned the tide of the war in the east

• Gallipoli Campaign: British and Australian forces failed to take Dardanelles as a step toward taking Constantinople and defeating the Turks

Russia

• Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (Dec. 1917): Lenin took Russia out of the war but forced to give Germans 1/4 of Russian territory

Eastern Front Continued…• T.E.

Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia): scored major victories in the middle east to weaken the Turks

The War at Sea

British and Allied Naval Blockade: • Goal was to strangle Central

Powers• Starting in 1914, used superior

fleet & sea mines to cut Central Powers off from overseas trade and caused Germany to lose control of its colonial empire.

• Germany responded by sinking Allied vessels

• Lusitania, 1915: U-boats sank passenger liner killing 1,200 including 128 Americans

• Germany began unrestricted submarine warfare in 1917 sinking all ships with its U-boats

• Most important reason for U.S. entry into the war

Archangel expedition (summer 1918)

Allies “unknown war” against Russia: Archangel expedition

• Sought to prevent Bolshevik victory during Russian civil war by invading from Murmansk

• Allies also sent troops into Siberia to prevent Japanese control of the region, rescue thousands of marooned Czech soldiers and prevent the Bolsheviks from getting new weapons supplies

• Actually prolonged the Russian Civil War

Total War

• involved mass civilian populations in the war effort

• Massive conscription drafted most able-bodied men in their youth

• ·News was censored; propaganda lionized the men at the front and dehumanized the enemy

• British propaganda effectively demonized Germany as the “Hun”

Propaganda Posters

Propaganda Posters

Propaganda Posters

Total War: Economics

Economic production was focused on the war effort

• Free-market capitalism was abandoned in favor of strong central planning of the economy

• Labor Unions supported the war effort – demand for labor

• Rationing of food and scarce commodities was instituted.

• People financed the war by buying bonds.

• Each side aimed at “starving out” the enemy by cutting off vital supplies to the civilian population.

Total War: Economics

• Women replaced male factory workers who were now fighting the war.

• 43% of the labor force in Russia

• Changing attitudes about women resulted in increased rights after the war (Britain, Germany, Austria and U.S.)

• War promoted greater social equality, thus blurring class distinctions and lessening the gap between rich and poor

Total War

• In France, Georges Clemenceau created a dictatorship during the war

• Germany became the world's first totalitarian regime in order to control the war effort

Diplomacy During the War• 1915: Neutral Italy entered the war

against the Central Powers (its former allies) with the promise of Italia Irredenta (“unredeemed Italy”) and some German colonies and Turkish territories.

• Zimmerman Note: Germany proposed an alliance with Mexico; would return most of southwestern U.S. to Mexico if Central Powers won.

• Balfour Note (1917) Arabs & Jews in Palestine promised autonomy if they joined the Allies.

• Britain declared sympathy for idea of Jewish homeland in Palestine.

• New policy seemed to contradict British support for Arab nationalism.

Diplomacy continued…

Wilson’s 14 Points (Jan. 1918) -- plan to end the war along liberal, democratic lines

• Provisions:• Abolish secret treaties • Freedom of the seas • Remove economic barriers (e.g. tariffs)• Reduction of armament burdens • Promise of independence (“self-determination”) to

oppressed minority groups (e.g. Poles, Czechs), millions of which lived in Germany and Austria-Hungary.

• Adjustment of colonial claims in interests of both native peoples and colonizers

• German evacuation of Russia; restoration of Belgium; return of Alsace-Lorraine to France; evacuation and restoration of the Balkans; return of Schleswig to Denmark

• Adjustment of Italy’s borders along ethnic lines.• Autonomy for non-Turkish parts of the Turkish

Empire.• 14th point: International organization to supply

collective security• Foreshadowed League of Nations

The End of the War

• Argonne offensive (spring 1918: Germans transferred divisions from east (after defeating Russia) to the western front and mounted a massive offensive.

• U.S. entered war in time to help stop the German offensive

• Central Powers sought peace based on 14 Points (believing they would get fair treatment)

• Germany and Austria-Hungary wracked with revolution

• Austria surrendered on Nov. 3• Germany surrendered on Nov.

11(Armistice signed at 11 pm); Wilhelm II abdicates and flees to Holland

Paris Peace Conference 1919• Big Four: Lloyd George (Br.), Clemenceau (Fr.), Wilson (US), Orlando (It)• Central powers excluded from negotiations• France concerned with its future security• Italy left the conference angry it would not get some territories promised in 1915 • Italy wanted territory once in the Austro-Hungarian empire• Ethnic groups once in the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empire wanted to form

their own states. Some borders overlapped so it was impossible to satisfy everyone

Paris Peace Conference 1919New German Republic – Weimar

Republic: Why did the Allies not want to sign a peace agreement with an autocratic government?

Versailles Treaty, 1919• Article 231: placed sole blame

for war on Germany; Germany would be severely punished

• Germany forced to pay huge reparations to Britain and France

• German army and navy severely reducedGermany was only allowed 100, 000 standing troops and had to reduce their navy to six ships and Germany could have no submarines or military aircraft

• Rhineland would be demilitarized; Saar coal mines taken over by France

• Germany lost all its colonies and Alsace Lorraine returned to France

Paris Peace Conference 1919

• League of Nations: • Germany and Russia

not included• U.S. Senate failed to

ratify resulting in U.S. isolationism

• The league thus was born as a mere shadow of what it had originally been intended to achieve.

Paris Peace Conference 1919

• Italy was angry because they did not get t the lands promised to them

• Japans claim to Chinese territory was not recognized by Europeans

• mandates for former colonies and territories of the Central Powers• territories

administered by Western Powers

Conference Continued

•  Other Settlements• Baltic States: Lithuania,

Latvia, and Estonia • Poland gained

independence • Three New Republic:

Czechoslovakia, Austria and Hungry

• New South Slav State: Yugoslavia

• Members of Paris Peace conference only applied self-determination to Europe

Impact of World War I on European Society

• Massive casualties: • 10 million soldiers dead; • 10 million civilians dead, many

from influenza epidemic;• 15 million died in Russian

Revolution

• End to political dynasties• Hapsburg dynasty removed in

Austria (had lasted 500 years)• Romanov dynasty removed in

Russia (had lasted 300 years)• Hohenzollern dynasty removed

in Germany (had lasted 300 years)

• Ottoman Empire destroyed (had lasted 500 years)

Impact of World War I on European Society

• War promoted greater social equality, thus blurring class distinctions and lessening the gap between rich and poor

• The Russian Revolution abolished the nobility and gave women more rights than any other country in Europe

• Women received the right to vote in Britain the same year that the war ended; Germany soon followed

• The nobility in Germany, Austria, and Russia lost much of its influence and prestige

Impact of World War I on European Society

• Dissent Increased as the war continued

• Tsar was overthrown by the Provisional government who was then overthrown by the Bolsheviks due to the mounting war casualties

• Irish Republicans staged an insurrection – The Easter Rebellion – in England in 1916

• In Germany, militant socialists and anti-war activists Rosa Luxembourg and Clara Zetkin were imprisoned for trying to convince fellow socialists not to support the war effort.

• Large crowds of Women in France, Austria, and Italy protested working conditions and high prices

• Government censorship existed in virtually every country and people increasingly grew dissatisfied with the integrity of their governments.

Impact of World War I on European Society

• Russian Revolution resulted in world's first communist country

• German nationalist resentment of harsh Versailles Treaty doomed the Weimar Republic• German anger with treaty

partially responsible for rise of Hitler in early 1930s

• The U.S. became the world’s leading creditor and greatest producer due to the drain of Europe’s resources.

• Unresolved differences lead to WWII