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What Makes WWI
a “World War”?
‘The Context’
World War I:
“The Great War”
‘World’ Context for WWI
Story of World War I:
- well known, especially European side of it
[See Textbook pp. 850-70 – interspersed with ‘global’ issues]
Less well emphasized: aspects of war that rendered it of
global or ‘world’ significance
- previous wars known by :
countries involved (e.g.Russian-Ottoman War 1878)
or people (e.g.‘Boer War’)
or geography (e.g.Crimean War)
What does it take to make a ‘World’ War?
‘World’ Context for WWI
Two aspects:
- where, by whom war was fought
- consequences of the war:
- direct in terms of ‘Treaties’ (e.g. Versailles)
- indirect social, economic, political
developments (e.g. Russian Revolution
- whole ‘Home Front’ situation in Europe itself
[Textbook..]
‘World’ Context for WWI
Situation c.1900: “Small number states, ‘great powers’
dominated world”
- Great Britain, France : powerful even before industrial
revolution
- Russia: ally of Napoleon, industrializing late 19th century
- Bismark’s Germany: industrializing late 19th century
‘World’ Context for WWI
Situation c.1900 :
- Japan: modernizing, becoming imperial power in China
[we will only cover small part of this story]
- United States: expanding, industrializing, becoming both
regional and global ‘imperial power’
- Intensity of these national expansions, industrial goals
and imperialist initiatives: explosive
‘World’ Context: Russia
Russia: 19th century ‘imperialism’
- encroachment into China (Qing Dynasty)
- imperial success in Ottoman Empire/neighbouring Persia:
in position to threaten British Interests in India (hence
Crimean war) –lost but built up military and economy
- defeated indebted Ottomans in War1878: Treaty of
Berlin subject Ottomans to indemnities
Russia now powerful enough to insist on its repayment –
even before Western Europe’s demands from Crimea!
‘World’ Context for WWI
Social and Political Reforms Effective: Political situation
NOT reformed
- Tsar remained centre of power, much like Ottoman
Sultan Abdul Hamid II after 1876
- used secret police, censorship, anti-Semitism [“Black
Hundreds”] to rule: situation worsened 1890s…
‘World’ Context for WWI
1905: Tsar Nicolas I took up imperialist cause again in Asia
- target: Japan
-Japan: rapidly industrializing like Western Europeans,
fundamentally revolutionizing traditional society
-embarking on its own imperialism in China
-[see Video: ‘The Russian-Japanese War’, Resources (under Revolution
& Reform’]
‘World’ Context for WWI
1905: Russia went to war against Japan
- far-away Manchuria chosen battleground
- ironically: territory Qing Dynasty worried about coming
under Russian influence half a century earlier
- problem: supplies delivered by ship around African Cape
- Easy prey: destroyed by Japanese navy
‘World’ Context for WWI
Defeat lost Russia territory, Nicholas I his throne:
-led to modified ‘revolution’ which, like Ottomans’, was
short-lived
-[see Textbook…]
‘World’ Context for WWI
France, Britain:
- losing influence in ‘Atlantic World’
- gaining huge commercial influence in Asia, Africa
- powerful state companies: British East India Company
(India, China), Royal Africa Company (Africa) and French
Compagnie des Indies (Asia)
By 1900 had translated economic into political power
‘World’ Context for WWI
Britain, France:
- instrumental in weakening empires like Ottomans,
Qing, India: similar methods by both countries
- formalized colonial rule in second half 19th century [e.g.
Victoria becoming ‘Empress of India’; France in Tonkin]
‘World’ Context for WWI
Scramble for Africa (1880s):
- beginning process of turning commercial influence along
African shores into full-fledged colonial control
– Africa became major site for European rivalries and
conflict: what happened in Africa, fed back into Europe
with political consequences
‘World’ Context for WWI
Germany: from 1890s
-Kaiser Wilhelm investing in Ottoman Empire:
infrastructure Berlin to Baghdad railway, military training
-Germany countering British/French rivals with loan offers
- Bismarck: Berlin Conference 1884-5 where Africa was
carved up between Europeans
‘Scramble’ set up new sites for conflict!
‘World’ Context for WWI
Germany: also gained position in northern China
‘World’ Context for WWI
United States:
- 19th century established ‘domestic’ imperialism vis-à-vis
Amerindians but also Mexico
- Involvement with Cuba led to first ‘International’ foray
into Global Imperialism: Spain and its Pacific colonies
- Victory over Spain brought direct colonial control in
Caribbean (Cuba, Puerto Rico) and in Philippines
‘World’ Context for WWI
1899: Philippines revolted against US control
- War lasted until 1902 : Teddy Roosevelt declared general
amnesty and conflict ‘over’’; sporadic fighting continued
- deaths: over 4,200 American, over 20,000 Filipino
combatants
- as many as 200,000 Filipino civilians died from violence,
famine, disease
No doubt that US was Imperial Contender
‘World’ Context for WWI
Rudyard Kipling’s ‘The White Man’s Burden’
- originally published in
American illustrated
magazine in 1899
under the title
“The United States
and the Philippines”
- Ironically, US Imperialism
become Iconic
representation of Europe’s
“New Imperialism”
‘World’ Context for WWI
Philippines promised ‘eventual independence’ in 1907:
- that only
came in
1946
‘World’ Context for WWI
From this overview of the ‘great powers’ -- how do we get
to WWI?
- return to the Ottomans and their Western European
territories
- Early 19th century nationalism led parts of the
Western/European empire to seek independence: began
with ‘Greek War’
- involved Europe but also inspired other Ottoman
provinces to seek autonomy -- if not independence
‘World’ Context for WWI
First to follow: Serbia-Bulgaria
- with Russian support, Serbia successful in establishing
independence
- neighbouring Bosnia-Herzogovinia given to Austrians to
administer (1878)
- unifying around language, ethnicity, religion: all Ottoman
provinces in West achieved some form independence
between 1902-10
‘World’ Context for WWI
‘World’ Context for WWI
Within empire: resistance grew to Abdul Hamid II
- whereas ‘Young Ottomans’ sought westernized Muslim
Ottoman regime -- ‘Young Turk’ successors drew on Turkish
ethnicity as core of Nationalism
- 1908: launched successful revolution against Sultanate
- Sultan remained part of government under new
Constitution (‘resurrection’ of Constitution 1876)
‘World’ Context for WWI
But if Turkish language and culture was to define state –
what of all the other ethnic and religious minorities?
- late 19th c. ambiguities about influence, control between
Europe, Russia and Ottomans left societies volatile
- Instability of poorly defined ‘national’ territories.
- internal conflict accelerated: Bosnia, Herzogovinia,
Balkan States ‘reacted’ after 1908 Revolution
‘World’ Context for WWI
But if Turkish language and culture was to define state –
what of all the other ethnic and religious minorities?
- internal violence between Armenians and ‘Turks’
accelerated: increasingly bloody conflicts broke out on
several occasions between 1889-1904
- resulted in Armenian genocide during WWI
‘World’ Context for WWI
Balkan Wars 1912-13: 19th c. practice of ‘consolidating
nationalism’ through murder and expulsion
- Muslim villages, town quarters destroyed: refugees fled
- joined by persecuted Jews
- European observers estimated about half of refugees
never reached Sanctuary
‘World’ Context for WWI
Wars reeked of atrocities: account by former Serbian
soldier (of his own people)
“..the horrors actually began as soon as we crossed the old
frontier. By five p.m. we were approaching Kumanovo. The
sun had set, it was starting to get dark. But the darker the
sky became, the more brightly the fearful illumination of
the fires stood out against it. Burning was going on all
around us. Entire Albanian villages had been turned into
pillars of fire...
‘World’ Context for WWI
. . .For two days before my arrival in Skopje the inhabitants
had woken up in the morning to the sight, under the
principal bridge over the Vardar- that is, in the very centre
of the town- of heaps of Albanian corpses with severed
heads. Some said that these were local Albanians, killed by
the komitadjis [cjetniks], others that the corpses were
brought down to the bridge by the waters of the Vardar.
What was clear was that these headless men had not been
killed in battle.”
‘World’ Context for WWI
“As the Ottoman Empire came to the period of the First
World War, it had already suffered greater blows than any
other combatants were to suffer in the Great War”.
[Historian Justin McCarthy]
‘World’ Context for WWI
June 28, 1914: archduke Franz Ferdinand heir to Austrian
throne assassinated by Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo
- Sarajevo part of independent Serbia (outcome of long,
bloody wars against Ottomans in 1800s)
- annexed by Austria 1908: ‘Nationalists’ reacting to
imposition new foreign control with Assassination of
Archduke Ferdinand
Roots of War which followed lay in 19th century struggles:
consequences defined 20th century
‘World’ Context for WWI
‘World’ Context for WWI
- given what the region had just lived through during the
Balkan Wars of 1912-13: Sarajevo was a continuation of
war, not the beginning of new one
And yet for the rest of the world -- it was.
It was “The Great War – World War 1”