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Historiography of the causes of World War I wikipedia , lookup
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The Crisis of the Imperial Order 1900-1929 The “Great War” and the Russian Revolution 1914-1918 • The nations of Europe entered the war in high spirits, confident of victory • German victory at first seemed assured, but as the German advance faltered in September, both sides spread out until they formed an unbroken line of trenches (the Western front) from the North Sea to Switzerland • The generals on each side tried for four years to take enemy positions by ordering their troops to charge across the open fields, only to have them cut down by machine-gun fire • For four years, the war was inconclusive on both land and at sea The Home Front and the War Economy • The material demands of trench warfare led governments to impose stringent controls over all aspects of their economies • Rationing and the recruitment of Africans, Indians, Chinese, and women into the European labor force transformed civilian life • German civilians paid an especially high price for the war because the British naval blockade cut off access to essential food imports The Home Front and the War Economy • British and French forces overran Germany’s African colonies except for Tanganyika) • In all of their African colonies, Europeans requisitioned food, imposed heavy taxes, forced Africans to grow export crops and sell them at low prices, and recruited African men to serve as soldiers and as porters The Home Front and the War Economy • The U.S. grew rich during the war by selling goods to Britain and France • When the U.S. entered the war in 1917, businesses engaged in war production made tremendous profits The Ottoman Empire at War • Turks signed a secret alliance with Germany in 1914 • Turkey engaged in unsuccessful campaigns against Russia, deported the Armenians (causing deaths of hundreds of thousands), and closed the Dardanelles • When they failed to open the Dardanelles Straits by force, the British tried to subvert the Ottoman Empire from within by promising emir Hussein ibn Ali of Mecca a kingdom of his own if he would lead a revolt against the Turks, which he did in 1916 • Balfour Declaration of 1917: British “viewed with favor” the establishment of a Jewish national homeland in Palestine • Britain sent troops into southern Mesopotamia to secure the oil pipeline from Iran, taking Baghdad in early 1917 Impact: Social • Families were altered by the departure of many men • With the death or absence of the primary wage earner women were forced into the workforce in unprecedented numbers, at least in many of the Entente powers • At the same time, industry needed to replace the lost laborers sent to war. This aided the struggle for voting rights for women Impact: Social • One of the distinguishing features of the war was its totality • All aspects of the societies fighting were affected by the conflict, • even countries not in the war zone Impact: Political • expansion of government, its powers and responsibilities in Britain, France, the United States, and the Dominions of the British Empire • new government ministries and powers were created • new taxes were levied, and laws enacted, all designed to bolster the war effort, many of which have lasted to this day Demographic Impact •more dead and wounded •more physical destruction •millions of refugees many of whom fled to France and to the United States •immigration laws that closed the doors to eastern and southern Europeans •Influenza epidemic, killed 30 million people •serious damage to the environment and hastened the build-up of mines, factories, and railroads Geographic Impact: Territorial Changes • tremendous changes to eastern Europe • Empires were shattered, and new stations were established • A dangerous power vacuum was created between Germany and Soviet Russia Geographic Impact: Partition of the Ottoman Empire, 1914- 1923 • The decline of the mighty Ottoman Empire began in 1699, when the Habsburgs conquered Hungary, and it accelerated after 1805, when Egypt became virtually independent. • By 1914 the Ottoman Turks had been pushed out of the Balkans, and their Arab provinces were on the edge of revolt; that revolt erupted in the First World War and contributed greatly to the Ottomans' defeat. • When the allies then attempted to implement their plans, including independence for the Armenian people, Mustafa Kemal arose to forge in battle the modern Turkish state. Geographic Impact • No other war had changed the map of Europe so dramatically - four empires were shattered: • German • Austro-Hungarian • Ottoman • Russian • Their four dynasties, the Hohenzollerns, the Habsburgs, the Ottomans, and the Romanovs, who had roots of power back to the days of the Crusades, all fell during or after the war Global Impact • marked a turning point in world history • reduced the global influence of Europe • destroying some of its monarchies and empires and diminishing the strength of others • enabled new nations to emerge • Shifted economic resources and cultural influences away from Europe • encouraged nations in other areas of the world, notably the United States, to challenge Europe's international leadership Global Impact • Bolsheviks seized power in 1917 • With military defeat in 1918, the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires disintegrated • Germany replaced the kaiser's government with the Weimar Republic • New nations such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia emerged from former empires. • Victory for the European Allies came at a high price • They owed over $11 billion to the United States, which was transformed from a net debtor to a net creditor • New York replaced London as the world's financial center • The Allies also faced increasing demands for self-rule from their colonies • They no longer controlled sufficient military and economic resources to shape world affairs as before. Global Impact • By war's end, the United States and Japan were among the victorious powers at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, along with the United Kingdom, France, and Italy, • U.S. president Woodrow Wilson played a leading role • League of Nations was an essential part of the Treaty of Versailles but was rejected by US Senate • The United States and the Allies, refused to recognize the Bolshevik government in Russia so it was excluded from the peace negotiations • Still, the specter of Bolshevism loomed over the conference Global Legacy • enduring legacy of Wilsonianism • emphasized the principle of national selfdetermination • League of Nations was meant to curb nationalist excesses and aggression • collective security would enable nations to participate in a new world order of peace and prosperity • influenced the statecraft of future generations • continued to shape the international history of the twentieth century Global Legacy • The League of Nations failed to maintain peace when aggressive nations—notably Communist Russia, Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and Imperial Japan—later challenged the Versailles peace • These revisionist powers rejected democracy and capitalism and challenged the status quo