Download Why War?

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
Monday, 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)
– The one thing they have in common is Germany as the enemy
• THEN GB and Russia enter alliance
Why War?
 Crises:
– Balkans: tensions increase –Austria/Russia
• Crisis 1: 1908 Austria annexes Bosnia &
Herzegovina (the Serbs wanted B-H and
thought that the Turks were going to give it to
them)
• Crisis 2: 1st & 2nd Balkan Wars
– 1912 Balkan League (Se, Bu, Mo, Gr) vs. Ottomans
• Ottoman’s lose most of its territory in Europe
– 1913: Gr, Se, Ro, OE vs. Bu over Macedonia &
Albania = Serbia blocked; Albania independent;
Bulgaria loses a lot of territory
The suspected assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand is hustled into custody in Sarajevo
in 1914.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914,
moments before they are killed by an assassin working with the Black
Hand terrorist group
Why War?
 Crisis 3: June 28, 1914 Serbian Gavrillo Princip
of “Union of Death” / Black Hand kills
Archduke Franz Ferdinand – heir to throne!
 Ongoing feelings that drive reaction to the
assassination:
– Serbs are still mad at Austrians for taking B-H
– Franz Ferdinand was head of group of Austrians
plotting to deal with Serbia once and for all
 Add insult to injury: Ferdinand was in Sarajevo
on June 28, 1914 (his anniversary and most
sacred day to Serbs – an insult)
Alliances after 1871
Three Emperors’ League (Dreikaiserbund), 1873
Austro-German Alliance, 1878-1918
Alliance of 3 Emperors, 1881-1887
Triple Alliance, 1881-1915
Russo-French Alliance,
1892-1917
Reinsurance Treaty, 1887 (Germany &
Russia, secret treaty)
1902 GB allied w/ Japan
1904 = entente cordial btw. GB & Fr.
End of GB’s “splendid isolation”
Germany
Aust.-Hung.
Russia
Triple Entente,
1907-1918
France
Italy
GB
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
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
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 BethmannHollweg
– 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 France
Battle 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 Front
Eastern 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 AustriaHungary
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
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 Kaiser Wilhelm II
Republic) and official armistice
Difficulty in Making Peace
 Victors
Directly Defeated
– Great Britain
–Germany
– France
–Austria-Hungary
– United States
–Ottoman Empire
– Italy
–Bulgaria
– Belgium
– Portugal
Indirectly Defeated
–Russia
Major Personalities
Georges Clemenceau:
France “The Tiger”
Vittorio Orlando:
Italy
David Lloyd George:
Great Britain
“squeeze the orange until the
pips squeak”
Woodrow Wilson: USA
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
Italy 500,000
Russia 1,700,000
Austria 1,250,000
Britain 1,000,000
US 116,708
Germany 2,000,000
 A peace…made in quicksand