Download Chapter 33: The Great War

Chapter 33: The Great War: The World in Upheaval
General Overview
28 June 1914: Assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand
 started a localized Serbian-Austrian conflict
o grew into a global affair and
 the bloodiest war in all of history up to that point.
o Millions on five continents dragged into a war
o had absolutely no meaning.
 Economic losses: billions of dollars.
New concepts changed course of war forever:
 “total war”
 “home front”
Massive industrialization provided:
 seemingly endless supply of destructive new weapons.
o over nine million (9,000,000) soldiers died and
o another twenty-one million (21,000,000) people were injured.
Nations:
 Four (4) powerful empires disappeared
o Austria-Hungary (Hapsburg)
o German (Hohenzollern)
 Nine (9) new nations were born.
o Austria
o Czechoslovakia
o Estonia
o Finland
o Hungary
 Russian and world history changed by:
o world’s first communist revolution.
 The United States: stepped onto the world stage:
o changed the course of the war,
o shaped the peace treaty, and then
o rapidly retreated into isolationism


o Russian (Romanovs)
o Ottoman
o
o
o
o
Latvia
Lithuania
Poland
Yugoslavia
1914: Europeans unchallenged as masters of the world
1918: brought about their own destruction.
Themes
The Great War ushered in a century of violence and upheaval:
Total War characteristics:
Unprecedented geographical event:
 Old empires vanished
 New nation-states.
 Pulled in people and resources from five continents.
 Governments mobilized every available human and economic resource
 Distinction between combatants and civilians evaporated.
Industrial weaponry favored defenders:
 Contributed to unprecedented brutality and violence.
 Tens of millions died or were left permanently injured or traumatized
 European dominance of the international economy ended.
Many causes underlay the conflict:
 National rivalries intensified by imperialism,
 Struggle for global economic power,
 Expensive naval and land-based arms races
 Alliance systems:
o The establishment of two opposing alliances—
 the Central Powers and
 the Allies—
o open-ended collective security arrangements
 helped expand a Balkan war into a continental and then global one.
Imperial nations such as Britain and France
 Forcibly recruited large numbers of colonial peoples to serve the war effort.
 Millions of Africans, Asians, and residents of British dominions them
 Process ultimately weakened imperial control
o encouraged decolonization
o exposed the hypocrisy of white racial superiority to colonial subjects.
Global Power Shifts:
Russia, the strains of the war led to
 Two revolutions in 1917
o First revolution: led to
 representative government (short-lived)
o Second revolution: brought to power
 the Bolsheviks.
 transformed subsequent Russian events
 transformed subsequent world events
United States
 Entry of the United States into the war,
 First time in world history US intervened in Europe militarily
o signaled emergence of US as global power but . . .
 Retreat into isolationism,
o Set stage even more destructive and violent global conflict: WWII.
International Institutions
 World War I: the creation of new international organizations:
o League of Nations
 the League ultimately failed but:
 served as a model for more robust international institutions
 these emerged in the aftermath of the World War II.
Other Considerations: In-Depth Exploration of the Great War
Consider: World War I often gets pushed into the background: Causes:
 World War II captures the popular imagination much more readily than its WWI.
 Almost no preconceived notions or even sketchy information about the Great War.
 Better (rough) idea of the major players and implications of World War II
 Background is especially important because
 World War I gives birth and form and meaning to events and topics such as
 World War II,
 the Russian revolution,
 the horrors of modern war,
 the bloody history of eastern Europe in the twentieth century,
 the position of the United States as a world power, and so on.
Reason for the Great War’s (WWI) relative “anonymity”:
 May be the nature of the conflict itself.
 Studs Turkel: World War II was the “good war.”
 It was easy to figure out the good guys from the bad guys
 people knew—or at least thought they knew—what they were fighting for
 Americans find this perspective comforting, especially in light of
 Korean War
 Vietnam War
World War I is much more confusing because
 it is about heedless nationalist and imperialist fervor and arrogance.
 People often have a difficult time understanding these drives.
 When propaganda stripped away: (which is an interesting topic in its own right because
World War I ushered in the twentieth-century practice of “selling” the war),
 Difficult to locate any completely good guys.
Maybe World War I is more “human” in that sense.
 The Great War similar to a Greek tragedy
 dealt with hubris—and the gods always punish hubris.
 1914: the Europeans stood almost unchallenged in the world
 they brought about their own destruction through their own folly.
 Understanding causes of the war leads to:
 much greater understanding of the consequences as well.
The International Implications of the Great War
One proof of the interconnectedness of the modern world:
 So many twentieth-century phenomena:
o the world wars
o the Great Depression
o the specter of infectious disease
 touch everyone.
 Example: Gallipoli shows that
o Horrors of modern warfare not exclusive to the western front.
African and Asian aspects of the war illuminate following considerations:
 rise of communism in China,
 decolonization
 the origins of World War II in the Pacific.
The Role of Nationalism in the Great War and 20th Century:
 Central to understanding differences between
o the positive nationalism that plays an active role in the formation of states and
o the negative nationalism that has produced the great dark cloud hanging over the last
century—
o and the thin line that separates the two.
 Wilfred Owen poem in the text.
o described the line from Horace, “Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori,” as an “old
Lie.”
 Combatants of the Great War were so driven by nationalism.
o Nationalist fervor make it difficult to end the war
o Fighting for a nation and a greater cause—then being essentially abandoned by the
same nation both during the war and after—
 left an entire generation feeling “lost.”
 Negative nationalism continued to haunt the world for the rest of the century.
Why was War Viewed as a Positive Instrument of Diplomacy?
 Understand this: many nations and peoples actively desired war in 1914.
o Viewed war as a positive instrument of diplomacy during late 19th/early 20th century.
 Technology and the changing nature of warfare affected this perception. How?
o Germany in particular wanted and expected a short war.
 No one, least of all the generals, expected a long war in 1914.
o The parallels with modern American wars—
 Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Persian Gulf—and
 expectations are noteworthy as well.
o The prolongation of the war meant for the militaries and the societies involved:
o perception of technology changed when
o technology (repeatedly) failed to provide the key to a rapid victory.