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AP EH CHAPTER 25---THE BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY CRISIS: WAR AND
REVOLUTION
I.
THE ROAD TO WORLD WAR I
A. Nationalism and Internal Dissent
1. in the first half of the 19th Century, liberals had maintained
that the organization of European states along national
lines would lead to a peaceful Europe based on a sense of
fraternity (Badly mistaken)
2. competition rather than cooperation was the result of the
nation-state system of the late 19th and early 20th Century
3. rivalries over colonial and commercial interests intensified
during an era of frenzied imperialist expansion
4. by 1914, the major European states believed that their allies
were important and that their security depended on
supporting those allies, even when they took foolish risks
5. diplomacy based on brinkmanship was especially
frightening in view of the nature of the European state
system
6. each state was motivated by self-interest and success
7. the growth of nationalism in the 19th Century was also a
trigger for the Great War (many ethnic groups still longed
for independence) [EX: Slavs in the Balkans]
8. socialist labor movements had grown more powerful and
were increasingly inclined to use strikes, even violent ones,
to achieve their goals
9. some historians have speculated that some European
governments may have pursued an active foreign policy to
smother internal problems (EX: Russia)
B. Militarism
1. the growth of mass armies after 1900 not only heightened
the existing tensions in Europe, but made it inevitable that if
war did come it would be highly destructive (military forces
doubled in size during this time)
a. Russia---1.3 million troops
b. France---900 thousand troops
c. Germany---900 thousand troops
d. Great Britain*, Italy, and Austria-Hungary---between
250 and 500 thousand troops respectively (unlike most
of Europe, Great Britain and the US did not have
mandatory conscription leading up to WW I)
2. as armies grew, so did the influence of military leaders who
drew up vast and complex plans for quickly mobilizing
millions of men and enormous quantities of supplies in the
event of war (EX: von Schlieffen plan)
3. the generals lack of flexibility forced European political
leaders to make decisions for military instead of political
reasons
C. The Outbreak of War: The Summer of 1914
1. the rivalry between Austria and Russia for dominance in
southeastern Europe caused serious tensions in the region
II.
2. many Europeans perceived the inherent dangers in this
combination of Serbian ambition (wanting an independent
Slavic state in the Balkans) bolstered by Russian hatred of
Austria and the Austrian conviction that Serbia’s success
would mean the end of its empire
3. it all came to a head with the assassination of Austrian
Archduke Franz Ferdinand (heir to the A-H throne)
a. the archduke and his wife Sofia were assassinated in
Sarajevo, Bosnia by Gavrillo Princip on June 28, 1914
b. Princip, an 18 year old Bosnian was a member of the
Serbian terrorist group called the “Black Hand”
dedicated to the creation of a pan-Slavic nation at any
costs
c. the Austrian government saw the assassination of the
archduke as an opportunity to teach Serbia a lesson
once and for all (Whether Serbia had anything to do
with the killing is up for debate)
d. Germany gave Austria a “blank check” assurance in
case other countries tried to interfere with Austria’s
dealings with Serbia
e. Strengthened by German support, Austrian leaders
issued an ultimatum to Serbia on July 23. (very
extreme—would have undermined Serbian sovereignty
to comply)
f. Russia was determined to support Serbia’s cause no
matter what.
g. on the eve of the outbreak of war in Europe in 1914,
Wilhelm II of Germany attempted to engage Nicholas II,
his cousin, in a diplomatic dialogue to avoid war if
possible (failed due in part to complex, rigid and
demanding mobilization plans devised by European
army generals that made immediate military action
essential)
h. Germany declared war on Russia on August 1st and
France on August 3rd (see von Schlieffen Plan); on
August 4th , Great Britain declared war on Germany
THE WAR
A. 1914-1915: Illusions and Stalemate
1. Europeans went to war in 1914 with remarkable enthusiasm
2. due partly to government propaganda, most people seemed
genuinely convinced that their nation’s cause was just
3. despite socialists calling it an “imperialist war” and urging
workers of all involved countries to abstain from fighting,
nationalism proved more powerful than working-class
solidarity. (workers proved eager to defend their respective
homelands)
4. commonly held illusions heading into WW I
a. most Europeans thought the war would be over in a
few weeks (all European wars since 1815 had ended
quickly)
b. to some, war was an exhilarating release from
humdrum bourgeois existence
c. some believed that the war would have a redemptive
effect, that the war would instill self-sacrifice, heroism,
and nobility on its participants
5. War in the west
a. German hopes for a quick end to the war rested with
their military battle plan known as the von Schlieffen
Plan
b. The plan called for the Germans to attack France from
the north through neutral Belgium, encircling most of
the French Army and taking Paris before the British
could mobilize
c. a month into the war the German Army was on the
banks of the Marne River just 20 miles outside of Paris
d. First Battle of the Marne (Sept. 6-10, 1914)
1. a combined French and British force under the
command of French Commander Joseph Joffre
launched a surprise attack on the Germans driving
them back
2. the Germans were shocked that the British already
had troops mobilized and taking part in the battle
3. the fighting was so fierce that the exhausted
French and English armies could not stay engaged
with the Germans as they fell back
4. battle prevented the capture of Paris and a quick
German victory in the west
e. within months of the 1st Battle of the Marne, fighting in
the west turned into a very bloody stalemate thanks to
trench warfare (trenches stretched from the English
Channel to the Swiss frontier)
6. War in the east
a. the war in the east was marked by much more
mobility, although the cost in lives was equally
enormous
b. early in the war, the Russians advanced into eastern
Germany but were turned back at the Battles of
Tannenberg on August 30th and the Masurian Lakes on
September 15th
c. the German victories made military stars out Generals
Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff
d. Russia never seriously threatened German soil during
WW I again
e. the Austrians were defeated at Galicia by the Russians
and thrown out of Serbia as well
f. the Italians betrayed their alliance members and
entered the war on the side of the Triple Entente in
May, 1915
g. the Germans eventually joined the Austrians in Galicia
eventually routing the Russians (already suffered 2.5
million casualties by this point), and, with their new
ally the Bulgarians, the Germans knocked the Serbians
out of the war for good in September, 1915
B. 1916-1917: The Great Slaughter
1. the successes in the east enabled the Germans to move
back to the offensive in the west
2. however, the unexpected development of trench warfare
baffled military leaders who had trained to fight wars of
movement and maneuver
3. due partly to pressure from home for results, generals
attempted to achieve breakthroughs by throwing masses of
men against enemy lines that had first been battered by
artillery barrages
4. these attacks rarely worked, since the machine gun put
hordes of men advancing unprotected across “no man’s
land” at a severe disadvantage
5. in 1916 and 1917, millions of young men were sacrificed in
search of the elusive breakthrough; among the costliest in
terms of lives lost were:
a. German offensive at Verdun in 1916 (700,000 men
killed in ten months with only a few miles of terrain
changing hands)
b. British offensive on the Somme in 1916
c. French offensive in the Champagne in 1917
6. Daily Life in the Trenches
a. in France, life in the trenches was characterized by
long periods of dreary boredom broken by murderous
artillery barrages and terrifying frontal assaults by
enemy troops
b. as troops on both sides settled into the bloody
stalemate caused by trench warfare, the daily life for
the soldier became increasingly squalid, regimented,
and miserable in filthy, rat-infested, and lice-ridden
trenches
c. the senseless slaughter of troops on both sides
became increasingly unreal to the average soldier as
baffled and incompetent officers persistently ordered
these soldiers to accomplish impossible battlefield
objectives
d. daily routine of soldiers in the trenches consisted of
the following:
1. 30 minutes before sunrise, troops had to “stand to”
or be combat ready to repel any enemy attack
2. if no attack were forthcoming, the day’s routine
consisted of breakfast, followed by inspection,
sentry duty, restoration of the trenches, care of
personal items, and lots of down time
e. in many places enemy combatants had arranged a
“live and let live” system which resulted on
agreements not to shell latrines or attacking during
breakfast
f.
on both sides, troops produced their own humorous
magazines to help pass the time and fulfill the need to
laugh in the midst of their daily madness (EX: British
trench magazine the B.E.F. Times )
C. The Widening of the War
1. both sides sought to gain new allies who might provide the
winning advantage
a. Central Powers
Ottoman Empire (November, 1914), Bulgaria
(September, 1915)
b. Allies
Italy (May, 1915), Portugal (March, 1916), Romania
(August, 1916), Greece (October, 1916),
United States (April, 1917)
2. by 1917, the war that had begun in Europe was having
increasing impact on other parts of the world
a. a British officer, Colonel T.E. Lawrence AKA “Lawrence
of Arabia”, incited Arab princes to revolt against their
Ottoman overlords
b. in 1918, British forces from Egypt destroyed the rest of
the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East
c. Germany’s lack of naval strength allowed the Allies to
seize German colonies around the rest of the world
3. Entry of the United States
a. the United States tried to remain neutral in the Great
War, but found it difficult to do so as the war dragged
on (Wilson ran for re-election in 1916 as the President
who would keep the US out of the war)
b. although there was considerable sentiment for the
British side in the conflict, the immediate cause of
American involvement grew out of the naval conflict
between Great Britain and Germany
1. Britain used its superior naval power to maximum
effect by imposing a naval blockade on Germany
a. mined the North Sea
b. harassed neutral ships in the North Sea
c. made no distinction between contraband
(munitions and raw materials needed for the
manufacture of war materials) and noncontraband (food and clothing)destined for
Germany as all was prohibited from reaching
Germany by sea [International law at that time
allowed for only the blockading of contraband
by warring nations]
d. blockade contributed to the deaths of 750,000
German civilians to starvation
2. Germany, in response, declared the area around
the British Isles a war zone and threatened to
torpedo any ship caught in it
a. used unrestricted submarine warfare to enforce
this counter-blockade
b. strong American protests over the German
sinking of the British passenger liner Lusitania
[munitions and 4-22-15 ad] on May 7, 1915
(1,200 passengers perished including 188
Americans) forced the German government to
modify and later suspend completely its use of
unrestricted submarine warfare
c. gambling that they could finish off the Allies
before the US could make a difference, on
January 31, 1917, the Germans proclaimed the
resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare
(Wilson severed diplomatic relations with
Germany two days later)
d. in April, 1917, 875,000 tons of shipping were
sunk
e. the sinking of three American freighters
coupled with the British government making
public the Zimmerman Telegram [German
foreign minister’s telegram to Mexico],
convinced Wilson to ask Congress on April 2,
1917, to declare war on Germany (Congress
made it official on April 6, 1917)
f. Germany badly underestimated the US ability to
mobilize quickly and fight effectively [for all
practical purposes, this miscalculation would
cost Germans the war]
c. although American troops did not arrive in large
numbers in Europe until 1918, the entry of the United
States entry into the war in 1917 gave the Allied
powers a psychological boost when they needed it
most
1. Allied offensives in 1917 had been disastrous
2. The Bolshevik Revolution in November, 1917 led to
the withdrawal of Russia from the fighting
D. The Home Front: the Impact of Total War
1. economically, World War I witnessed European
governments take full control of all aspects of their
economies (in order of effectiveness, from most to least--Germany [great], Great Britain [very good], France [okay],
Italy[bad], Austria-Hungary [bad], Russia [horrendous])
2. the fact that European states fighting in World War I had to
effectively organize masses of men and material for years
of deadly combat led to:
a. increased centralization and expansion of government
powers (EX: Germany’s Auxiliary Service Law of 1916)
b. economic regimentation of entire countries (EX:
Britain’s Ministry of Munitions)
c. unscrupulous manipulation of public opinion through
mass propaganda and government control of
information (EX: France’s execution on grounds of
treason of an editor of an anti-war newspaper and the
punishing of journalists who wrote negative war
reports by having them drafted)
3. as public morale and support for the war ebbed, police
powers were widely expanded to include the arrest of all
dissenters as traitors to the state
4. internal opposition to the war largely came from liberals
and socialists appalled by the scale of human slaughter and
the terrible costs of rampant nationalism and militarism
5. the Social Impact of the War
a. to ensure that labor problems would not disrupt
production, war governments in Britain, France, and
Germany not only sought union cooperation but also
for the first time allowed trade unions to participate in
making important government decisions on labor
matters
b. this partnership between labor and government
opened the way to collective bargaining and increased
union membership
c. with so many men off fighting, women were called
upon to take over jobs and responsibilities that had
not been open to them before
1. in Britain, 1,345,000 women obtained new jobs or
replaced men during the war
2. in France, 684,000 women worked in armaments
plants for the first time
3. by 1918, 38% of all workers in Germany’s Krupp
Armament Works were women
d. often women were not welcomed by male counterparts
with open arms and women at war’s end had little job
security
e. women’s contribution to wartime economies did reap
political benefits for women as women were given
suffrage on a national level in:
1. Great Britain-1918
2. Germany and Austria-immediately after the war’s
conclusion
3. United States –by the 19th Amendment ratified in
1919
f. expectations for women during the war were that they
would return to their “normal” lives when the war
ended (EX: 650,000 British women were rendered
unemployed at war’s end)
g. World War I acted as a great social leveler in that death
rates at the front in during the war were high for all
soldiers engaged regardless of their prior social
status, but mortality was especially high for junior
officers drawn largely from nobility and unskilled
laborers and peasants comprising the mass of infantry
troops
h. the groups within societies that benefited the most
from the war were wealthy industrialists (especially
III.
those making arms and munitions) and skilled and
highly skilled workers
i. war-time inflation hit the middle-class and particularly
those living on fixed incomes hard
WAR AND REVOLUTION
A. The Russian Revolution
1. Russia was unprepared both militarily and technologically
for the total war of World War I
a. competent military leadership was lacking (worsened
by the fact that the Czar Nicholas II personally directed
the war effort despite his lack of both training and
ability for such a monumental undertaking)
b. Russian industry was unable to produce the weapons
needed by the army
c. army suffered great losses on the battlefield (between
1914 to 1916, 2 million Russians were killed in battle; 4
to 6 million more were wounded or captured)
2. by 1917, the Russian will to fight had vanished
3. as the situation worsened both militarily and domestically
in Russia, Nicholas II increasingly cut himself off from
influences outside his immediate family or military
headquarters (mainly his wife Alexandra--a German
princess)
4. Alexandra was counseled by the almost universally
despised Siberian holy man, Rasputin, until his
assassination at the hands of conservative aristocrats in
December, 1916
5. The March Revolution
a. coupled with strife in the ruling dynasty and the
staggering war-time losses, a government imposed
rationing of bread in February of 1917 was met with
resistance
b. at the beginning of March, a series of strikes broke out
in the capital city of Petrograd (formerly St.
Petersburg)
c. on March 8, 10,000 Petrograd women marched through
the city demanding “peace and bread”
d. other workers joined the women’s march and called
for a general strike in Petrograd which effectively shut
down all factories in the capital by March 10
e. Nicholas II ordered troops to disperse the protesters
by force if necessary, but the situation slipped out of
his control when many of these troops actually joined
the protesters
f. on March 12, the Duma which the czar had dissolved
met anyway to form a Provisional Government
g. on March 15, Nicholas II abdicated his throne and he
and his family were placed under house arrest
h. the new Provisional Government, consisting initially of
middle-class and liberal aristocratic interests, were
determined to continue with the war effort (promised
foreign aid and upholding Russia’s honor were the
reasons)
i. continuation of the war would be their undoing
j. a new powerful political force was emerging at this
time called the Marxist Social Democrats which had
two factions
1. Mensheviks [led by Alexander Kerensky] (wanted a
mass electoral socialist party modeled on socialist
parties in Western Europe)
2. Bolsheviks [led by exiled Vladimir Lenin](smaller
faction dedicated to bringing about the overthrow
of capitalism through violent revolution)
k. in April 1917, the German High Command, who hoped
to create disorder in Russia, shipped Lenin and a
small group of his most ardent followers to Russia in a
sealed train by way of Finland
l. soon after his arrival, Lenin issued his April Theses
which outlined a specifically Russian movement
toward socialism to be led by soviets of soldiers,
workers, and peasants; promised “land, peace, and
bread” (believed the bourgeois revolution could be
skipped altogether)
m. initial Provisional Government disintegrated after a
military offensive it ordered evaporated when the
soldiers refused their orders and simply went home
6. The Bolshevik Revolution
a. in July 1917, Lenin and the Bolsheviks were accused
of inciting an attempt to overthrow the teetering
Provisional Government, and Lenin was forced to flee
to Finland (many Bolsheviks were arrested)
b. Menshevik leader Alexander Kerensky was made the
new prime minister of the government
c. In September, General Lavr Kornilov attempted to take
control of the government by march his army into
Petrograd (never actually reached the city)
d. a panicked Kerensky released imprisoned Bolsheviks
and asked for their help as well as the help of the
Petrograd Soviet which was Bolshevik controlled
e. Lenin along with his right hand man Leon Trotsky
organized a Military Revolutionary Committee that
convinced Bolsheviks to overthrow the weak
Menshevik government, and on November 6-7,
Bolsheviks seized the control of the legislature and
took control
f. Lenin let it be known to the world that he wished for
Communist (formerly Bolshevik) revolutions to break
out everywhere in the world
g. upon taking control, he enacted his “land, peace, and
bread” pledge
1. redistributed land to starving peasants
2. turned over control of factories to the workers
(temporary)
3. signed humiliating Brest-Litovsk Treaty in March,
1918 with the Germans which ended Russian
involvement in WW I (gave up eastern Poland,
Ukraine, Finland, and the Baltic Provinces)
7. Civil War
a. there was great opposition to the new Bolshevik (soon
renamed Communist) regime
1. czarists
2. bourgeois and aristocratic liberals
3. Mensheviks
4. Socialist revolutionaries
5. Allied troops
b. between 1918 and 1921, the Communist (Reds) were
forced to fight on many fronts against the antiCommunist (White) forces
c. the disunity of the anti-Communist forces seriously
weakened the efforts of the Whites
d. on the other hand, the Red Army became a welldisciplined and formidable fighting force, largely due
to the organizational genius of Lenin’s commissar of
war, Leon Trotsky
e. the Communist newly created Cheka was its secret
police force used to murder and terrorize opponents of
the revolution
f. in July, 1918, the czar and his family were executed by
Communist as troops sympathetic to the czar neared
the site of his imprisonment in Siberia
g. the intervention of foreign troops (100,000 American,
British, French, and Japanese) enabled the
Communists to appeal to the average Russians sense
of Patriotism to fend off the foreign invaders
h. by 1921, the Communist had successfully retained
control of Russia as the civil war came to a close
B. The Last Year of the War
1. for Germany, the withdrawal of the Russians from the war
offered renewed hope for a favorable end to the war
2. in an effort to end the war, the Germans launched one last
grand offensive in March, 1918
a. German forces succeeded in advancing forty miles to
the Marne River (within 35 miles of Paris)
b. on July 18, French forces led by Ferdinand Foch and
supported by 140,000 fresh Americans defeated
Ludendorff’s German forces at the 2nd Battle of the
Marne
c. after this defeat, the Germans realized the war was lost
as the Allies aided by 2 million more American
“Doughboys” made a steady advance toward Germany
IV.
3. on September 29,1918, General Ludendorff informed
German leaders that the war was lost and that they should
sue for peace
4. after finding out that the Allies refused to make peace with
an autocratic imperial government, Wilhelm II abdicated on
November 9 and the armistice that ended the war was
signed on November 11, 1918
C. Revolutionary Upheavals in Germany and Austria-Hungary
1. like Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary experienced
political revolution as a result of military defeat
2. the German November revolution of 1918 resulted in the
creation of a German Republic with the socialists in power
3. the series of revolutionary upheavals in central Europe
following Germany’s defeat led to the creation of numerous
independent republics within the old Austro-Hungarian
Empire including: Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and
one new monarchy (Yugoslavia)
THE PEACE SETTLEMENT
A. in January 1919, the delegations of twenty-seven victorious Allied
nations gathered in Paris to conclude a final settlement of the Great
War
B. three countries truly ran the proceedings(Germany and Russia had
no representation)
1. Great Britain
a. David Lloyd George, prime minister of Great Britain,
had won a decisive electoral victory in December 1918
on a platform of making Germany pay for this dreadful
war
b. wanted Germany to admit guilt and pay war
reparations
2. France
a. approach to peace was primarily determined by
considerations of national security
b. French premier Georges Clemenceau wanted a
demilitarized Germany, vast German war reparations,
and a separate Rhineland as a buffer state between
France and Germany
3. United States
a. was more interested in self-determination and creating
a world body (League of Nations) that could work
cooperatively to prevent future wars
b. President Wilson wanted the adoption of his detailed
“14 Points”
C. the final peace settlement of Paris consisted of five separate treaties
with the defeated nations---Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria,
and the Ottoman Empire
D. the most important agreement was with the Germans and was
named the Treaty of Versailles (1919) which had the following terms:
1. Germany had to admit guilt for starting the war and pay the
war costs for all Allied nations (the total amount paid would
be determined by a future reparation commission) [war guilt
provision particularly angered the Germans]
2. Germany had to reduce its army to 100,000 men, cut back
its navy, and eliminate its air force altogether
3. had to turn over the border provinces of Alsace and
Lorraine to France and sections of Prussia to a newly
formed Poland
4. German Rhineland region had to be completely
demilitarized
E. as a result of the separate peace treaties made with the other
Central Powers, the empires that had controlled Eastern Europe for
centuries had been destroyed or weakened, and a number of new
states appeared on the map of Europe with quickly entangling
alliances
F. an overall result of the Paris peace settlement of 1919 was that
Clemenceau’s and Lloyd George’s vengeful policies would quickly
lead to future European conflicts
G. the US never ratified the Treaty of Versailles and never joined
Wilson’s League of Nations (disillusioned by the entire affair the US
drifted into isolationism after the peace conference)