Download Chapter 28 Descent into the Abyss

Chapter 28
World War I
Ms. Sheets
AP World History
M.A.I.N. Causes of WWI (1914-1918)
Militarism: New industrial technologies; after
Germany began building a navy, all nations began
creating more weapons.
 Alliances
 Triple Alliance (aka Central Powers): Germany +
Austria-Hungary + Italy [initially] + Ottoman
Empire + Bulgaria.
 Triple Entente (aka Allied Powers): Russia +
France + Britain + Italy [in 1915] +Japan +US
[later].
 Imperialism: Tensions are high between alliance
systems who are in the midst of imperialist rivalries
over the few lands still not yet colonized
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Colonists acted as resource-providers and combatants;
hoped to achieve independence after the war and were
often promised this
Nationalism (new Germany; Balkan independence)
World War I in Europe and Middle East
Outbreak of War
 Ethnic divisions and rivalries in the Balkans added
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tension to Europe.
July 1914: Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian nationalist
assassinated the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire,
Franz Ferdinand, and his wife in Sarajevo, Bosnia.
July Crisis of 1914: Austria-Hungary demands political
and territorial concessions from Serbia; Serbia refuses;
Austria-Hungary invades Serbia
Russia supported Serbia via Pan-Slavic Movement
 Movement aimed at unification of Slavic peoples who
had long been ruled by others
Germany supported Austria-Hungary
Alliances fall into place  no more possibility of
regional war.
War in Europe: Western Front
 Germany’s concern: fight war on both fronts

Auxiliary Service Law of 1916: German law required all
males between 17 and 60 to only work at jobs critical to
the war effort
 Schlieffen Plan: plan to attack France first via Belgium
before turning east to fight Russia
Britain protected its ally, Belgium.
 Japan supports Britain (naval allies since 1902)
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 Europeans thought war would be quick.
Germany did not have a quick victory in France 
Western Front: Germans halted by the French on the
Marne River.
 Trench warfare ensued along Western Front for three years
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 War where new types of technology had been used:
airplanes; tanks; poison gas; radio technology;
machine guns; barbed wire
War Outside Europe
Only South America did not participate in WWI
 Troops were recruited from colonies; mostly fighting for the
Triple Entente.
 Troops gathered when Europeans realized war would not
be decisive or quick.
 Promised independence in return for war support
 Germany’s main support was the Ottoman Empire, who
entered WWI in 1915.
 Gallipoli Campaign, 1915-1916
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British and French try to capture Istanbul; attempt fails; seen as
huge success for Ottomans
Effective British naval blockades ensured Germany could not
receive raw materials from its colonies; German trade ships
were destroyed.
 British Dominions (Canada, Australia and New Zealand)
contributed resources to Great Britain.
 China declared war on Germany in 1917.
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War in the East and in Italy
 Russia focused on Austria-Hungary and eastern Germany,
but was easily defeated by Germany troops.
Aristocratic generals commanded millions of illiterate and
poorly trained peasant soldiers
 1917: Russia (led by Lenin) withdrew from WWI early;
signed Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (ceded Russian territory to
Germans).
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 1915: Austria-Hungary crushed Serbia, but struggled
against Russia.
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Inept generals; multiethnic armies with soldiers whose
loyalties to Austrian emperor was inconstant
 1915: Italy switched from the Triple Alliance to the Triple
Entente.
Britain promised territory gains at Austria-Hungary’s
expense if Italy switched.
 Most Entente-Italian assaults against Austria-Hungary ended
in disaster; huge # of deserters
 Italy frustrated it did not receive additional territory at end
of war.
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Quick Review Question
1) What problem does the Schlieffen Plan try to solve?
2) How were non-Western regions involved in the war effort?
Cite an example.
3) What was the outcome of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk?
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American
Involvement
in
1917
Americans sold food and weapons, and gave loans to the
Entente.
 1915: German submarine sank British luxury liner,
Lusitania; 100+ Americans died.
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1917 Zimmermann Telegram
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Germans claimed Lusitania carried secret shipments; Britain
denied it; later proven true
In 1916, Germany attacked U.S. merchant ships en route to
Britain.
Germany declared unrestricted submarine warfare
Britain intercepted a telegram where Germany promised
Mexico the territory it had lost in Mexican-American War in
exchange for joining Germany
1917: United States entered WWI; policy previously was
isolationism.
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By 1918, millions of American men in training; made Germany
believe they needed to end war quickly
Will be the turn of the tide: US troops are freshly ready and
newly armed with supplies
The Home Fronts
 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic
Resulted in death of 5% of world’s population
 Few newspapers publish anything, seen as bad
for morale
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 Governments developed propaganda to
promote patriotism and citizen support for
the war.
Soldiers felt unsupported, and that citizens
lacked commitment for or understanding of
war.
 British/Americans bombarded with stories of
German atrocities.
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 Women participated greatly on the home
front.
The End of War
 After Russia withdrew in 1917, a confident Germany
transferred more soldiers to the Western Front; victory
seemed near.
 But, newly-arrived American soldiers stalled German
advance in northern France.
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Germany (mounting casualties, sheer fatigue) vs America
(new, enthusiastic)
 Austro-Hungarian empire surrendered.
 German commanders agreed to an armistice (end of
fighting) on November 11, 1918.
 WWI claimed 15 million and wounded 20 million.
Young generation of European men nearly wiped out.
 Bombs and troops had destroyed cities, towns, and farms.
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Woodrow Wilson’s
Fourteen Points (1918)
Statement declaring that WWI was a just moral affair; proposal for
European peace
 List of fourteen post-war goals:
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Free trade
Diplomatic end to the war
International disarmament to lowest point “consistent with domestic
safety”
Withdrawal of Central Powers from occupied territories
Creation of Poland
Territorial restructuring along ethnic lines (nationalism)
League of Nations
Return Alsace-Lorraine to France
Self-determination: right of people in region to determine whether to be
independent or not
Became the basis for terms of German surrender
 Wilson awarded 1919 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in WWI
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Paris Peace Conference of 1919
 Meeting of Entente leaders to determine peace
terms for Europe and how to deal with defeated
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Outcome was Treaty of Versailles
Austro-Hungarian Empire was dissolved into
Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.
Ottoman Empire reduced to present-day Turkey;
Great Britain controlled Iraq and Pakistan;
France controlled Syria and Lebanon.
Russia lost territory to Poland and Romania.
Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania receive
independence from Russia.
 Wartime promises of independence to colonial
leaders in return for their war support for
Entente were forgotten.
Treaty of Versailles (1919)
 Germany was given no part in drafting the
Treaty of Versailles.
 Goal: cripple Germany economically so it could
never again rise to power and threaten to invade
other European states.
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Disagreements about how to deal with Germany.
 Outcome for Germany:
 Article 231: Clause placed total blame for war upon
Germany as aggressor
 Limit German army to 100,000 soldiers.
 Alsace and Lorraine (won by Germany in FrancoPrussian War) returned to France
 Pay $33 billion in reparations to Entente members.
 Lost all colonies (Tanzania, Rwanda, Cameroon,
Samoa)
 League of Nations established (idea of US
President Woodrow Wilson)
League of Nations
 Proposed by Woodrow Wilson
 Goal: to establish and preserve peace and
humanitarian goals.
 Many nations refused to join it
 England and France hesitant
 Germany and Russia not allowed
 U.S. declines
 League of Nations was a pre-cursor to the
United Nations.
 Effective at functions such as providing
famine relief and dealing with refugee
issues, but was otherwise weak.
Cultural Ramifications
 Pointlessness of war and cynicism grew.
Traditional ideas of war’s nobility and heroism collapsed  war
is only destructive
 Optimism of La Belle Époque had ended.
 Art, cinema, poems, literature respond.
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 Writers’ War: soldiers wrote letters to loved ones; wrote
poems in trenches
Spread of liberal reforms (education) meant most soldiers (and
public) were literate by 20th c.
 Soldiers’ experiences preserved
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 Lost Generation
Term popularized by Ernest Hemingway
 Described a generation whose stability and cultural ideas had
been wiped away
 Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises captures the variety of losses in
war (masculinity)
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 Artists transfer from Romanticism to Modernism.
Lost Generation
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“A generation of innocent young men, their heads
full of high abstractions like Honor, Glory and
England, went off to war to make the world safe
for democracy. They were slaughtered in stupid
battles planned by stupid generals. Those who
survived were shocked, disillusioned and
embittered by their war experiences, and saw that
their real enemies were not the Germans, but the
old men at home who had lied to them. They
rejected the values of the society that had sent
them to war, and in doing so separated their own
generation from the past and from their cultural
inheritance”
- Samuel Hynes, historian
Quick Review Question
1) Describe the relationship between these three terms: Paris
Peace Conference; Woodrow Wilson’s 14 Points; Treaty of
Versailles
2) What were some of the outcomes of the Treaty of Versailles?
3) What does the term “Lost Generation” indicate about a postWWI West?
Weak European Imperialism
To win support of colonies in WWI, Europeans made
many promises regarding the postwar period.
 Primarily, colonies were promised independence
 Created a great deal of strain when this did not
happen
 War cast doubt on white racial supremacy
 War gave support to anti-colonial movements in
colonies.
1)
Led by charismatic, Western-educated elites
who supported nationalism.
2)
Leaders rallied peasants and urban masses.
3)
Leaders often relied on nonviolent forms of
protest.
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India’s National Congress Party
 The National Congress Party led India to independence and ultimately governed
India through its postcolonial era.
Formed by Indians in 1885 as an educated political club of Western-educated men
 Was initially supported by many British officials; seen as an outlet for frustration
 The NCP gave Indians a sense of identity.
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 NCP became concerned over British Raj racism and budget, where most money
went to the British army and administrators.
Indian Nationalism
 India contributed significantly to World War I as a colony of
Great Britain (textiles, soldiers, grain)
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Wartime inflation affected India.
 British leaders promised Indians self-government once
WWI was over; some steps were taken:
Morley-Minto Reforms of 1909: provided Indians opportunities
to vote for and serve on all-Indian legislative councils.
 Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms of 1919: gave Indian legislators
increased control over those councils
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 Yet, the Rowlatt Act of 1919 restricted Indian civil rights
(freedom of the press, root out conspirators)
This fueled local protest and caused Indians to doubt British
intentions.
 1919: Protests led to Amritsar Massacre
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Emergence of Gandhi (1919)
 Mahatma (born Mohandas) Gandhi emerged as
an Indian leader around 1919.
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Studied law in London
 Preached non-violent but aggressive protest
against British colonization.
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Peaceful protests; boycotts; strikes;
noncooperation; demonstrations
 Built up a strong following with the middle-
class and Indian peasants.
 Combined Western-educated ideas about law
with Hindu values and asceticism.
 With Gandhi as leader, nationalist protest
surged in 1920s and 1930s.
Egyptian Demands for Independence
 The British had occupied Egypt as a
protectorate since Orabi’s revolt
 Egyptian dissent began in the early 1900s;
nationalist parties formed, frustrated by
British monopolies and corruption.
 1906: Dinshaway Incident
 Revealed British arrogance in an already
tense relationship.
 Led to heightened Egyptian nationalism.
 By 1913, British gave in and granted Egypt
representation in British Parliament.
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1914: WWI begins; British distracted.
Egyptian Revolution of 1919
During WWI, the British used the Suez Canal and
critical resources (cotton) from Egypt.
 1919: Egypt demanded representatives at Paris Peace
Conference; denied.
 Egyptian Revolution of 1919: revolt against British
occupation of Egypt and Sudan
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1922: Britain recognized Egyptian independence and
British withdrawal began.
Led by Wafd Party (nationalist liberal party)
1923: New constitution changed Egypt from dynastic rule
of khedives to a parliamentary monarchy that is nationallyelected.
British presence continues until British withdrawal of the
Suez Canal zone in 1936.
Even though Egypt now had independence, Egyptian
politicians were more concerned with power and wealth
than with poverty aide, education, health, or labor.
Nationalism in the Middle East
 After WWI, the Ottoman Empire collapsed (1923)
and an independent Turkish Republic was
established.
 In League of Nations, Britain and France divided
Arab portions of Ottoman Empire, despite
European promises of Arab independence after
WWI.
France: Syria; Lebanon
 Britain: Iraq; Palestine and Lebanon
 Nationalism grows in these locations
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 Palestine and a Jewish Holy Land?
1894: Dreyfus Affair spurred Jewish Zionists
(movement for a Jewish Middle Eastern holy land).
 1917: Balfour Declaration aggravated relationships
between Palestinian Arabs and Englishmen.
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Quick Review Question
1) Who is Gandhi and what was his political goal?
2) What did the Dinshaway Incident reveal about British-
Egyptian relations?
3) Describe the Dreyfus Affair; what did it promote?