Download Origins WWI

Origins of World War I
The Great War August 1914-November 1918
Condition of Pre-War Europe
Anxieties and Uncertainties
Causes and Catalyst
Imperialism, Nationalism, Militarism, Commercial
Competition, & Alliance System
Balkan Crisis
Declarations of War
Alliance System
Triple Alliance
Triple Entente
Greater Serbia
Gustavo Princip
Pan Slavism
Total War
From Balkan Crisis to World War
Schlieffen Plan
Pre-War Social Tensions recede in Patriotism’s Wake
Battle of the Marne
A New Kind of War
From an Offensive to a Defensive Strategy
War Front and Trench Warfare
Total War
Mobilization for War
War Front
Home Front
Trench Warfare
Causes and Catalysts
– Nationalism and Social Darwinism: Competition of
Nations
– Imperialism: Increasing Entanglements
(Sudan, Moroccan Crises)
– Commercial Competition
– Alliance System
– Militarism:
 Increase in Size of Armies (Role of Conscription)
 Increased spending for Armaments and Technology
 Increased Military Expenditures
 Militarization of Society
Alliance System
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Bismarck “In a world
of five powers, one
should be on the side
of three”
By late 19th century,
Concert of Europe now
in discord
1879: Dual Alliance
Germany & AustroHungary
1882: Triple Alliance
G + AH + Italy
1894: France & Russia
1904: Britain & France
1907: Triple Entente
Russia, Britain &
France
Militarization of Society
Founded by Robert Baden-Powell in 1908
Causes and Catalysts
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Nationalism and Social Darwinism: Competition of Nations
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Imperialism: Increasing Entanglements (Sudan, Moroccan
Crises)
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Commercial Competition
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Alliance System
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Militarism:
– Increase in Size of Armies
– Increased spending for Armaments and Technology
– Increased Military Expenditures
– Militarization of Society
European Alliances in 1914
Causes and Catalysts
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Nationalism and Social Darwinism: Competition of Nations
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Imperialism: Increasing Entanglements (Sudan, Moroccan
Crises)
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Commercial Competition
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Alliance System
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Militarism:
– Increase in Size of Armies
– Increased spending for Armaments and Technology
– Increased Military Expenditures
– Militarization of Society
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Catalyst: Balkan Crisis from June to July 1914
Catalyst to War
Nationalism in the Balkans threatened
Ottoman Empire, Austro-Hungarian
Empire and European Peace
 Balkan Crises
 Rigid war planning
 Weak leadership among belligerent
powers
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Ethnic Nationalism on the Rise
Ethnic Makeup of Late 19th century Austro-Hungarian Empire
Ethnic Nationalism and Rise of Pan-Slavism
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1817: Serbia autonomous
Disruptions within Ottoman Empire
– 1875-1878: Revolt in the Balkans against Ottoman Rule
 Serbia, Montenegro and Russia against Ottomans
– 1878: Congress of Berlin
 Serbia, Romania, and Montenegro independent
 Slavic Bosnia and Herzegovina under Austrian occupation
– 1885: Bulgarian autonomy
– Weakness of Ottoman Empire evident to Europe after internal
revolution in 1908
After 1878 Berlin Conference
Pan Slavism after 1878
–Serbian Calls for a “Greater Serbia”
–1875-1878: Revolt in the Balkans against
Ottoman Rule
–1878 Settlement
–1908: A-H formally annexes Bosnia
& Herzegovina
–Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913
Ethnic Nationalism on the Rise
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Pan-Slavism on the rise
– 1817: Serbia autonomous
Disruptions within Ottoman Empire
– 1875-1878: Revolt in the Balkans against Ottoman Rule
 Serbia, Montenegro and Russia against Ottomans
– 1878: Congress of Berlin
 Serbia, Romania, and Montenegro independent
 Slavic Bosnia and Herzegovina under Austrian occupation
– 1885: Bulgarian autonomy
– Weakness of Ottoman Empire evident to Europe after internal revolution in
1908
Disruptions within Austro-Hungarian Empire
– Serbian Calls for a “Greater Serbia” and for “self-determination”
– 1908: A-H formally annexes Bosnia and Herzegovina
Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913 wrest final territories away from Ottoman Empire
Increasing Hostility directed to Austro-Hungarian Empire
Balkans: 1914
Note and contrast
ethnic lines
With A-H borders
Immediate Path to War: Balkan Crisis
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Assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand June 28, 1914
Assassination by Gavrilo Princip a Bosnian student who was a member of the the “Black Hand”
Immediate Path to War: Balkan Crisis
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Assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand
Germany’s “Blank Check” to Austria
Austria's Ultimatum to Serbia
Austria declares war on Serbia
Russia mobilizes against Germany & A-H
German ultimatum to Russia
Germany declares war on Russia
Germany declares war on France
Germany troops invade Belgium
Great Britain declares War on Germany
Violation of Belgian neutrality
JUNE 28
JULY 5
JULY 23
JULY 28
JULY 29
JULY 31
AUGUST 1
AUGUST 3
AUGUST 4
AUGUST 4
Reflections on the Origins of the War
Austro-Hungary attacks Serbia
 Nationalism contributed to war
 Failure of Diplomacy contributed to war
 Europe underestimated war fever
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Declaration of War, August 1914
France:
•Socialists support war
•Union sacrée
Germany:
•Burgfrieden (party-truce)
Great Britain
•Irish Home Rule to be postponed
•Militant Suffragists turned Dutiful Citizens
•Monthly paper changes title Suffragette to
Britannia
•Support of Labour
Through work Victory!
Through Victory Peace!
Munich, August 4th, 1914
Petrograd, August 1914
London
Crowd on
4 August
1914
French Farewells, August 1914
Mobilizing for War
Recruiting Posters
Top Right: Italy
Bottom Right: Germany
Left: U.S.
European Alliances in 1914
The Schlieffen Plan and the Battle of the Marne
Schlieffen Plan:
Goal to win a 2 front war
Move thru Belgium
Battle of the Marne:
September 1914
1.275 million Germans
1.3 million French
125,000 British
A new kind of fighting
was necessary
600,000 casualties in one
month
Digging In
466 miles of
Trenches
From
Belgium to
Switzerland
Hopes for an Offensive War
Realities of a Defensive War
Trench Warfare
Technology
German Machine Gunners
Soldiers and
Horses with gas
masks
French heavy guns
Battle of Verdun, February 1916-April 1917
The Realities of Defensive Wars
Trench Warfare as
Defensive War
War of Attrition
World War One
required engaged
all sides to
mobilize their
states for Total
War
Total War
•Total war requires the mobilization of all a nation’s resources
and energies.
•War requires sacrifice for war effort on all fronts (whether at
the war front or on the home front).
•Total war transforms the scope of the state and its accelerates
change in society.
•Conscription (Britain introduces conscription in May 1916)
•government control over economy (end of British laissezfaire)
•Rationing, controls over munitions & food
•Nationalization of shipping and coal
•increases control of and duties to individual
•(social welfare,pensions, health insurance)
•Transformation of women in workforce
•Transformation of society and colonies
Mobilizing for the War Front
Germany
Italy
United States
Total Men Mobilized
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Thru Recruitment and Conscription: 53% of male
population between 1914-1918 in uniform
Over 70 million men called into military service
Over 35 million casualties and almost ten million combat
deaths
Austro-Hungary:
Germany:
Ottoman Empire:
7.8 million men
11 million men
2.9 million men
France:
British Empire:
8.4 million men
8.9 million men
(incl.)
200,000 African soldiers
1.4 million Indian soldiers
415,000 Australian soldiers
130,000 New Zealanders
630,000 Canadians
5.6 million men
12 million men
4.7 million men mobilized
Italy:
Russia:
United States:
Women and the Home Front
Women and the Home Front
Women and War: From Home Front to War Front
Women in British Munitions Factory (1918)
British Women Loading Coal Sacks (1918)
War portrayed by each side as a War of Cultures
Civilization (France and
Britain)
Civic life, social values,
liberalism, justice, civility,
progress.
Kultur (Germany, AustriaHungary):
Purification, efficiency, God,
national unity, glory
Democracy
(United States)
Self-determination
Portrayal of War as clash of Cultures
Civilization (France and Britain)
Kultur (Germany, Austro-Hungary)
Civic life, social values, liberalism,
justice, civility, progress
Culture, purification, efficiency, God,
national unity, glory
German Propaganda:
“It is sweet and fitting to die for Britain”
The Prussian Butcher, 1915
Nicholas II and his family
Gregory Rasputin (d. 1916)
V. I. Lenin (d. 1924)
War’s End
Portion of John Singer Sargent’s,
“Gassed”
Chronology
February 1917:
Germany declares
unrestricted sub warfare
April 1917:
Americans enter war
15 March 1918:
Treaty of Brest Litovsk
Russians withdraw
Spring 1918:
German “Victory” Drive
July 1918:
Allied Counter-Attack
3 November 1918:
Austro-Hung. withdraws
7 November 1918:
Germany asks for peace
9 November 1918:
Kaiser flees
German Republic declared
in Weimar
11 November 1918: Armistice signed
War’s End
April 1917:
Americans enter war
15 March 1918:
Treaty of Brest Litovsk
Russians withdrew
3 November 1918
AH withdrew
7 November 1918:
German surrender
9 November 1918:
Kaiser flees
German Republic declared
11 November 1918: Armistice signed
Impact and Consequences:
Fall of Empires
Huge Demographic Losses
Social Transformations
Indictment of Progress and Enlightenment
Treaty of Versailles
Losses in World War One
•Over 70 million men called into military service
•Over 35 million casualties and almost ten million combat deaths
Country
Total
Mobilized
Combat
Deaths
Civilian
Deaths
Total War Dead
Austro-Hungary
7,800,000
1,300,000
300,000
1,600,000
9%
Germany
11,000,000
2,000,000
760,000
2,760,000
12.5%
Ottoman Empire
2,990,000
804,000
2,000,000
2,804,000
8%
France
8,400,000
1,500,000
40,000
1,540,000
13.3%
Britain and
Empire
8,900,000
1,000,000
30,000
1,030,000
6.3%
Russia
12,000,000
1,700,000
2,000,000
3,700,000
4.5%
Italy
5,600,000
570,000
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570,000
7%
United States
4,700,000
114,000
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114,000
.04%
Summer of 1918: Influenza pandemic killed another 30 million people worldwide
%Men
15-49
Allied leaders gather to dictate the peace: Clemenseau and Wilson
Notes: Other images to follow could also be used for lecture.
February 1917: Germany declares unrestricted
submarine warfare
April 1917: The United States enters the war
Strike by Women in Paris
May 1917
On June 28,1919, the Allied powers presented the Treaty of Versailles to Germany for signature. The following are the key territorial and political
clauses.
Article 22. Certain communities formerly belonging to the Turkish Empire have reached a stage of development where their existence as
independent nations can be provisionally recognised subject to the rendering of administrative advice and assistance by a Mandatory [i.e.,
a Western power] until such time as they are able to stand alone. The wishes of these communities must be a principal consideration in the
selection of the Mandatory.
Article 42. Germany is forbidden to maintain or construct any fortifications either on the left bank of the Rhine or on the right bank to
the west of a line drawn 50 kilometres to the East of the Rhine.
Article 45. As compensation for the destruction of the coal mines in the north of France and as part payment towards the total reparation
due from Germany for the damage resulting from the war, Germany cedes to France in full and absolute possession, with exclusive right
of exploitation, unencumbered and free from all debts and charges of any kind, the coal mines situated in the Saar Basin....
Article 49. Germany renounces in favor of the League of Nations, in the capacity of trustee, the government of the territory defined
above.
At the end of fifteen years from the coming into force of the present Treaty the inhabitants of the said territory shall be called upon to
indicate the sovereignty under which they desire to be placed.
AlsaceLorraine. The High Contracting Parties, recognizing the moral obligation to redress the wrong done by Germany in 1871 both to
the rights of France and to the wishes of the population of Alsace and Lorraine, which were separated from their country in spite of the
solemn protest of their representatives at the Assembly of Bordeaux, agree upon the following....
Article 51. The territories which were ceded to Germany in accordance with the Preliminaries of Peace signed at Versailles on February
26, 1871, and the Treaty of Frankfort of May 10, 1871, are restored to French sovereignty as from the date of the Armistice of November
11, 1918.
The provisions of the Treaties establishing the delimitation of the frontiers before 1871 shall be restored.
Article 119. Germany renounces in favor of the Principal Allied and Associated Powers all her rights and titles over her overseas possessions.
Article 156. Germany renounces, in favour of Japan, all her rights, title and privileges . . . which she acquired in virtue of` the Treaty concluded
by her with China on March 6, 1898, and of all other arrangements relative to the Province of Shantung.
Article 159. The German military forces shall be demobilised and reduced as prescribed hereinafter
Article 160. By a date which must not be later than March 31, 1920, the German Army must not comprise more than seven divisions of infantry
and three divisions of cavalry.
After that date the total number of effectives in the Army of the States constituting Germany must not exceed 100,000 men, including officers and
establishments of depots. The Army shall be devoted exclusively to the maintenance of order within the territory and to the control of the
frontiers.
The total effective strength of officers, including the personnel of staffs, whatever their composition, must not exceed four thousand....
Article 231. The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the
loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed
upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies.
Article 232. The Allied and Associated Governments recognize that the resources of Germany are not adequate, after taking into account
permanent diminutions of such resources which will result from other provisions of the present Treaty, to make complete reparation for
all such loss and damage.
The Allied and Associated Governments, however, require, and Germany undertakes, that she will make compensation for all damage done to the
civilian population of the Allied and Associated Powers and to their property during the period of the belligerency of each as an Allied or
Associated Power against Germany.
From The Treaty of Versailles and After: Annotations of the Text of the Treaty (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1944),
Military Spending (Army and Navy)
I. Peace
Now, God be thanked Who has matched us with
His hour,
And caught our youth, and wakened us from
sleeping,
With hand made sure, clear eye, and sharpened
power,
To turn, as swimmers into cleanness leaping,
Glad from a world grown old and cold and
weary,
Leave the sick hearts that honour could not
move,
And half-men, and their dirty songs and dreary,
And all the little emptiness of love!
Oh! we, who have known shame, we have found
release there,
Where there's no ill, no grief, but sleep has
mending,
Naught broken save this body, lost but breath;
Nothing to shake the laughing heart's long peace
there
But only agony, and that has ending;
And the worse friend and enemy is but Death.
Rupert Brooke “1914”
Rupert Brooke “1914”
Peace
Now, God be thanked Who has matched us with His hour,
And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping,
With hand made sure, clear eye, and sharpened power,
To turn, as swimmers into cleanness leaping,
Glad from a world grown old and cold and weary,
Leave the sick hearts that honour could not move,
And half-men, and their dirty songs and dreary,
And all the little emptiness of love!
Oh! we, who have known shame, we have found release there,
Where there's no ill, no grief, but sleep has mending,
Naught broken save this body, lost but breath;
Nothing to shake the laughing heart's long peace there
But only agony, and that has ending;
And the worse friend and enemy is but Death.
“1914”
V. The Soldier
If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England
given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
Weariness with the War by 1917
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British execute 3,000 soldiers for cowardice & desertion
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Russians desert en masse: 1.5 million prisoners of war in Germany
alone.
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May 1917: 30,000 French Soldiers stage mutiny. Over 500 executed
and the many of the rest sent to penal battalions
1917-8 – Strikes break out in Germany & France
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Siegfried Sassoon, London Times (30 July 1917):
"I am making this statement as an act of willful defiance of military authority, because I
believe that the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it.
I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers.… I have seen and endured
the sufferings of the troops, and I can no longer be a party to prolonging the sufferings for
ends which I believe to be evil and unjust. I am not protesting against the conduct of the
war, but against the political errors and insincerities for which the fighting men are being
sacrificed. In behalf of those who are suffering now I make this protest against the
deception which is being practised on them; also I believe that I may help to destroy the
callous complacency with which the majority of those at home regard the continuance of
agonies which they do not share, and which they have not sufficient imagination to realize."
Changing Attitudes to War
Wilfred Owen, "Dulce et decorum est" (c.1917)
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through
sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!
An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime...
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning,
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cut
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori
Changing Attitudes to War
1915 Gas Attack
Willfred Owen