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)
  1. Militarism
  2. 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)
  3. Russia---1.3 million troops
  4. France---900 thousand troops
  5. Germany---900 thousand troops
  6. 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)
  7. 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)
  8. the generals lack of flexibility forced European political leaders to make decisions for military instead of political reasons
  9. The Outbreak of War: The Summer of 1914
  10. the rivalry between Austria and Russia for dominance in southeastern Europe caused serious tensions in the region
  11. 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
  12. it all came to a head with the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand (heir to the A-H throne)
  13. the archduke and his wife Sofia were assassinated in Sarajevo, Bosnia by Gavrillo Princip on June 28, 1914
  14. 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
  15. 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)
  16. Germany gave Austria a “blank check” assurance in case other countries tried to interfere with Austria’s dealings with Serbia
  17. Strengthened by German support, Austrian leaders issued an ultimatum to Serbia on July 23. (very extreme—would have undermined Serbian sovereignty to comply)
  18. Russia was determined to support Serbia’s cause no matter what.
  19. 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)
  20. 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

II.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
  5. most Europeans thought the war would be over in a few weeks (all European wars since 1815 had ended quickly)
  6. to some, war was an exhilarating release from humdrum bourgeois existence
  7. some believed that the war would have a redemptive effect, that the war would instill self-sacrifice, heroism, and nobility on its participants
  8. War in the west
  9. German hopes for a quick end to the war rested with their military battle plan known as the von Schlieffen Plan
  10. 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
  11. a month into the war the German Army was on the banks of the MarneRiver just 20 miles outside of Paris
  12. First Battle of the Marne (Sept. 6-10, 1914)
  13. a combined French and British force under the command of French Commander Joseph Joffre launched a surprise attack on the Germans driving them back
  14. the Germans were shocked that the British already had troops mobilized and taking part in the battle
  15. the fighting was so fierce that the exhausted French and English armies could not stay engaged with the Germans as they fell back
  16. battle prevented the capture of Paris and a quick German victory in the west
  17. within months of the 1stBattle 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)
  18. War in the east
  19. the war in the east was marked by much more mobility, although the cost in lives was equally enormous
  20. early in the war, the Russians advanced into eastern Germany but were turned back at the Battles of Tannenberg on August 30th and the MasurianLakes on September 15th
  21. the German victories made military stars out Generals Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff
  22. Russia never seriously threatened German soil during WW I again
  23. the Austrians were defeated at Galicia by the Russians and thrown out of Serbia as well
  24. the Italians betrayed their alliance members and entered the war on the side of the Triple Entente in May, 1915
  25. 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:
  6. German offensive at Verdun in 1916 (700,000 men killed in ten months with only a few miles of terrain changing hands)
  7. British offensive on the Somme in 1916
  8. French offensive in the Champagne in 1917
  9. Daily Life in the Trenches
  10. 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
  11. 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
  12. 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
  13. daily routine of soldiers in the trenches consisted of the following:
  14. 30 minutes before sunrise, troops had to “stand to” or be combat ready to repel any enemy attack
  15. 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
  16. 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
  17. 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
  2. Central Powers

Ottoman Empire (November, 1914), Bulgaria (September, 1915)

  1. Allies

Italy (May, 1915), Portugal (March, 1916), Romania (August, 1916), Greece (October, 1916),

United States (April, 1917)

  1. by 1917, the war that had begun in Europe was having increasing impact on other parts of the world
  1. a British officer, Colonel T.E. Lawrence AKA “Lawrence of Arabia”, incited Arab princes to revolt against their Ottoman overlords
  2. in 1918, British forces from Egypt destroyed the rest of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East
  3. Germany’s lack of naval strength allowed the Allies to seize German colonies around the rest of the world
  4. Entry of the United States
  5. 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)
  6. 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
  7. Britain used its superior naval power to maximum effect by imposing a naval blockade on Germany
  8. mined the North Sea
  9. harassed neutral ships in the North Sea
  10. made no distinction between contraband (munitions and raw materials needed for the manufacture of war materials) and non-contraband (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]
  11. blockade contributed to the deaths of 750,000 German civilians to starvation
  12. Germany, in response, declared the area around the British Isles a war zone and threatened to torpedo any ship caught in it
  13. used unrestricted submarine warfare to enforce this counter-blockade
  14. 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
  15. 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)
  16. in April, 1917, 875,000 tons of shipping were sunk
  17. the sinking of three American freighters coupled with the British government making public the ZimmermanTelegram [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)
  18. Germany badly underestimated the US ability to mobilize quickly and fight effectively [for all practical purposes, this miscalculation would cost Germans the war]
  19. 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
  20. Allied offensives in 1917 had been disastrous
  21. 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:
  3. increased centralization and expansion of government powers (EX: Germany’s Auxiliary Service Law of 1916)
  4. economic regimentation of entire countries (EX: Britain’s Ministry of Munitions)
  5. 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)
  6. 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
  7. 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
  8. the Social Impact of the War
  9. 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
  10. this partnership between labor and government opened the way to collective bargaining and increased union membership
  11. with so many men off fighting, women were called upon to take over jobs and responsibilities that had not been open to them before
  12. in Britain, 1,345,000 women obtained new jobs or replaced men during the war
  13. in France, 684,000 women worked in armaments plants for the first time
  14. by 1918, 38% of all workers in Germany’s Krupp Armament Works were women
  15. often women were not welcomed by male counterparts with open arms and women at war’s end had little job security
  16. women’s contribution to wartime economies did reap political benefits for women as women were given suffrage on a national level in:
  17. Great Britain-1918
  18. Germany and Austria-immediately after the war’s conclusion
  19. United States –by the 19th Amendment ratified in 1919
  20. 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)
  21. 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
  22. the groups within societies that benefited the most from the war were wealthy industrialists (especially those making arms and munitions) and skilled and highly skilled workers
  23. war-time inflation hit the middle-class and particularly those living on fixed incomes hard

III.WAR AND REVOLUTION

A.The Russian Revolution

  1. Russia was unprepared both militarily and technologically for the total war of World War I
  2. 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)
  3. Russian industry was unable to produce the weapons needed by the army
  4. 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)
  5. by 1917, the Russian will to fight had vanished
  6. 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)
  7. Alexandra was counseled by the almost universally despised Siberian holy man, Rasputin, until his assassination at the hands of conservative aristocrats in December, 1916
  8. The March Revolution
  9. 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
  10. at the beginning of March, a series of strikes broke out in the capital city of Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg)
  11. on March 8, 10,000