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Chapter 27 Outline
- The First World War (1914-1918)
- The Bismarckian system of alliances
- Germany was the most powerful European country after 1871.
- Bismarck sought to guarantee European peace through alliances.
- The Three Emperors' League (Austria, Russia, and Germany) was created in 1873 to maintain the status quo; this was followed by an AustrianGerman Alliance of 1879 and the Alliance of the Three Emperors in 1881.
- Because of tensions with France, Italy joined Germany and Austria in the Triple Alliance (1882).
- In 1887, the RussianGerman Reinsurance Treaty promised neutrality by each state if the other were attacked.
- The rival blocs
- William II dismissed Bismarck, and his termination of the GermanRussian Reinsurance Treaty led to a new RussianFrench alliance.
- Under William II, the BritishGerman "natural alliance" deteriorated into a bitter rivalry.
- The Boer War, German envy of British imperialism, and economic and military rivalry drove the British and the Germans apart.
- Then Britain allied with Japan and turned to France and formed the AngloFrench Entente of 1904, which further alienated Germany.
- Germany tested this entente in a diplomatic struggle over Morocco.
- The Algeciras Conference (1906) left Germany emptyhanded and isolated.
- As a result, Germany became increasingly distrustful, and other European countries began to see Germany as a threat.
- German naval buildup, under Tirpitz, led to an arms race with Britain and a cycle of paranoia.
- The outbreak of war
- Nationalism in the Balkans threatened the Ottoman Empire and European peace.
- The 1878 Congress of Berlin resolved some of the Balkan problem by a partial division of Turkish (Ottoman) possessions in Europe; this included independence for Serbia, Rumania, and part of Bulgaria, and Austria got Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- Then by 1903 Balkan issues were once again at a crisis point, with Serbia looking to expand and Austria looking to solidify its hold in Bosnia.
- Austria's annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908 greatly angered Serbia, which was forced to turn southward against the Ottomans in its nationalistic desire to expand--this was the First Balkan War (1912).
- Serbia's dispute with Bulgaria over the spoils of victory led to the Second Balkan War in 1913.
- The Balkan wars of 1912-1913 were a victory for Balkan nationalism.
- The assassination of the Austrian archduke Francis Ferdinand (1914) resulted in a war between Serbia and Austria as Austria tried to stem the rising tide of hostile nationalism.
- Germany gave Austria unconditional support.
- Military considerations dictated policy, and an allEuropean war resulted.
- Russia ordered full mobilization against Austria and Germany.
- Germany invaded France via Belgium.
- Great Britain joined France and declared war on Germany.
- Reflections on the origins of the war
- AustriaHungary deliberately started the war, goaded by Germany, which turned the little war into a great war.
- German aggression in 1914 reflected the failure of all European leaders to incorporate Bismarck's empire into the international system.
- Another theory is that Germany's belligerent foreign policy was the result of domestic conflicts and tensions--and that the ruling elite in Germany saw war as a way to rally the masses to its side and save its position of power.
- Nationalism contributed to war fever. All the European leaders underestimated the risk of war.
- The first Battle of the Marne (September 1914)
- The original Schlieffen Plan--a German invasion of France through Belgium--had to be altered when British troops landed to help the Belgians.
- The Battle of the Marne turned the war into a long stalemate.
- Stalemate and slaughter
- Trench warfare meant much horrible death but no end to the war.
- The battles of Somme and Verdun cost thousands of lives but resulted in no significant gains in territory for either side.
- The French army was almost destroyed at Champagne (1917), while the British lost many men at Passchendaele.
- The war's horrors caused a profound disillusionment with society and mankind.
- The war shattered an entire generation of young men.
- It created a gulf between veterans and civilians.
- Trench warfare meant much horrible death but no end to the war.
- The widening war
- Russia pushed into eastern Germany, but the battles of Tannenberg and Masurian Lakes led to German victories in the fall of 1914; Russia lost 2.5 million soldiers in 1915 alone.
- Despite Austrian losses to Serbia, Austria and Germany defeated Russia and Serbia on the eastern front.
- Italy and Bulgaria entered the war (1915); Italy did so in return for promises of Austrian territory.
- With Arab help, Britain defeated the Ottoman Empire (1918); but Britain was defeated in the Dardenelles.
- The European war extended around the globe as Great Britain, France, and Japan seized Germany's colonies.
- The United States entered the war in 1917 because of German submarine warfare, antiGerman propaganda, and the reality of war profits.
- The Bismarckian system of alliances
- The home front
- Mobilizing for total war
- Most people saw the war in nationalistic terms and believed their nation was defending itself against aggression.
- German trade unions and the socialists in the Reichstag supported the war.
- Total war meant that economic planning was necessary.
- Rationing, price and wage controls, and restrictions on workers' freedom of movement were imposed by government.
- The economy of total war blurred the distinctions between soldiers and civilians--all were involved in the war effort.
- The ability of governments to manage economies strengthened the cause of socialism.
- In Germany, food and raw materials were rationed and universal draft was initiated.
- Walter Rathenau, the industrialist, directed the German economy--and important advances were made in the invention of synthetic materials.
- The generals, Hindenburg and Ludendorff, became the real rulers of Germany.
- Total war led to the establishment of a totalitarian society.
- Britain mobilized less rapidly, but by 1916, the British economy was largely a planned economy.
- Most people saw the war in nationalistic terms and believed their nation was defending itself against aggression.
- The social impact
- Labor shortages brought about benefits for organized labor.
- Unions and socialists became partners in government.
- The role of women changed dramatically as many women entered the labor force.
- Some European women gained the right to vote after the war.
- Women displayed a growing spirit of independence.
- War brought about greater social equality.
- Men from all classes died but less so were those from the skilled working class.
- Labor shortages brought about benefits for organized labor.
- Growing political tensions
- Wartime propaganda to maintain popular support of the war was widespread.
- But by 1916, people were growing weary of war; morale declined.
- In France, Clemenceau established a virtual dictatorship to deal with strikes and those who wanted compromise to end the war.
- In Germany, the social conflict of the prewar years emerged.
- The German socialist leader Liebknecht called for an end of the war and the defeat of the German government.
- In Austria, people were starving; a socialist assassinated the Austrian chief minister.
- By the winter of 1916-1917, Germany's military position was desperate, but she gambled by returning to unrestricted submarine warfare.
- By July 1917, a coalition of socialists and Catholics in Germany called for an end to the war.
- Mobilizing for total war
- The Russian Revolution (1917)
- The Russian Revolution was one of history's most momentous events--for it presented a radically new prototype of state and society.
- The fall of imperial Russia
- Most Russians supported the war--including the liberals who thought alliance with Britain and France would bring democratic reform.
- However, huge war losses and mistakes pointed to the weak leadership of the tsar and the unresponsiveness of the Russian government.
- The influence of Rasputin on the royal family further weakened the government and created a national scandal.
- Food shortages led to revolution in March 1917.
- A provisional government was proclaimed by the Duma.
- The tsar abdicated.
- The provisional government (March 1917)
- After the March revolution, Russia became the freest country in the world.
- Yet the new revolutionary government, led by Kerensky, wanted to postpone land reform, fearing it would further weaken the peasant army; the continuation of the war was Kerensky's primary concern.
- The provisional government had to share power with the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies.
- The Petrograd Soviet's Army Order No. 1 placed military authority in the hands of ordinary soldiers.
- Army discipline broke down completely, and massive desertions began.
- Liberty was rapidly turning into anarchy.
- Lenin and the Bolshevik Revolution
- Lenin believed that revolution was necessary to destroy capitalism.
- He also believed that Marxist revolution could occur in Russia despite its absence of advanced capitalism if led by an intellectual elite.
- Russian Marxists became divided over Lenin's theories.
- Lenin's Bolsheviks demanded a small, disciplined, elitist party.
- The Mensheviks wanted a democratic party with mass membership.
- Lenin led an attack against the provisional government in July 1917, but it failed and he went into hiding.
- Kerensky's power was weakened by an attack on the provisional government by his commander in chief, Kornilov, and he lost favor with the army.
- Trotsky and the seizure of power
- A radical Marxist and supporter of Lenin, Trotsky centered his power in the Petrograd Soviet.
- The Bolsheviks gained a majority in the Petrograd Soviet.
- Bolsheviks controlled the military in the capital.
- Trotsky engineered a Soviet overthrow of the provisional government (November 1917).
- The Bolsheviks came to power because they were the answer to anarchy, they had superior leaders, and they appealed to many soldiers and urban workers exhausted by war.
- A radical Marxist and supporter of Lenin, Trotsky centered his power in the Petrograd Soviet.
- Dictatorship and civil war
- The key to Bolshevik success was in their ability to turn chaos into a dictatorial socialist society.
- Lenin gave approval to the peasants' seizure of land and the urban workers' takeover of the factories.
- Lenin arranged for an end of the war with Germany, but at a high price: the sacrifice of all of Russia's western territories (the Treaty of BrestLitovsk, 1918).
- Free elections produced a stunning loss for the Bolsheviks, and Lenin dissolved the Constituent Assembly.
- Opposition to the Bolsheviks led to civil war (1918-1921).
- The officers of the old army (the Whites) organized the opposition to the Bolsheviks (the Reds).
- The Whites came from many social groups and wanted selfrule, not Bolshevik dictatorship.
- The Bolshevik victory in the civil war was due to a number of factors: unity, a better army, a welldefined political program, mobilization of the home front, an effective secret police force (the Cheka), and an appeal to nationalism in the face of foreign aid to the Whites.
- World War I brought the conditions that led to the Russian Revolution and a radically new government based on socialism and oneparty dictatorship.
- The peace settlement (1918-1919)
- The war left 10 million dead, 20 million wounded, and cost $332 billion; the peace treaty sowed the seeds for the next war.
- The end of the war
- By early 1917, the German populace was weary of war, and the German army was decisively defeated in the second Battle of the Marne (1918).
- The Allies were strengthened by American intervention, and by September, the Allies were advancing on all fronts.
- The German military arranged for a new liberal German government to accept defeat.
- German soldiers and workers began to demonstrate for peace, and Germany surrendered in November 1918.
- Revolution in Germany
- Revolution in AustriaHungary led to the breakup of the AustroHungarian Empire into new national states: Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia.
- Revolution in Germany (November 1918) led to a victory for the moderate socialists, the Social Democrats.
- There was little popular support for a radical revolution.
- The Social Democrats wanted the gradual elimination of capitalism.
- They accepted defeat and used the army to crush a radical uprising led by Leibknecht and Luxemburg.
- The Treaty of Versailles
- President Wilson was obsessed with creating a League of Nations to avert future wars.
- Clemenceau of France and Lloyd George of England were more interested in permanently weakening Germany and making it pay for the war.
- The conflicting desires of the Allies led to a deadlock and finally a compromise.
- France gave up its demand for a protective buffer state in return for a defensive alliance with Britain and the United States.
- The League of Nations was created.
- Germany lost her colonies and territory in Europe--largely AlsaceLorraine, Danzig, and eastern land--to Poland.
- Germany had to limit its army, admit responsibility for the war, and pay enormous damages.
- AustriaHungary and Turkey were the big losers in the separate peace treaties; the principle of selfdetermination still applied only to Europeans, and thus Western imperialism lived on.
- American rejection of the Versailles treaty
- The Versailles settlement rested on the principle of national selfdetermination, the League of Nations, and fear that the Bolshevik Revolution might spread.
- Republican senators refused to ratify the treaty largely because of the issue of the League's power.
- Henry Cabot Lodge and others believed that requiring member states of the League of Nations to take collective action against aggression violated Congress's right to declare war.
- Wilson refused to compromise, and the Senate did not ratify the treaty.
- The Senate also refused to ratify the defensive alliance with Britain and France.
- Britain also refused to ratify the defensive alliance.
- France felt betrayed and isolated.
- Summary
World War One was revolutionary because it encouraged Europe-wide nationalism, brought on the concept of total war, swept away monarchs and empires, encouraged the idea of "national self-determination," brought on radical revolution in Russia, and taught governments the lessons of government planning and government direction of economic and social life--and brought on a greater degree of social equality.