World War I

WORLD WAR I

Underlying reasons

Imperialism - international tensions

Nationalism - prestige and pride influenced countries international conduct

Militarism - because of insecurity wanted greater armies and weapons - this increases tensions, fears and taxes - arms race - leaders urged mobilization

Alliances - gave false sense of security

• Triple Alliance - Germany (Kaiser Wilhelm II - his father died of throat cancer after 99 days as Kaiser probably caused because he was a heavy smoker.  *** A note on German words the W's are pronounced like V's.), Italy (later dropped out and joined the Triple Entente), and Austria Hungary
• Triple Entente - France (wanted revenge on Germany - afraid of being isolated in Europe), Russia, England (afraid of German ambitions)

Catalyst is the murder of the heir to the Austrian throne and his wife in Sarajevo by members of the Black Hand a Serbian secret nationalist party

Archduke Franz Ferdinand (Franz is the German form of Francis)

• Nephew of Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph -he was heir because Franz Joseph's son Rudolf had committed suicide in 1889
• Not an oppressor of the Serbs
• They killed him because they wanted a bigger place in the sun for Serbia
• He was in Sarajevo (in Bosnia) because he wanted royal honors for his wife
• Wife - Countess Sophie Chotek, Duchess of Hohenberg - noble but obscure family - beneath his station
• had to argue with Emperor Franz Joseph for one year to be allowed to marry her (1900) - then compelled to renounce rights of succession and rank for his children
• Great love affair - blessed by 3 children
• But Sophie was snubbed in the Vienna court - she couldn't ride in the royal carriage with her husband - or sit in the royal box at the theater
• Gradually the emperor softened toward Sophie
• Franz Ferdinand could never forgive the court - swollen with pride - dangerously thin-skinned - religious bigot - miser - loneliest man in Vienna - loved only by his wife and children - no moderation in him - aides didn't last long  - had many broken friendships - ruined by his venomous temper and petty spite
• Took Sophie to Sarajevo so she could have special honor on their 14th wedding anniversary - June - she would have to be treated with special honors there

Assassins

• 7 young men - Serbian nationalists
• Only 1 had a police record for hitting a teacher
• Several had never touched liquor
• None gamblers
• All free of personal debt
• Only thing they had in common - all had tuberculosis

Assassination

• In a motorcade
• 1st man froze (Mohammed Mehmedvasic) - he got away but was arrested later after bragging about his part in the assassination
• 2nd man threw his bomb (Nedjelko Cabrinovic - 17 years old) - at that instant the car accelerated - bomb passed behind Sophie's back
• The Archduke raised his arm to protect his wife and deflected the bomb into the street
• A flying splinter hit Sophie's cheek and about a dozen other were wounded
• (2nd)bomber swallowed a cyanide capsule and dove into the river (Mljacka) - the cyanide made him retch and the river was only a few inched deep (the potency had expired on the cyanide) - he was not eligible for the death penalty as a juvenile - served 16 years and then became a history teacher
• The car sped up and shot past 3 more assassins - (4th)Vasco Cubrilovic, Cnyetko Popovic (18 years old - became a museum curator), Aanilo Ilic - they did nothing - these last 3 wandered off to the local pub to get drunk and celebrate
• The car reached City Hall
• The Archduke sent a wire to the emperor saying he there had been a bomb attack, but they were unhurt
• They canceled the rest of the days activities and decided to go to the hospital to see the bomb victims
• He begged Sophie not to share the risk - she replied: "No, I must go with you."
• 6th man (Trifko Grabez) - did nothing when he was passed
• At the next intersection the car made a wrong turn and drove past the pub
• The driver stopped and turned around
• Put them within 5 feet of the next man
• 7th man (Gavrilo Princip - had once been turned down by the Serbian Army for being too "small and weak") - drew a Browning revolver and fired instantly (twice) - so little noise sounded like blanks - one hit Franz Ferdinand in the neck - the other hit Sophie in the abdomen - the man riding with them (Potiorek) thought them unhurt - they sat upright, looking calmly ahead - directed the driver to return the way they came - as the car picked up speed blood shot from the Archduke's mouth
• Sophie cried, "For heaven's sake what's happening to you?" - then crumpled in a heap
• Franz Ferdinand cried, "Sophie dear, Sophie dear, don't die!  Stay alive for our children!"
• He then sagged and when asked if he was suffering whispered, "It is nothing." several times - these were his last world
• Sophie was dead before they could get her out of the car
• Franz Ferdinand soon followed her
• All over by 11:00am - June 28, 1914
• Princip (7th man) - tired to shoot himself - pistol knocked down by a spectator - crowd closed in and roughed him up - managed to swallow a cyanide pill - merely made him vomit - if he had died he could not have talked - Austria might not have made a 1/2 way case against Serbia - he was convicted but spared the death penalty because he was only 19 - he died in prison of tuberculosis in 1918

Austria - sent and ultimatum to Serbia - July 23, 1914

• Serbia must give up their independence
• Serbia agreed to most of the demands
• Germany goaded Austria Hungary into taking military action against Serbia - they wanted them to prove "themselves worthy of being Germany's ally"
• Declared war
• As a result Russia mobilized then Germany then France
• British took up battle positions in the North Sea
• When the Serbian Minister of Public Information read Austria's ultimatum, he said "There is nothing to do but die fighting."
• Austria declared war at noontime on July 28

As a result Russia fully mobilized

In response Germany fully mobilized - then France mobilized

British Royal Navy took up battle positions in the North Sea

Germany declared war on Russia August 1, 1914 and on France August 3, 1914

The "war to end all wars" had begun -65,000,000 combatants would take part and Europe would never be the same

By August Europe was engulfed in the first major war since Napoleon

(***If you would like to read about this in more depth The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman is an excellent book.)

The war was greeted by patriotic fervor all over the continent

By 1915 the two sides had clearly formed

      Central Powers                   versus                            Allies

• Germany                                                          France          Serbia
• Austria-Hungary                                               Britain          Japan
• Ottoman Empire                                               Russia           Portugal
• Bulgaria                                                           Italy               U.S.
•                                                                        Belgium

Both sides planned for and expected a short war - a few decisive battles - both were in for a surprise

Discuss rulers - all first cousins through Queen Victoria - Hohenzollern (Germany) - Hapsburg (Austria) - Romanov (Russia)

von Schlieffen Plan

• Since 1984 Germany had faced the possibility of a two-front war against both France and Russia
• To win such a war German generals had developed a strategy called the von Schlieffen Plan
• Germany would attack France first because that nation could mobilize faster than Russia
• To get the best advantage over the French this invasion would go through the neutral nation of Belgium
• The von Schlieffen Plan called for the passage through Belgium in six day and the conquest of France in six weeks
• Then German troops would be rushed east to face the still mobilizing Russians

Germany invaded Belgium on August 3, 1914

• The Kaiser referred to Belgian neutrality as a "scrap of paper"
• The Belgians resisted - King Albert I said, "Belgium is a nation, not a road."
• It took the Germans eighteen days to conquer Belgium - atrocities were committed

German troops entered France behind schedule - French and British troops had time to prepare for the onslaught

Still the Germans drove the Allies back deep into France to within 25 miles of Paris

Stopped at the Battle of the Marne

• French and British retreated for 12 days and then they turned and counter attacked
• For 3 bloody days (Sept. 6 - 8) the battle swayed back and forth along a 100 mile front
• Reinforcements arrived - "Miracle of the Marne" - French troops (600) rushed to the front in taxi cabs - first major use of motorized transport in the history of warfare - each cab made two 36 mile trips to the line - these troops had been shifted from the Moselle front and brought to Paris by train
• September 9 - the Germans began to retreat
• Casualties - Germany, 900,000 - French and English, 1,083,000
• Called a French victory
• Ranked one of the decisive battles in history - it stopped bringing the war to a quick close - determined WW I would last a long time
• Dug in - trench warfare began

In the first 3 months of the war almost the entire original British army was wiped out.

Russia also went on the offensive in the early days of the war - In response to pleas from France the Russians launched an attack on the Germans from the east while the Battle of the Marne was going on

Battle of Tannenburg - Germany wins - late August of 1914

• Panicked Germans brought General Hindenburg out of retirement to save the day - 13,000 killed, wounded or missing
• Germans surrounded the Russian army
• Russia retreats
• Russian general (Samsonov) killed himself
• Entire 2nd Army virtually wiped out
• Russian casualties were astronomical  - including the flower of the aristocratic youth - over 30,000 killed or missing - 92,000 taken prisoner
• One of the greatest disasters in military history

1914 - Christmas Truce

• Southern section of the Ypres Salient
• Mud lay deep in the trenches
• Men caked from head to foot in mud
• Rifles wouldn't work
• Trenches only a few hundred feet a part
• There is a book written about this time: Silent Night by Stanley Weintraub.  The following is a excerpt.
• "In the early months of WW I, on Christmas Eve, men on both sides laid down their arms and joined in a spontaneous celebration.  Despite orders to continue shooting, the unofficial truce spread across the front lines.  Even the participants found what they were doing incredible:  Germans placed candlelit Christmas trees on trench parapets, warring soldiers sang carols, and men on opposite sides shared food parcels from home.  They climbed from the trenches to meet in "No Man's Land" where they buried the dead exchanged gifts, ate and drank together, and even played soccer."

1915

Little ground changes hands in the west.

Italy joined the war on the side of the Allies - forced Austria-Hungary to fight a two front war

• Treaty of London promised the Italians new colonies and territory from Austria-Hungary
• Proved to be inept against the Austrians

Ottoman Empire proved to be a valuable ally to the Germans

• The Ottomans closed the straits to allied shipping leaving Russia isolated
• Gallipoli Campaign - Allies held for 8 months - finally withdrew - lost approximately 100,000 casualties
• During 1915 the Turks were also massacring the Armenians (**I have a friend who's pregnant, 15 year old, grandmother was put on a ship by her husband to the United States.  She never saw her husband again.)

Eastern Front saw the Russians driven back deep into Russia

The Central Powers occupied all of Poland and Lithuania - over 1,000,000 Russian casualties

In the Balkans the Austrians quickly conquered Serbia, Montenegro, and Albania

Western Front remained mired in a stalemate of trench warfare

• Started by the Germans to hold ground they had gained
• Stretched 600 miles
• Trench war was hellish - lots of rats - some bodies were buried in the sides of the trenches and at times would be exposed after a rain or attack
• Deadlocked for 2 years
• First use of gas April 22 - chlorine - released by the Germans - greenish white mist

At sea the war saw the first use of the submarine as a weapon - Germany used it in an attempt to break a British blockade and to starve Britain

HMS Lusitania was sunk by a German sub May 7, 1915

• ***The Germans notified Americans in New York with a newspaper ad that they would sink it if possible - only 12 people canceled their ticket
• Carried 1200 civilian passengers - 139 Americans
• Sunk with one torpedo
• This ship was actually heavily armed - carried 1,248 cases of 3-inch shells - 4,927 boxes of cartridges (1,000 rounds in each box) - 2,000 more cases of small-arms ammunition
• Her manifests were falsified to hide the fact
• British and American governments lied about the cargo
• Worldwide outrage compels Germany to issue the Sussex Pledge (the Sussex was another civilian ship sunk March 24, 1916) - Germany said they would warn unarmed vessels - later reverted to unrestricted sinking (April 1917)

***During hand-to-hand fighting in WW I a young British private (Henry Tandey) held an injured and frightened young German corporal at bayonet point.   He let him go.  The German was Adolf Hitler.

***The parachute had been invented by WW I.  German pilots had them.  Americans did not.  The War Department believed the pilot would bring home his injured plane if he couldn't bail out when he was hit.

Colonies of the Germans were quickly seized by the Allies (British and Japanese)

World War I sparked some major revolutions in military technology

• machine gun
• poison gas (mustard Gas)
• submarine
• flamethrower
• airplane
• tank - ***When the British were developing this they kept it very secret.  They built it in a factory that made water tanks so it became known as the "tank."  It was first used at the Battle of Somme.
• Zeppelin (lighter than air balloon)
• grenade

1916

• Drives on all fronts
• On the Western Front the trench war stalemate continued
• In the spring the Germans launched a major offensive against the French fortress of Verdun (Feb. 21) - the attack lasted almost 4 months - cost nearly 1,000,000 casualties (French - 540,000   German - 430,000) - hero of the Battle of Verdun was the French general Henri Petain (pay - tan) who rallied the nation with the cry "They shall not pass!" - the Germans failed to capture the fortress - advanced 4 miles in 6 months
• July 1 - Allies launched an attack of their own  - Battle of the Somme - it goes on for 5 months - again casualties were tremendous (Germans - 500,000    Allies - 600,000) - results were inconclusive - the British introduced the tank in this battle
• On the Eastern Front the Russians continued to suffer setbacks and casualties
• Ottoman forces confronted a British campaign in their Arab provinces and the British supported Arab revolt directed by a British military officer named T.E. Lawrence (aka Lawrence of Arabia)
• May 31 to June 1 - only significant naval battle of the war - German fleet sailed out into the North Sea - tried to divide the British fleet - didn't work - the British navy under Admiral Jellico met the Germans in the Battle of Jutland - they battled to a draw - Germans claimed victory but the British still controlled the high seas - the Germans retreated and did not fight again
• Easter Revolt in Ireland also drained British manpower

Home front

• This was a total war necessitating the mobilization of the entire nation - everyone had a role to play - grew victory gardens - knit socks and scarfs for soldiers
• Women began working in the industrial systems to replace men needed to fight - also assumed more traditional roles as nurses and spies
• Edith Cavell (1865 -1915) - English nurse in Brussels - helped about 200 Allied soldiers escape - shot by the Germans - last words: "Patriotism is not enough."
• Mata Hari (1876 - 1917) - Dutch dancer - pretended to be a Javanese temple dancer - accused of spying for the Germans - shot by the French - real name, Margaritha Gertrud Zelle
• The war effort created shortages of all goods for the civilian populations - caused rationing - especially food - the situation worsened as the war dragged on

War Leaders

• Germany                        Kaiser Wilhelm II
• Austria-Hungary             Emperor Franz Josef (d.1916) / Emperor Karl
• Great Britain                  King George V / P.M. David Lloyd-George
• France                           President Raymond Poincare / Clemenceau
• Russia                            Tsar Nicholas II (abdicated 1917)
• Italy                               P.M. Vittorio Orlando

Air war - battles became common - 1st fired pistols or rifles - then carried machine guns - also dropped bombs by hand - end of the war they had battles with 10 to 50 planes - replaced single combat

***The idea that 3 on a match was unlucky came from troops in the trenches.  By the time the third person was ready to use the match the other side had taken aim and was ready to shoot them.

***16th Amendment - 1913 - Established the income tax - started first as a resolution - then became part of the constitution - was suppose to be temporary

1917

• Critical year of the war
• Russia was disintegrating - the Tsar's armies were deserting or worse in mutiny
• February 1917 - Romanov dynasty was overthrown - the democratic party came to power and signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovosk to get out of the war

United States finally enters the war

• it had tried to remain neutral
• Isolationist policy - cited Washington's Farewell Address (no foreign entanglements)
• Ethnic divisions in the U.S.
• German use of the submarine and atrocities combined with Allied propaganda slowly turned the U.S. opinion in favor of the Allies
• February 1917 - Germans announced the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare
• The U.S. broke diplomatic relation
• March 1917 the British intercepted a coded German diplomatic message to the German embassy in Mexico - the Zimmerman Telegram (you can find copies of this on the internet)- asked Mexico to attack the U.S. - promised Mexico would receive all lands lost to the U.S. - British turned over the note to the U.S. government - within a week President Wilson asked for a declaration of war (April 6, 1917) - (Any one interested in learning more about this should read The Zimmerman Telegram by Barbara Tuchman) -
• Almost totally unprepared
• Army less than 200,000
• Adopted the draft (selective service) for men 21 to 30
• America eventually raised an army of over 4,000,000 men and shipped nearly 2,000,000 across the ocean to France - they took part in 13 major operations
• called the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) - led by General John J. "Blackjack" Pershing
• began landing in France on June 26,1917
• *"Lafayette, we are here."  - said by Col C.D. Stanton a week after  U.S. troops arrived in France
• Did not play a significant role until 1918

1918

The war entered its final year with both sides exhausted and the end no where in sight

January 8 - Wilson announced 14 Points - gave hope of a just peace to the enemy

The defeat of Russia allowed the Germans to transfer all of those troops to the Western Front

Generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff planned an all out spring offensive as a last attempt at victory before American troops began to arrive in force - the offensive began with success

Allies driven back

Once again Germans lacked sufficient power to finish the job

The Americans began to arrive and the Germans began to fall back to Germany

April - Allies unified under Marshal Foch

May 31 - Germans reached the Marne River - U.S. stopped their crossing the Marne at Chateau-Thierry

August 26 - Germans began retreating

Collapse of the Central Powers

• By the end of the summer of 1918 each of the Central Powers were near collapse
• Ottoman Empire - British troops had occupied the lower provinces and were closing in on Turkey
• Austria-Hungary - the nation was being torn apart by ethnic unrest - whole regions were in revolt - Italian troops split Austria-Hungary's armies in two and destroyed them
• Germany - the nation was starving and the army near mutiny

The Allies were not much better off

• France -Army was near mutiny - civilian population was sick of the war and the losses - out of 112 divisions, 68 would have mutinies, 629 men tried and condemned, 50 shot by firing squads
• Britain - nation on the verge of bankruptcy - was also exhausted
• Only the arrival of American reinforcements kept the Allies going

September - Allies broke the Siegrried Line

Surrenders

• September - Bulgaria surrendered
• October the Ottomans surrendered
• November 3 - Austria-Hungary simply disintegrated
• November - Kaiser was overthrown and fled to Holland - Germany asked for terms

***Note - Germany was never invaded - This will be used by the Germans later to say they were betrayed by their politicians.

On November 11, 1918 (11:00am) the fighting ended - ***notice it is 11,11,11 - this date would become a holiday to celebrate the end of the "Great War" - later it would be changed to "Veteran's Day" to honor all veterans

In a railroad car in the Compeigne Forest in Northern France 2 German delegates met  Allied officials to sign the armistice.

Losses

• Cost over $337,000,000 in the first 3 years - that's over $85,000 a minute
• Cost twice that in 1918
• Over 8 million killed - 126,000 Americans
• 24 million wounded

Peace

When the U.S. entered the war in 1917 President Wilson said that the goal was "peace without victory" - he sought a just, fair peace

Wilson proposed the Fourteen Points - some of the key provisions:

• Free trade
• No secret treaties
• Arms limitations
• Borders drawn along ethnic lines
• A free Poland
• Creation of a League of Nations

When the Germans asked for peace terms they expected  on based on the Fourteen Points - they did not get it - the Allies wanted revenge

Treaty of Versailles

• Delegates from the warring nations met at the Palace of Versailles to negotiate a conclusion to the war
• Big Four
•      President Wilson                     United States
•      P.M. Lloyd-George                  Great Britain - wanted German colonies
•      Clemenceau                            France - wanted Germany to pay
•      P.M. Orlando                           Italy
• Representatives of the Central Powers were not allowed to attend the negotiations - had to wait for the finished treaty to be presented to them
• The resulting treaty was very harsh
• Wilson was forced to give up most of the Fourteen Points - *** He suffered a mild stroke in Paris.  It was not recognized as a stroke at the time.  It seriously affected his judgment.
• Other Allied leaders were not in the mood to be conciliatory to the Germans
• Blamed Germany for starting the war - wanted to make sure it was so stripped of power that they would be safe from future aggression

Terms for Germany

• Given sole war guilt - outraged the Germans
• Lost all of it's colonies - Samoa, New Guines, German China, Marianas, Carolinas, Marshalls
• Had to return Alsace-Lorraine to France
• Lost territory to the new nation of Poland - Polish Corridor cut off East Prussia from the rest of Germany
• Had to pay huge reparations - held responsible for all damages
• Rhineland was demilitarized
• France was given control of the coal mines of the Saar for 15 years
• The army was limited to 100,000 - no airforce
• The navy was limited to coastal vessels only - no submarines

At first Germany refused to sign but they were in a terrible position. Britain was blockading Germany. - Germans close to starving - this situation increased the Germans resentment

To avoid occupation a second delegation signed on June 28, 1919

Treaty of St. Germain

• With the old Austro-Hungarian Empire
• The Nation was carved up into 5 new and separate nations
• Austria left a small rump state
• Hungary lost almost half it's land to neighboring Romania - bitter and vengeful
• Czechoslovakia - old industrial heart of the empire
• Yugoslavia - new federation of the South Slavs
• Poland - joined with former German and Russian territories
• Large reparations

Treaty of Lausanne

• With the old Ottoman Empire
• The Republic of Turkey was established under the government of Kemal Ataturk
• Turks lost all of their territory except the remains of modern Turkey

League of Nations

• One of the only ideas of President Wilson to be incorporated into the peace settlements
• Established at Geneva, Switzerland
• Purpose was to meet and peacefully negotiate disputes among nations
• Membership exclusive from the start - neither Germans or the Soviets were initially admitted - both joined later
• The United States never joined - it needed 2/3 vote from the Senate to join and there was too much opposition - this weakened it - Wilson suffered a stroke when he returned to the U.S. - his left side was partly paralyzed
• the League lacked sufficient power to enforce its will on member states - only "weapon" it had were sanctions
• Included a Mandate Section - devised to administer former Turkish territories and German colonies

Aftermath of World War I

• The end of the war left Europe at peace but divided into exhausted victors and bitter losers
• No one was left feeling content with the Versailles aftermath
• Over 10,000,000 soldiers died
• Over 20,000,000 soldiers wounded
• Over 1,000,000 civilians killed
• Influenza outbreak in 1918 killed another 5,000,000 (My father told me his whole family had the "flu" and they were all too weak to get out of bed.)
• All of the combatants were bankrupt
• New Nations
•      Soviet Union         Lithuania                 Finland
•      Hungary                Latvia                     Yugoslavia
•      Austria                  Eastonia                  Poland
•      Czechoslovakia     Ireland
• Europe was segregated into separate blocks of winners and losers
•     Winners                                     Losers
•      Great Britain                              Germany              Italy
•      France                                       Austria                 Hungary
•                                                       Soviet Union
• The losers will quickly begin to establish governments pledged to redress the injustices of Versailles
• Dictatorships arose all over Europe - democracy was discredited
•      Soviet Union                       Italy
•      Hungary                              Poland
•      Romania                             Austria
• The winners quickly lost their will to support Versailles - there was a growing realization that the Germans had been treated unfairly at Versailles

Postwar Economics

• All of Europe was left economically devastated
• France and Belgium were devastated by the German occupation
• Soviet Union was an economic wreck due to the revolution and civil war
• Britain was bankrupt
• Germany was crushed under the weight of reparations - in 1923 the economy collapsed due to the reparations and the ravages of inflation - the Mark became worthless - the middle-class was wiped out - Germany missed its reparation payment - France responded by occupying the Ruhr (Germany's industrial heartland) in 1923 - France was forced to withdraw under British pressure
• Beginning in 1925 the United States began to assist Germany in it's recovery through the Dawes Plan (a series of loans)

Diplomatic Relations

• In the years immediately following the war diplomacy will begin to change - at first the goal was German and Soviet isolation - that will begin to alter
• Treaty of Rapollo (1922) between Germany and the Soviet Union - the two outcasts establish relations
• Treaty of Locarno (1925) between France and Germany - the two agreed to accept the borders in the west as legitimate - Germany joined the League of Nations
• Kellogg-Brand Pact (1928) - 62 nations signed - it "outlawed " war as a tool of foreign policy
• Each of these agreements reflected the spirit of the new Europe which wanted to do anything to avoid another 1914

Many of the problems which plagued the last half of the 1900's can have their roots traced back to this war.