World War I
Worldwide impact
World War I (1914-1918)
• World War I (1914-1918) was caused by
competition among industrial nations in
Europe and a failure of diplomacy. The war
transformed European and American life,
wrecked the economies of Europe, and
planted the seeds for a second world war.
Questions
• What were the factors that produced World
War I?
• What were the major events of the war?
• Who were the major leaders?
• What were the outcomes and global effects of
World War I?
• What were the terms of the Treaty of
Versailles?
Alliances
• The alliance system in Europe started with
Prussia
• Prussia wanted to unite the German states
into a German nation
• Germany united (allied) with Austria-Hungary
and Italy
• France and Germany were enemies and so
France allied with Russia
Alliances
• Great Britain remained neutral until Germany
started to build up its navy
• Great Britain loosely allied with France and Russia
forming the Triple Entente
• Nationalism – intense pride for one’s homeland
was a powerful idea in Europe
• Self-determination – the idea that people who
belong to a nation should have their own country
and government, was a basic idea of nationalism
Alliances
• A small country called Serbia, allied with
Russia, wanted a unified Balkan nation
• A Serb national assassinated Archduke Franz
Ferdinand
• This assassination forced Austria-Hungary to
declare war with Germany siding with them
• Russia, allied with Serbia, declared war with
France siding with them (France wanted
Germany defeated)
MAIN causes of WW I
Militarism / Alliances / Imperialism / Nationalism
Spark: Archduke Ferdinand (Austria) assassinated
Causes of World War I
• Alliances that divided Europe into competing
camps
• Nationalistic feelings
• Diplomatic failures
• Imperialism
• Competition over colonies
• Militarism
World War I
The war began in Europe in 1914:
Central Powers
Germany and AustriaHungary
Allies
Britain, France,
and Russia.
Major Events
• Assassination of Austria’s Archduke Ferdinand,
he was shot by a Serbian nationalist.
• United States enters the war - 1917
• Russia leaves the war – 1917 (Communist
Revolution led by Lenin)
Major leaders
• Woodrow Wilson – President of United States
• Kaiser Wilhelm II – German leader
Outcomes and global effect
• Colonies’ participation in the war, which
increased demands for independence
• End of the Russian Imperial, Ottoman,
German, and Austro-Hungarian empires
• Enormous cost of the war in lives, property,
and social disruption
Treaty of Versailles
• Forced Germany to accept responsibility for
war and loss of territory and to pay
reparations
• Limited the German military
• League of Nations
Treaty of Versailles (Verse-EYE)
• The French and
English insisted on
punishment of
Germany.
• A League of Nations
was created.
• National boundaries
were redrawn,
creating many new
nations.
1917 Revolution and Rise of
Communism
• Tsarist Russia entered World War I as an absolute
monarchy with sharp class divisions between
the nobility and the peasants. The grievances of
workers and peasants were not resolved by the
Tsar. Inadequate administration in World War I
led to revolution and an unsuccessful provisional
government. A second revolution by the
Bolsheviks created the communist state that
ultimately became the U.S.S.R.
Questions
• Why did Russia erupt in revolution while
fighting in World War I?
• How did communism rise in Russia?
Causes of 1917 Revolutions
•
•
•
•
Defeat in war with Japan in 1905
Landless peasantry
Incompetence of Tsar Nicholas II
Military defeats and high casualties in World
War I.
Russian Revolution
– Czar Nicholas II’s reforms were too little too late
– No industrial power = no national power
– Loss to the Japanese was humiliating
announcement of weakness
– WWI participation sucked Russia dry and made
civil war inevitable
– Weak resistance to well organized and mobilized
Bolshevik radicals
– Total abdication and assassination end the
Romanov Dynasty
Rise of communism
•
•
•
•
Bolshevik Revolution and civil war
Vladimir Lenin’s New Economic Policy
Joseph Stalin, Lenin’s successor
According to communism, history is dominated
by the struggle between the bourgeoisie and the
proletariat – the upper class and the laborer.
• Karl Marx, a German economist/philosopher is
credited with the idea of communism.
Vladimir Lenin
• Marxist
Revolutionary
• NEP allowed some
capitalism and
helped Soviet
economy recover
from early
communist
stagnation
• Dies of stroke, 1924
Leon Trotsky
• Co-founder with Lenin
• Organized and trained the
RED ARMY
• Practice of decimation made
Red Army “effective”
• Rival of Stalin’
• Assassinated in Mexico with
an ice-pick
Understanding the League of Nations
and the mandate system
• After World War I, international organizations
and agreements were established to avoid
future conflicts.
• What was the League of Nations and why did
it fail?
• Why was the mandate system created?
League of Nations
•
•
•
•
International cooperative organization
Established to prevent future wars
United States not a member
Failure of League because it did not have
power to enforce its decisions
The mandate system
• During World War I, Great Britain and France agreed
to divide large portions of the Ottoman Empire in
the Middle East between themselves.
• After the war, the “mandate system” gave Great
Britain and France control over the lands that
became Iraq, Transjordan, and Palestine (British
controlled) and Syria and Lebanon (French
controlled)
• The division of the Ottoman Empire through the
mandate system planted the seeds for future
conflicts in the Middle East.