The Great War, 1914-1918
Otto Dix, “Flanders” (painted: 1934-36)
Why is the Great War seminal?
• Eventually involved most of the world
• 65 million troops fought
• Germany and France mobilized 80 percent of males (aged
15-49)
• 18.4 million perished (soldiers and civilians)
• 23 million wounded
• Destroyed four empires (Hohenzollern/German, Habsburg,
Ottoman, Russian/Romanov)
• Sparked communist revolution in Russia (and elsewhere)
• Helped Hitler rise to power
• Began de-colonization
• Improved many women’s situation
Causes of the Great War
1. Alliance system:
 Triple Alliance:
 Germany
 Austria-Hungary
 Italy
 Triple Entente:
 Britain
 France
 Russia
Alliance system (cont.)
•
KEY: 1871: German
unification upset balance
•
1879-1918: Austro-German
Alliance
•
1881-1887: Alliance of Three
Emperors
• Germany
• Austria-Hungary
• Russia
•
Triple Alliance, 1882-1915
• Germany
• Austria-Hungary
• Italy
•
1887-1890: Russian-German
Reinsurance Treaty
William (Wilhelm) II
(b. 1859; r. 1888-1918)
• Grandson of William I
• Wanted to be a
“Warrior King”
• Lame
• 1890: Forced
resignation of
(irreplaceable)
Bismarck
• Lost Russia 1890
France courts Russia
• 1891: Republican
France and
Autocratic Russia
sign alliance (to
1917)
• “Marseillaise”, the
hymn of the
revolution
British Empire
• “Splendid Isolation”
• 1900: Germany starts
building large navy
• Boer War, 1899-1902
• 1904: Anglo-French
Entente (Entente
Cordiale):
 Britain got Egypt
 France got Morocco
• 1907: Anglo-Russian
Agreement
2. Imperialism
• 1905-6: First
Moroccan Crisis
• 1911: Second
Moroccan Crisis
• German Panther at
Agadir on July 1, 1911
• British called
Germany’s bluff
• Resolved peacefully
3. Nationalism
•
•
•
•
Serbian
Austrian
Russian
France vs. Germany
• 1871 and AlsaceLorraine
• Germany vs. Britain
• Naval Race
4. Short memory
• No major wars since
1815
• War as adventure
• Schoolbooks
• Intellectuals: Europe
was decadent, needed
a war for renewal.
5. Military Plans
• Germany’s Schlieffen
Plan
• Russia to mobilize
against Germany and
Austria-Hungary
• Planning made it more
inevitable
Immediate catalysts
1908: Austria-Hungary
formally annexed Bosnia
and Herzegovina
1912: First Balkan War, the
Balkan League (Serbia,
Greece, Montenegro and
Bulgaria) took Macedonia
from Ottoman Empire
1913: Second Balkan war,
Bulgaria attacked Serbia,
leading A-H to intervene
Immediate catalysts (cont.)
28 June 1914: Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated
Black Hand
Gavrilo Princip
Gavrilo Princip, 1894-1918
Immediate catalysts (cont.)
A-H decides to teach Serbia a
lesson
Franz Joseph asks Germany
for support
William II sends “Blank
Check” (Austria could
“rely on Germany’s full
support.”)
23 July 1914: A-H presents
ultimatum to Serbia
Immediate catalysts (cont.)
• 28 July 1914: A-H declares war on Serbia
– Tsar Nicholas II orders partial
mobilization against A-H
• 29 July 1914: Russia orders full
mobilization against A-H and Germany
• 2 August 1914: German General von Moltke
demands that Belgium permit German
armies to march through it
• 4 August 1914: Britain and France declared
war on Germany
• 11 November 1914: Ottoman Empire
declared war on Britain, France, and
Russia.