World War I:
Immediate Causes of War
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Assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand
Long-Term Causes
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Militarism
Alliances
Imperialism
Nationalism
Changes in Warfare
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Poison Gas
Mechanized Warfare (machine guns)
Mobilized Warfare: tanks, airplanes, submarines
Trench Warfare
Submarines
United States Enters the War
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Unrestricted submarine warfare
Zimmerman Telegram
Russian Revolution
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Causes
o Defeats in WWI
o Food and fuel shortages
o Corruption
 Rasputin
Effects
o Tsar’s gov’t falls
o Replaced by Provisional Gov’t
 Establishment of “soviets”
o Bolsheviks seize power
o Russia leaves WWI
 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
o Russian Civil War
 Reds vs. Whites
 Allies support Whites
 Czar and his family assassinated
 Bolsheviks win
 Better organization
 Better leadership
 Propaganda
 Spread of Bolshevism
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Total War
o Front lines
 Casualties – b/w 8 and 9 million soldiers died with other 21 million wounded
 Shell shock/PTSD of survivors
 Some people label this generation the “lost generation”
o Home front
 Women worked in munitions factories
 Rationing
 Central government planning of the economy
 Propaganda – mobilize the support of the war effort
 Civilian population suffers
 6 to 13 million civilian casualties
 Starvation in Germany for example
Global War
o Fought in Europe, Asia, Africa, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans
o Competition for colonies was a major reason for war
 British seized most of Germany’s colonies after the war
o Colonial soldiers participated in battles including those on the Western Front
o Genocide in Ottoman Empire
 Christian Armenians are killed for supporting Russia in war against Muslim-led Ottoman
government
 600,000 to 1.5 million estimated deaths from executions, disease, and starvation
o Pandemics
 The war also helped to transmit the Spanish flu
 Soldiers returning home helped to infect home population
 Over 20 million people in Europe and US alone died from Spanish flu
Paris Peace Conference
o Big 4 – Wilson (USA), Lloyd-George (GB), Clemenceau (Fr), and Orlando (Italy)
 Debate a Peace of Vengeance vs. a Peace of Justice
 Wilson’s 14 points
o Self-determination
o League of Nations
o Spreading democracy
o NO REPARATIONS or WAR GUILT
 GB and France opposed to Wilson’s peace plan
o War guilt clause
o Reparations from Germany and its allies
o Loss of German colonies
o Loss of Ottoman territory
o France wants Alsace-Lorraine back from Germany
 Treaty of Versailles
 Germany has to accept guilt for war
o Germans resent this (foreshadow to Hitler)
 Germany has to pay reparations (in the billions)
o Suffers hyper-inflation
 Germany loses all the territory (see above)
 Demilitarization of Germany
o Especially the Rhine region between France and Germany
 Re-draws the map of Europe
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o Creates Poland, the Baltic states, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia
 League of Nations created
 USA not in – never ratifies the treaty
 Germany not invited at first
 Japan chooses not to join (doesn’t get territory it felt it deserved for being on the
winning side
o Italy not happy with its status/rewards either
Effects of the war
o Economic effects
 US economy improves – becomes world economic power
 European countries involved in WWI – economies are damaged, loss of industrial capacity
(switch to a war economy, takes time to switch back)
o Political effects
 Rise of nationalism in Africa and Asia
 Native people felt independence was the reward for their participation in the war
 Idea of self-determination
 Wilsonian democracy
 Beginnings of decolonization
 Mandate system
 Former territory of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East is partitioned and
administered by Britain or France
 Will be guided to independence by Western nations
o Really though a land grab by Britain and France
o Didn’t want to upset Wilson and League of Nations
 Balfour Declaration
o Palestine should become a permanent home for the Jews of Europe
o Palestinian Arabs oppose Jewish immigration
 Spread of Communism
 Bolsheviks in Russia attempt to spread Communism to Eastern and Western Europe and
China
 Disgruntled workers and ex-soldiers support Communist parties
 Negative economic and political effects also lead to the rise of extreme nationalism (FASCISM)