The Road to WWI
Homburg
American Studies
Emergence of Germany
• Germany united in 1871 and formed a nation
with a growing population, wealth, industrial
capacity, and military power.
• Austria-Hungary had been weakened by
Nationalism
• French power was damaged by Franco-Prussian
war (Germany gets Alsace-Lorraine)
• Bismarck sought to prevent an alliance between
France and any other European power.
Otto von Bismarck
Chancellor of Germany
Bismarck and Alliances
• In 1872 formed Three Emperor’s League
(Germany, Russia and Austria-Hungary).
• Goal was to bring stability and avoid war
• 1882 triple Alliance formed (Italy, AustriaHungary, and Germany)
• Because of Italy's resentment towards
France they joined the Alliance even
though it was with their former enemy—
Austria-Hungary
• The Reinsurance Treaty of June 18, 1887 was
an attempt by German Chancellor Otto von
Bismarck to continue to ally with Russia after
the League of the Three Emperors had broken
down
• Germany and Russia both agreed to observe
neutrality should the other be involved in a war
with a third country. Neutrality would not apply
should Germany attack France or Russia attack
Austria–Hungary.
Collapse of Bismarckian Alliances
and Formation of Triple Entente
• Bismarck was fired by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1890.
• Failed to renew alliance with Russia
• the Russian leadership was alarmed at the
country's diplomatic isolation and entered
the Franco-Russian Alliance in 1892
• Great Britain joined in the alliance with France
and Russia because of the expansion of
the German Navy into a battle fleet that could
threaten British naval supremacy.
• Bismarck’s original peaceful alliance system was
replaced with a dangerous one
Alliances and Strategies
The goals of each of the alliance members
• Britain – maintain continental balance and sea
superiority
• France – confine Germany
• Russia – expand if possible
• Germany – solidify German-speaking peoples
and never fight on two fronts (West first and then
East)
• Austria – hold everything together
• Italy – try to solidify your own territory
Outbreak of War
• Balkan trigger
– Serbs revolt/backed by
Russians
– Austria suppressed Serbs
– Serbian killed Austrian heir
• War (domino effect)
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Austria declared war on Serbia
Russia declared war on Austria
Germany joined with Austria
France and Britain declared war on
Austria and Germany
Archduke Ferdinand
on day of
assassination
Assassination of Franz
Ferdinand
Gavrilo Princip
The Assassination
• Franz Ferdinand was invited to the
opening of a hospital in Sarajevo
• The car's top was rolled back in order to
allow the crowds a good view of its
occupants.
• The seven conspirators lined the route. They were
spaced out along the Appel Quay, each one with
instructions to try to kill Franz Ferdinand when the royal
car reached his position. The first conspirator on the
route to see the royal car was Bosniak Muhamed
Mehmedbašić. Standing by the Austro-Hungarian Bank,
Mehmedbašić lost his nerve and allowed the car to pass
without taking action. Mehmedbašić later said that a
policeman was standing behind him and feared he would
be arrested before he had a chance to throw his bomb.
• At 10:15 A.M., when the six car procession
passed the central police station, nineteen-yearold student Nedeljko Čabrinović hurled a hand
grenade at the Archduke's car. The driver
accelerated when he saw the object flying
towards him, but the bomb had a 10 second
delay and exploded under the wheel of the third
car. Two of the occupants, Eric von Merizzi and
Count Ludwig Joseph von Boos-Waldeck were
seriously wounded. About a dozen spectators
were also hit by bomb shrapnel.
• After Čabrinović's bomb missed the Archduke's
car, five other conspirators, including Princip,
lost an opportunity to attack because of the
heavy crowds and the high speed of the
Archduke's car. To avoid capture, Čabrinović
swallowed cyanide and jumped into the River
Miljacka to make sure he died. The cyanide pill
was expired and made him sick, but failed to kill
him and the River Miljacka was only
13 centimetres (5 in) deep. A few seconds later
he was hauled out and detained by police.
• Princip had gone into Moritz Schiller's cafe for a
sandwich, having apparently given up, when he spotted
Franz Ferdinand's car as it drove past, having taken the
wrong turn. After realizing the mistake, the driver put his
foot on the brake, and began to back up. In doing so the
engine of the car stalled and the gears locked, giving
Princip his opportunity. Princip stepped forward, drew his
FN Model 1910 pistol, pistol-whipped a nearby
pedestrian, and at a distance of about five feet, fired
twice into the car. Franz Ferdinand was hit in the neck
and Sophie (who instinctively covered Franz's body with
her own after the first shot) in the abdomen, and they
both died before 11:00 A.M.
Punishment
• Princip attempted suicide first with the use of his pistol
after the assassination, then by ingesting cyanide. But
he vomited the past-date poison (as did Čabrinović,
leading the police to believe the group had been
deceived and bought a much weaker poison). The pistol
was wrestled from his hand before he had a chance to
fire another shot.
• Princip was too young to receive the death penalty,
being twenty-seven days short of his twentieth birthday
at the time of the assassination. Instead, he received the
maximum sentence of twenty years in prison.
History of the Balkans in 5
minutes
• “If there is ever another war in Europe, it
will come out of some damned silly thing in
the Balkans”. Otto von Bismarck
• 594 B.C.- Greek colonies first reported in
the Balkans
• By 14 A.D.- Conquered by Rome. It is
called Balkan= Hostile. Considered a good
source for slaves. (Slave comes from the
ethnic name: Slav)
• 1096-99: Conquered by crusaders. They
thought the people were heathens.
• 1348-1370: ½ of population wiped out by
Black Death.
• 1453: Conquered by Suleiman, a Muslim
(Ottoman Turks)
• Religious conflict:
– Bosnians- Islam becomes the dominant force
– Serbs- Eastern Orthodox (persecuted)
– Croats- Roman Catholic (persecuted)
• 1871-1914: Ottoman Empire loses
Balkans to Austro-Hungarian Empire
(Roman Catholics)
– “get even time” for Croats
– Serbs/Bosnians still persecuted
– Bosnians become an ethnic minority
– Serbia becomes independent
• June 1914: A Serbian kills the Archduke of
Austria (Franz Ferdinand)
– WWI starts
– Serbia joins the Allies (UK, France, Russia,
US)
– Bosnia/Croatia join the Axis (Germany,
Austria-Hungary, Italy
• 1919: Peace of Versailles
– Ends WWI
– Forms Yugoslavia
1992: Four new republics emerge:
– Bosnia-Herzekovina, Croatia, Slovenia,
Macedonia
1994: Civil War
– Serbs try ethnic cleansing of Muslims
Fin
WWI Stalemate and Life in the
Trenches
Definition: Stalemate
• A situation in which no progress can be
made or no advancement is possible
Schlieffen Plan
• Both sides originally believed that the
Great War would be over quickly.
• German plan- Schlieffen Plan- Take Paris
in 42 days, then attack Russia.
• The Schlieffen plan got off to a quick start
with a German army invading Belgium to
reach Paris, and then soon began to
unravel.
Trench Warfare
• New styles of warfare, like the use of gas and
heavy artillery, produced new kinds of horror and
unprecedented levels of suffering and death.
• When the German invasion of France failed to
take Paris or destroy French and British
resistance on the river Marne, stalemate quickly
followed, and a line of trenches soon stretched
along the war's Western Front from the Swiss
Alps to the English Channel
• both sides targeted both civilians and military
personnel, and mobilized men and resources at
an unprecedented rate, the Great War was a
"total war."
• Total War: Mobilization of all available resources,
whether human, industrial, agricultural, military,
natural, technological, or otherwise
• By the war's end, each side had dug at least
12,000 miles of trenches.
America During WWI
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In 1914, when war was declared in Europe,
America adopted a policy of neutrality and
isolation
That neutrality extended to a policy of
‘fairness’ – whereby American bankers
could lend money to both sides in the war
Trade was allowed with both sides
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British blockaded the German coastline- made
it impossible for goods to be delivered.
Britain even stopped America, who was neutral,
from delivering food to Germany.
German answer was unrestricted submarine
warfare.
On May 7th, 1915, the 'Lusitania' was sunk.
128 Americans on board the liner were killed
Germany apologized, their relationship became
tolerable
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The U.S. had huge economic investments
with the British and French. If they were to
lose, then they would not be able to pay
the U.S. debt back (amounting to about
two billion dollars while Germany only
borrowed a mere 27 million).
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November 7th, 1916, Wilson won the presidential
election by using the slogan “he kept us out of war”
British secret royal navy intercepted the Zimmerman
telegram to Mexico to join the war as Germany's ally
against the United States, should the U.S. join. The
Germans promised to give Mexico Texas, New
Mexico, and Arizona.
the U.S. Congress declared on 6 April 1917.
America's Official Reasons for
Entering War
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the renewal by Germany of her submarine warfare.
Imperial Germany was running amuck as an
international desperado
Prussian Militancy and autocracy let loose in the
world disturbed the balance of power and threatened
to destroy the international equilibrium.
The conflict [had gradually shaped] into a war
between the democratic nations on one hand and
autocratic on the other.
[America's] tradition of isolation had grown out warn
and could no longer be maintained in the age of
growing interdependency.
Because of the menace to the Monroe Doctrine and
to [America's] independence
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The Committee on Public Information was
created to influence U.S. public opinion regarding
American participation in World War I.
The CPI at first used material that was based on
fact, but spun it to present an upbeat picture of
the American war effort. Very quickly, however,
the CPI began churning out raw propaganda
picturing Germans as evil monsters
Used speeches, posters, movies, and boy scouts
to get their message out