Chapter 25
The Beginning of the Twentieth-Century Crisis:
War and Revolution
The Road to World War I
Nationalism
Liberals claimed that creation of national states would
bring peace
Led to competition instead of cooperation
Brinkmanship: push a situation into dangerous terrain in
order to gain advantage/achieve goal
Internal dissent
Ethnic tensions
Growing power of Socialist labor movements
Use of war to divert revolutionary tide at home
Militarism
Conscription and growing armaments
Influence of military leaders
Military plans
International Rivalry and the Coming of War
New Alliances
Reinsurance Treaty between Russia and Germany,
1887
Dismissal of Bismarck, 1890 and Wilhelm II’s lapse in
the treaty (Biz was all about isolating France)
Military alliance of France and Russia, via Dual
Entente in 1894 (b/c Russia felt isolated, too!)
New Directions and New Crises
GB under new conservative government of PM Lord
Salisbury ends “splendid isolation” and seeks an ally
• GB approaches Germany, but the Germans decline due to
naval rivalry and the Boer crisis
• GB instead forges alliances with Japan (1902), France
(1904) and Russia (1907)
By 1907, Triple Entente of France, GB and Russia
solidified, to balance the Triple Alliance of Germany,
Austria-Hungary and Italy (1907)
Crises Over Imperialism
The Moroccan Crisis and Wilhelm II’s weltpolitik and a
“Place in the Sun”
“world policy” and German imperial claims that Morocco should
be independent from France (bordered German territories)
All major European powers support France’s claim to Morocco,
not German – Germany isolated
Agadir Crisis (1911) – France send troops to Morocco to
restore order and Germans counter by sending the Panther
(naval ship) to Agadir leading to the French surrendering some
territory to Germany
Balkans, 1908-1913
Austria annexes Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1908 as allowed by
Berlin Conference and San Stefano revision
Serbian protest, Russian and Pan-Slavists support of Serbia
Balkan Wars, 1912-1913
• Serbia’s Ambitions: large independent Slavic state
• Russian support of Serbia
• Austria-Hungary’s determination to limit Serb ambition
The
Balkans,
1878
Map 25.1: Europe in 1914
The Road to World War I
The Outbreak of War: The
Summer of 1914
The effects of the Balkan Wars prior to
1914: Serbian/Slavic frustration
Assassination of Archduke Francis
Ferdinand and wife Sophia, June 28,
1914 by 18-yr. old Gavrilo Princip of
Black Hand Society, a Serb nationalist
group
Germany’s Chancellor Theobald von
Bethmann-Hollweg gives “full support”
to Austria (“Blank Cheque”)
Forces Russian mobilization
Schlieffen Plan requires march through
neutral Belgium to get to France
I’m gonna
git you
sucka!
The
Schlieffen
Plan aka
“oops, we
pissed off the
Brits!”
The War 1914-1915: Illusions & Stalemate
European attitudes toward the beginning of war and
the “war craze”
Failure of the Schlieffen Plan
First Battle of the Marne, September 6-10, 1914
Fast mobilization off British and French troops stop
Germans
French General Joseph Joffre
Russian Failures – German victory in the East
Battle of Tannenberg, August 30, 1914
Battle of Masurian Lakes, September 15, 1914
Austrian Failures
Galicia and Serbia – trouble with the Russians
Germans come to Austria’s aid
Battle Scene in Northern France
The War 1916-1917: The Great
Slaughter
Trench warfare
“No-man’s land”
“Softening up” the enemy
Battle of Verdun, 70,000
lost (German offensive)
Battle of the Somme,
1916 (Allied offensive)
• Heaviest one-day loss in
World War I
• 300,000 lost
• To draw German soldiers
from Verdun
Trench Warfare in France
Trench Warfare
Trench Warfare in Color
From The Somme
(2005)
Trench Life = Hell…
“Live and let live”
Trench Magazines –
Wipers Times, B.E.F.
Times (British
Expeditionary Forces)
Map 25. 2: The Western Front, 1914-1918
Map
25.3:
The
Eastern
Front,
19141918
The Widening of the War
Both sides attempt to tip the scales in their favor by
gaining new allies
August 1914: Ottoman Empire enters the war for
Central Powers
Battle of Gallipoli, April 1915
ANZAC Troops and “…Waltzing Matilda”
May 1915: Italy enters the war against AustriaHungary
September 1915: Bulgaria enters the war on the
side of the Central Powers
Middle East
Lawrence of Arabia (1888-1935) Arab princes vs.
Ottoman forces
The Widening of the War
April 1917: Entry of the United States
The United States tried to remain neutral
Naval Conflict between Germany and Britain
Sinking of the Lusitania, May 7, 1915
Return to unrestricted submarine warfare,
January 1917
United States enters the war, April 6, 1917
Bolshevik Revolution, 1917
Italian defeat
Failure of Western front offensives
Both sides were exhausted!
A New Kind of Warfare
Air Power
1915: first use of airplanes on
the battle-front
German use of zeppelins
Tanks
1916: first use of tanks on the
battlefield
Early tanks ineffective
1918: British Mark V first
effective tank
War Casualties
Country
Mobilized
Killed
Wounded
Total
Casualties
Africa
55,000
10,000
unknown
unknown
-
Australia
330,000
59,000
152,000
211,000
64%
Austria-Hungary
6,500,000
1,200,000
3,620,000
4,820,000
74%
Belgium
207,000
13,000
44,000
57,000
28%
Bulgaria
400,000
101,000
153,000
254,000
64%
Canada
620,000
67,000
173,000
241,000
39%
The Caribbean
21,000
1,000
3,000
4,000
19%
French Empire
7,500,000
1,385,000
4,266,000
5,651,000
75%
Germany
11,000,000
1,718,000
4,234,000
5,952,000
54%
Great Britain
5,397,000
703,000
1,663,000
2,367,000
44%
Greece
230,000
5,000
21,000
26,000
11%
India
1,500,000
43,000
65,000
108,000
7%
Italy
5,500,000
460,000
947,000
1,407,000
26%
Japan
800,000
250
1,000
1,250
0.2%
Montenegro
50,000
3,000
10,000
13,000
26%
New Zealand
110,000
18,000
55,000
73,000
66%
Portugal
100,000
7,000
15,000
22,000
22%
Romania
750,000
200,000
120,000
320,000
43%
Russia
12,000,000
1,700,000
4,950,000
6,650,000
55%
Serbia
707,000
128,000
133,000
261,000
37%
South Africa
149,000
7,000
12,000
19,000
13%
Turkey
1,600,000
336,000
400,000
736,000
46%
USA
4,272,500
117,000
204,000
321,000
8%
The Home Front: The Impact of Total War
Government Centralization
Conscription
Effects on Economies
Public Order and Public Opinion
Dealing with unrest
Strikes
Irish Revolt 4/1916
Defense of the Realm Act (DORA)
Propaganda
Social Impact of Total War
Labor benefits prestige for trade
unions
New roles for women
• Male concern over wages
• Women began to demand equal pay
• Gains for women
The Last Year of the War
Withdrawal of Russia 3/3/1918 (Brest-Litovsk)
gives Germany hope
Ludendorff launches last German offensive,
March 21-July 18, 1918
Allied counterattack, Second Battle of the Marne,
July 18, 1918
General Ludendorff informs German leaders that
the war is lost
William II abdicates, November 9, 1918
German soldiers, workers revolt
Republic established under Ebert
Armistice, November 11, 1918
The Casualties of the War
8 to 9 million soldiers killed, 22 million wounded
Revolutionary Upheavals in Germany
and Austria-Hungary
Revolution in Germany
Division of German Socialists: moderates and radicals in SPD
Formation of two governments
• Weimar Republic
• Spartacist Uprising 1919 (Liebknecht and Luxembourg) split
communists and radical socialists from SPD
Failure of radicals to achieve control: resistance from left and
right continues…
Revolution in Austria
Ethnic upheaval: various groups rallied for independence
Formation of independent republics (Austria, Hungary,
Czechoslovakia, enlarged Romania, enlarged Serb state called
Yugoslavia)
The Peace Settlement
Palace of Versailles, January 1919, 27 Allied
nations: “Eternal Peace”
Lenin and the secret treaties
Woodrow Wilson, Fourteen Points
Pragmatism of other states
Lloyd George determined to make Germany pay
Georges Clemenceau of France concerned with
his nation’s security
Concern over the spread of Bolshevism
January 25, 1919, the principle of the League of
Nations adopted
The Treaty of Versailles
Five separate treaties (Germany, Austria,
Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire)
The most important was the Treaty of Versailles,
June 18, 1919
Article 231, War Guilt Clause
100,000 man army limit
Loss of Alsace and Lorraine to France
Sections of Prussia to the new Polish state
German charges of a “dictated peace”
Wilson’s 14 Points
1. No more secret agreements ("Open covenants openly arrived at").
2. Free navigation of all seas.
3. An end to all economic barriers between countries.
4. Countries to reduce weapon numbers.
5. All decisions regarding the colonies should be impartial
6. The German Army is to be removed from Russia. Russia should be left to develop
her own political set-up.
7. Belgium should be independent like before the war.
8. France should be fully liberated and allowed to recover Alsace-Lorraine
9. All Italians are to be allowed to live in Italy. Italy's borders are to "along
clearly recognizable lines of nationality."
10. Self-determination should be allowed for all those living in Austria-Hungary.
11. Self-determination and guarantees of independence should be allowed for
the Balkan states.
12. The Turkish people should be governed by the Turkish government. Non-Turks in
the old Turkish Empire should govern themselves.
13. An independent Poland should be created which should have access to the sea.
14. A League of Nations should be set up to guarantee the political and territorial
independence of all states.
The Other Peace Treaties
German and Russian Empires lost territory in eastern
Europe
New nation-states: Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania,
Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Hungary
Romania acquired additional lands from Russia, Hungary,
and Bulgaria
Yugoslavia – multinational powder keg
Compromises will lead to future problems
Minorities in every eastern European state
Ottoman Empire dismembered
Promises of independence of Arab states in the Middle East
Mandates
• France – Lebanon and Syria
• Britain – Iraq and Palestine
United States Senate rejects the Versailles Peace Treaty
Map 25.5: Europe in 1919
The
Middle
East in
1919
Timeline
The Russian Revolution
By 1900 the fourth largest producer of steel
Count Sergei Witte – Minister of Finance
Development of working class
Development of socialist parties
Marxist Social Democratic Party, Minsk, 1898
Russo-Japanese War over Korea, 1904-1905
General strike, October 1905
Bloody Sunday at the Winter Palace
Nicholas II granted civil liberties and a legislative body,
the Duma
Voting and Land Reforms of Prime Minister Peter
Stolypin – help peasants, but keep political power in
hands of upper classes
Stolypin’s assassination by left…or right?
Nick II’s Curtailment of power of the Duma, 1907
The Russian Revolution
War and Discontent
Nicholas II was an
autocratic ruler and
insisted he command
military (?)
Russia not prepared
for war – not
industrialized long
enough
Government suspicion
of war enthusiasm
Influence of Rasputin
and discrediting the
Romanovs
The Russian Revolution
The March Revolution (February on Julian calendar)
Problems in St. Petersburg – long work hours, no food!
March of the women, March 8, 1917
Calls for a general strike
Soldiers join the marchers!
Provisional Government, a coalition of liberals and
socialists, takes control 3/12/1917
• Tsar abdicates 3/15/1917 – imperial government
collapses
• Alexander Kerensky (1881-1970)- Mensheviks
• Tried to carry on the war
• Soviets (workers’ councils) sprang up
Bolsheviks under the leadership of Lenin, 1870-1924
• Sent back to Russia in a sealed train by the Germans!
• April Theses: denounced provisional government of
moderate socialists and liberals
• “Peace, land and bread!” “All power to Soviets!”
Russian Revolution (cont)
The Bolshevik Revolution (October Revolution)
Bolsheviks control Petrograd and Moscow Soviets
Army Order #1: do not obey any military commands that do not
agree with Petrograd Soviet’s ideas
Kerensky vs. reactionaries under General Kornilov …Bolsheviks
empowered!
Collapse of Provisional Government, November 6-7, 1917
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, March 3, 1918 – Russia exits WWI
Civil War
Bolshevik (Red) army and Anti-Bolshevik (White) army
Murder of the Tsar and his family (July 16, 1918)
Disunity among the White army
Role of Trotsky as War Commissar
Communists and “War communism”
Invasion of allied troops
1921: Communist victory
Timeline summary of the Russian Revolution (20 min)
Map 25.4: The Russian Revolution
Eisenstein Recreates the Events of
the Revolution
1927: 10 year commemoration of Revolution,
Sergei Eisenstein releases October: Ten Days that
Shook the World
Part 1
Part 2 (Lenin’s Arrival)
Part 3
Part 4 (Kornilov)
Part 5 (Lenin says revolt!)
Part 6 (Everyone joins Revolution)…
Discussion Questions
Why were so many Europeans eager for war in 1914? Did
Europe’s governments share their enthusiasm?
What was “total war”? How did European governments
meet the challenge of total mobilization?
Why were so many people in the United States reluctant
to get involved in World War I? Why did Woodrow Wilson
see U.S. involvement as a necessity?
Describe the goals of the major participants at the peace
talks. How were these goals incorporated into the Treaty
of Versailles?
Web Links
World War I: Trenches on the Web
The First World War: A Multimedia History
World War I: Document Archive
The Russian Revolution
The Empire That Was Russia