Chapter 26
The Beginning of the Twentieth-Century Crisis:
War and Revolution
The Road to World War I
Nationalism and Internal Dissent
◦ Nationalism
 Liberals claimed that creation of national states would
bring peace
 Led to competition instead of cooperation
 Brinkmanship
◦ 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
◦ Triple Alliance, 1882 – Germany, Austria, Italy
◦ Reinsurance Treaty between Russia and
Germany, 1887
◦ Dismissal of Bismarck, 1890 and Wilhelm’s lapse
◦ Military alliance of France and Russia, 1894

New Directions and New Crises
◦ Entente Cordiale, 1904
◦ Emperor William II’s “place in the sun” and the
Moroccan Crisis
◦ Triple Entente, 1907 – Britain, France, Russia
◦ Triple Alliance, 1907 – Germany, Austria-Hungary,
Italy
Crisis in the Balkans, 1908-1913
Austria annexes Bosnia and
Herzegovina, 1908 as allowed by
Berlin Conference and San Stefano
revision
 Serbian protest, Russian support of
Serbia
 Balkan Wars, 1912-1913

◦ Serbia’s Ambitions
◦ 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
◦ Assassination of Archduke Francis
Ferdinand and wife Sophia, June 28,
1914 by 18-yr. old Gavrilo Princip of
Black Hand Society
◦ Germany’s Chancellor Theobald von
Bethmann-Hollweg gives “full
support” to Austria (“Blank Cheque”)
◦ 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 1914-195: 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
 Russian Failures

◦ 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 –
B.E.F. Times

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 Austria-Hungary
 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
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 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
◦ Formation of two governments
◦ Failure of radicals to achieve control

Revolution in Austria
◦ Ethnic upheaval
◦ Formation of independent republics
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
Loss of Alsace and Lorraine
Sections of Prussia to the new Polish state
German charges of a “dictated peace”
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 states
 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, 1904-1905
 General strike, October 1905

◦ Bloody Sunday at the Winter Palace
◦ Nicholas II granted civil liberties and a legislative
body, Duma
◦ Voting and Land Reforms of Prime Minister Peter
Stolypin
◦ Stolypin’s assassination by left…or right?
◦ Curtailment of power of the Duma, 1907
The Russian Revolution

War and Discontent
◦ Nicholas II was an
autocratic ruler
◦ Russia not prepared for
war
◦ Government suspicion
of war enthusiasm
◦ Influence of Rasputin
The Russian Revolution

The March Revolution
◦ Problems in St. Petersburg
◦ March of the women, March 8, 1917
◦ Calls for a general strike
◦ Soldiers join the marchers
◦ Provisional Government takes control 3/12/1917
 Tsar abdicates 3/15/1917
 Alexander Kerensky (1881-1970)- Mensheviks
 Tried to carry on the war
 Soviets sprang up
◦ Bolsheviks under the leadership of Vladimir Ulianov,
1870-1924
 Sent back to Russia in a sealed train by the Germans
 April Theses
 “Peace, land and bread” “All power to Soviets”
Map: The Russian Revolution
Russian Revolution (cont)

The Bolshevik Revolution
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦

Bolsheviks control Petrograd and Moscow soviets
Army Order #1
Kerensky vs. 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
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
