22
The Beginning of the
Twentieth-Century Crisis:
War and Revolution
©2004 Wadsworth, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning™ is a trademark used herein under license.
Europe in 1914
The Road to World War I
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Nationalism and Internal Dissent
 Rivalries over colonies
 Nationalism
 Socialist labor movements create fear nations on the
eve of revolution
Militarism
 Conscription
• Russia an army of 1.3 million
• France and Germany, 900,000
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Influence of military leaders
• Complex military plans
• Inflexibility of military plans
©2004 Wadsworth, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning™ is a trademark used herein under license.
World War I, 1914-1918
The Outbreak of War: Summer of
1914
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Serbia, supported by Russia, determined to create a large,
independent Slavic state in the Balkans
Assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand and Sophia,
June 28, 1914
Austrian declaration of war, July 28, 1914
 Austrians see chance to stop Serbian nationalistic
movements
 Germany promises support
Russian mobilization
Schlieffen Plan
The Great War
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1914-1915: Illusions and Stalemate
 Trench warfare
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
 Driven out of Galicia and Serbia
World War I, 1914 – 1918
1916 – 1917: The Great
Slaughter
 Trench
warfare
 “No man’s land”
 No plan for fighting a trench war
 Battle of Verdun, 1916, 700,000 killed
 Horrors of trench warfare
The Widening of the War
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Russia, Great Britain, and France declare war on Ottomans
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Bulgaria enters the war, September 1915, on the side of the
Central Powers
Italy enters the war, May 1915, against Austria-Hungary
Middle East
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Battle of Gallipoli, April 1915
T.E. Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia (1888-1935)
Allies seize German colonies in Africa -- Togoland,
Cameroons, South West Africa, German East Africa, and
Pacific
Entry of the United States
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Sinking of the Lusitania, May 7, 1915
German return to unrestricted submarine warfare
United States enters the war, April 6, 1917
Bolshevik Revolution, 1917
The Home Front: The Impact of
Total War
 Extension
of government power
Politics
 Economics
 Internal dissent
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• Defense of the Realm Act in Britain
Propaganda
 New roles for women
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The Russian Revolution
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Problems of Tsar Nicholas II
 Military problems
 Influence of Rasputin
 Strikes in Petrograd, March, 1917
 Led by women
 Demand “Peace and bread”
 Soldiers joined the strike
Provisional government takes control
 Alexander Kerensky (1881-1970)
Lenin and the Bolshevik Revolution
 V.I. Lenin (1870-1824)
 Collapse of Provisional Government, November 6-7, 1917
 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, March 3, 1918
Civil War
 Communist
(Red) Army
 Leon Trotsky
 White army
 How the Bolsheviks won
 Red Terror
 Chekka
 Allied invasion
 100,000 troops
The Last Year of the War
 Last
German offensive, March - July, 1918
 Allied counterattack, Second Battle of the Marne,
July 18, 1918
 William II abdicated, November 9, 1918
 Armistice, November 11, 1918
The Peace Settlement
 Palace
of Versailles, January 1919, 27 Allied
nations
 Woodrow Wilson, Fourteen Points
 Georges Clemenceau of France concerned with his
nation’s security
 Clemenceau and Lloyd George determined to
punish Germany
 Agreement to create the League of Nations
The Treaty of Versailles
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Five separate treaties (Germany, Austria, Hungary,
Bulgaria, and Turkey), the most important being the Treaty
of Versailles with Germany
 Treaty with Germany signed June 28, 1919
Article 231, War Guilt Clause
Army reduced to 100,000 men, reduce navy, eliminate the
air force
Return to France Alsace and Lorraine and sections of
Prussia given to Poland
Demilitarized zone on the Rhine
The Other Peace Treaties
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Territorial changes in Europe
 Austro-Hungarian Empire disappears
 Germany and Russia lose territory
• Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Czechoslovakia,
Austria, and Hungary
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As a result of compromises, virtually every eastern
European state was left with a minorities problem
Dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire
 Mandates
• France given control of Lebanon and Syria while Britain
received Iraq and Palestine
©2004 Wadsworth, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning™ is a trademark used herein under
license.
Territorial Changes in Europe
and the Middle East after World
War I
The Futile Search for Stability
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Uneasy peace, uncertain security
Weaknesses of the League of Nations
Allied Reparations Commission, April 1921
Consequences of French occupation of the Ruhr valley
Dawes Plan, August 1924
Treaty of Locarno, 1925
Kellogg-Briand pact, 1926
Disarmament
The Great Depression
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Two events set the stage for the depression
 Problems in domestic economies
 International financial crisis
Problems of the 1920s
Crash of the American stock market, October 1929
Worldwide problems
 High unemployment
 Bank failures
Governments relied on:
 Balanced budgets, lowering of wages, and raising
tariffs
Increased involvement of the government into economics
 Renewed interest in Marxist principles
The Democratic States
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Britain
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France
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Governmental problems
Popular Front
Germany
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John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946)
Keynes argued for putting people to work
Called for deficit spending
Weimar Republic
Runaway inflation, 1922-1923
Prosperity from 1924-1929
United States
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New Deal
Works Progress Administration (WPA)
Social reforms
Socialism in Soviet Russia
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Problems facing Russia after the Civil War
New Economic Policy (NEP)
 Modified capitalism
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Alexandra Kollontai (1872-1952)
 Women’s rights and social welfare
Death of Lenin, 1924 and struggle for power
The Politburo
Joseph Stalin (1879-1953)
 Eliminated Leon Trotsky as a rival
 By 1929 had eliminated the Old Bolsheviks and seized
power
In Pursuit of a New Reality:
Cultural and Intellectual Trends
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Breakdown of middle-class values
Nightmares and New Visions
 Abstract painting
 Dadaism
• Tristan Tzara (1896-1945)
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Surrealism
• Salvador Dalí (1904-1989)
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Probing the Unconscious
 James Joyce (1882-1941), Ulysses
 Hermann Hesse (1877-1962)
 Mass entertainment
Discussion Questions
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What role did new technology play in World War I?
Why role did Europe’s African and Asian colonies play in
the conflict?
How did military setbacks contribute to the outbreak of the
Russian Revolution?
What were the objectives of the major powers at the
Versailles peace conference?
How did France, Great Britain, Germany, Russia, and the
United States respond to the challenges presented by the
Great Depression?