World War I
“The nations were caught in a trap. .
there was no looking back.”
General Joffre,
on the eve of the
Battle of the Marne, August, 1914
How was Europe in 1900 like the Titanic?
“La belle epoque”
War is Impossible
"Nothing could have been more obvious
to the people of the early twentieth
century than the rapidity with which
war was becoming impossible. And as
certainly they did not see it. They did
not see it until the atomic bombs burst
in their fumbling hands."
H G Wells, The World Set Free, 1914
First World War.com: http://www.firstworldwar.com/index.htm
BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/wwone/
Britain and France - Europe’s liberal powers
“What spoiled children we are”
Germany and Italy - The new nations
“We demand our place in the sun”
Austria and Russia - Dying dynasties
“Hard times make for hard lines”
Central Europe - The Balkan “tinderbox”
“We wanna be free!”
The World
United States - New great power of the West
China - self-strengthening that failed, revolution
Japan - the new great power in the East
India - England’s “jewel in the crown”
Latin America - Political Independence, economic
dependence
Africa - Partition and resistance
Middle East - Ottoman decline, “the sick man”
“Deep, Underlying Developments”
•
•
•
•
Imperialism
Economic Competition
Nationalism
Militarism – the Schlieffen Plan, 1905
Standing armies
• Alliances
– Triple Alliance – Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy
– Triple Entente – France, England, Russia
• Role of Public Opinion – “War Fever”
World War I Alliance System
Central Powers
Triple Entente
WAR FEVER
NOTED WRITERS AND THINKERS ADVOCATED WAR
William James (American)
“The plain truth is that people want war” (1912)
Winston Churchill (British)
“. . .in the field of battle life is at its best and healthiest while one
awaits the caprice of the bullet.” (1900)
von Treitschke (German)
“War, with all its bruitality and sterness, weaves a bond of love
between man and man, linking them together to face death,
creating a bond that will last forever. He who knows history
knows also that to banish war from the world would be to mutilate
human nature.”
Schiller (German)
Man is stunted by peaceful days,
In idle repose his courage dercays. . .
But in war man’s strength is seen,
War enobles all that is mean.
Belloc (British)
“How I long for the Great War. It will sweep Europe clean like a broom!”
Stravinsky (Russian)
“War is necessary for human progress.” (1907)
Holmes (American)
“. . .man’s warlike nature and his destiny is battle. Civilization has not changed
human nature. . .armed strife will not disappear from the earth until human nature
changes.” (1895)
Driant (member of the French assembly)
“the outcome of the next war will be decided in less than a month.” (1906)
Battle of the Marne, August 1914
“The Lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see
them lit again in our lifetime.”
Sir Edward Grey, August 1914.
(RGH # 62, p. 258)
TOTAL WAR – “the killing machine”
Unrestrained, mass warfare because whole nations were fighting for their national
survival.
Need to draft huge numbers of citizens and to organize the rest for war-related work.
Blurring of distinctions between the battlefront and the homefront.
Efficient mobilization of vast amounts of human and material resources began to eclipse
tactical brilliance and courage.
Science was mobilized to develop more deadly weapons to break the stalemate.
Homefront attacks, espionage, propaganda, restricting civil liberties in the name of
national survival.
Sacrifices from civilians through rationing, bond drives, blood donations, civilian
defense.
Masters of War
Bob Dylan
You
might
that I'm
young
Come
yousay
masters
of war
You
fasten
the
triggers
You
say I'm
unlearned
Youmight
that build
all the
guns
For
the
others
to
fire
But
onethe
thing
I know
Youthere's
that build
death
planes
Then
you
set
back
and
watch
Though
younger
than
you
You thatI'm
build
the big
bombs
When
the
death
count
gets
Even
Jesus
would
never
You that
hide
behind
wallshigher
You
inhide
your
mansion
Forgive
you
do desks
Youhide
thatwhat
behind
AsI just
young
people's
want you to blood
know
Flows
out
of
their
bodies
Let
mesee
askthrough
you oneyour
question
I can
mask
And
is
buried
in
the
mud
Is your money that good
Will
buynever
you forgiveness
Youitthat
done nothin'
You've
thrown
the
worst
fear
Do
think
that it
could
Butyou
build
to destroy
That
can
ever
bemy
hurled
I You
think
you
will
find
play
with
world
Fear
to
bring
children
When
your
death
Like it's
your
littletakes
toy its toll
Into
the
world
All
the
money
made
You
put
a gunyou
in my
hand
For
threatening
my
baby
Will
buy from
back my
your
soul
Andnever
you hide
eyes
Unborn
and
unnamed
And you turn and run farther
You
ain't
worth
blood
And
I hope
thatthe
you
diefly
When
the
fast
bullets
That
runs
in
your
veins
And your death'll come soon
I Like
will follow
Judas your
of oldcasket
How
much
do
I know
In
thelie
pale
You
andafternoon
deceive
To
of can
turn
And
I'llout
watch
while
Atalk
world
war
beyou're
won lowered
Down
to your
You want
me deathbed
to believe
And
stand
o'er your
But I'll
I see
through
yourgrave
eyes
'Til
I'mI see
surethrough
that you're
And
yourdead
brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain
“Mutual Butchery”
Stalemate – War of Attrition
(See RGH #62, p. 258-259)
Why were there NO victories in
World War I?
Machine Gun
Trenches
“No Man’s Land”
Barbed Wire
Poison Gas
Advantage to the Defense
German trenches, 1917
TRENCHES – 400 MILE LINE FROM NORTH SEA TO SWITZERLAND
From All Quiet on the Western Front, (RGH #63, pp. 261-266)
“In himself, man is essentially a beast,
only he butters it over like a slice of
bread with a little decorum.”
“There is no escape anywhere. . .I open
my eyes—my fingers grasp a sleeve, an
arm. . .a dead man.”
“We have all lost feeling for each other. .
.we are insensible, dead men, who
through some trick, some dreadful
magic, are still able to run and to kill. . .”
“I am young, I am 20 years old; yet I
know nothing of life but despair, death,
fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over
an abyss of sorrow.”
“Our knowledge of life is limited to
death. What will happen afterwards?
And what shall come out of us?”
The War Sonnets: V. The Soldier
Rupert Brooke, d. 1915
If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
Anthem for Doomed Youth
Wilfred Owen, d. Nov. 4, 1918
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries for them; no prayers nor bells,
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,
-- The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.
Children's Crusade
Sting, Dream of the Blue Turtles, 1984
Corpulent generals safe behind lines
Younglessons
men, soldiers,
nineteen
fourteen
History's
drowned
in red wine
Marchingfor
through
they'd
never
seen
Poppies
young countries
men, death's
bitter
trade
rifles,
game of charades
All ofVirgins
those with
young
livesa betrayed
All for a children's
All for a children's
crusade crusade
Pawns
in theofgame
are not
victims
chance
The
children
England
would
neverofbe
slaves
Strewntrapped
on the fields
Belgium
and France
They're
on theof
wire
and dying
in waves
Poppies
for
young
men,
death's
bitter
trade
The flower of England face down in the mud
All of in
these
youngof
lives
betrayed
And stained
the blood
a whole
generation
The
children
of England
would
never
Midnight
in Soho
nineteen
eighty
fourbe slaves
They're
on the
wireslaves
and dying in waves
Fixing intrapped
doorways,
opium
The flower
of England
the mud
Poppies
for young
men,face
suchdown
bitterintrade
And
in the blood
of a whole generation
All ofstained
those young
lives betrayed
All for a children's crusade
IMPACT OF WORLD WAR I
[John Lukacs—“The Short Century”—1914-1989 (or 1991)]
Military
Technology—machine gun, barbed wire, gas, flame thrower, tank, airplane,
submarine
The end of courage—trench warfare, massed assaults, artillery, attrition—Verdun,
Somme
Total war—civilians’ role (background for totalitarianism)
Fear of total war in post-war era—disarmament and appeasement
World War I and World War II—cause and effect?
Political – A New World Order
Old states and New states
End of four empires: German, Russian, Austrian and Ottoman
New states: Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Czechoslovakia,
Yugoslavia, Austria, Hungary
German and Russian losses (Nazi-Soviet pact, 1939) and appeasement
Russian revolution—Lenin and the party state (beginning of Cold War?)
--the ideologically based state
The Middle East: New countries—Iraq, Syria, Palestine-Jordan
Within states
Political centralization—suspension of democracy
Propaganda—dehumanization of the enemy
End of aristocracy—many died in war
Democracy to dictatorship in 20’s and 30’s (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,
Poland, Austria, Yugoslavia, Spain, Italy, Germany)
Appeal of ideologies—Koestler and conversion to communism
Genocide—Turkey and the Armenians
Economic
Economic regimentation during the war—“war socialism” and the growth of
government
Break up of empires causes economic chaos
German reparations and allied war debts
USA: debtor to creditor contributes to the depression
International law, etc.
Treaty of Versailles
Idea of an international forum—League of Nations, UN
Idea of arms control—Washington Naval Conference, etc.
U.S. emerges as a reluctant world power—Wilson—self-determination
USSR—Lenin and global ambitions
Revolt against Europe—decline of imperialism (eg. of India)
Cultural (See RGH #65)
End of Enlightenment values—irrationalism (Nietzsche, Bergson, Freud)
“Age of Anxiety”—Eliot, Yeats, y Gasset, Sartre and existentialism
Art—Dada, Surrealism, Futurism, abstract expressionism, etc.
Literature—war novels, the “Lost Generation,” Kafka
History—Spengler
Religion—original sin—Barth
Psychology—Human nature (Inge); behaviorism, instinctualism
Science—the end of exact science: Planck, Heisenberg