Chapter 28: World War 1
Section 1: The Seeds of War

European Rivalries

• As Western nations industrialized, each sought the most favorable conditions for economic growth.  This led to intense competition.
• Competition turned to hostility as one power crossed another in its efforts to accomplish its goals.

Goals of European Nations

• England: :maintain the lifelines of its empire, keep sea-lanes open, maintain sea power to prevent attack
• France: add mineral-rich Morocco to its gains
• Germany: gain economic control of the declining Ottoman Empire
• Austria/Hungry: gain access through the Balkans to the Aegean Sea
• Russia: take control of the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, extend influence over Manchuria in East Asia

Nationalism

• Contributing to the tension among European nations was a growing spirit       of nationalism.
• French nationalists sought revenge against Germany for depriving France of the border provinces of Alsace-Lorraine in the 1870–1871 Franco-Prussian War.

Slavic Nationalism

• The empire’s Slavs were attracted to    Pan-Slavism, the idea that the Slavs had a historic mission to develop their culture and unite into an empire.
• Slavic nationalists in neighboring Serbia supported the Slavs of Austria-Hungary.
• Serbs wanted their own country to be the center of a South Slav, or Yugoslav, nation.  This new Slavic state would be formed out of Slavic territories in Austria-Hungary.
• Austria-Hungary was alarmed by Serbian activities in the Balkans.
• In 1908 Austria-Hungary annexed the Slavic territories of Bosnia-Herzegovina, once the provinces of the Ottoman Empire.
• Serbia called on Russia, its traditional protector, for help.
• The Russians, who had agreed to let Austria-Hungary have Bosnia-Herzegovina in exchange for warship passage through the Dardanelles, convinced the Serbs to restrain themselves.

Balkan Wars

• In the first Balkan war in 1912, one of Serbia’s war aims had been to acquire Albania
• after winning the war, Serbia did not get Albania.
• In 1913 a second Balkan war broke out.  Albania was made independent, again frustrating Serbian ambitions.

Militarism

• As tensions began to rise, so did militarism.
• The European powers assessed each other’s military strength, comparing military training programs and levels of spending.
• After 1870, all the powers except Great Britain adopted conscription, the compulsory call-up of civilians for military service
• Each nation’s action toward militarism caused a reaction in another country.

Alliances

• Along with militarism came a hardening of the alliance systems.
• In 1873 Germany’s Otto von Bismarck created the Three Emperors’ League, which united Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia.
• When the Emperors’ League fell apart, Bismarck created a new and stronger alliance between Germany and Austria-Hungary.
• In 1882 Italy joined the Austrian-German alliance, and it became known as the Triple Alliance.
• They agreed that if any one member became involved in a war with two or more enemies, the others would provide support.
• In 1894 Russia and France signed a military alliance
• This was followed in 1904 by the Entente Cordiale between France and Great Britain.  Ententerefers to a friendly understanding between two nations that is less binding than an alliance.
• All of these agreements developed into the Triple Entente, a loose alliance between France, Russia, and Great Britain.
• By 1907, the great powers of Europe had aligned themselves in two opposing combinations–the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente.

Question: What were the factors that led to alliances before the outbreak of World War I?
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Section 2: The Spark
Trouble in the Balkans

• On June 28, 1914, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, visited Sarajevo, the capital of  Bosnia-Herzegovina.
• Francis Ferdinand planned to give the Slavs an equal voice in the government. 
• Serbs feared this action would defuse the movement toward their goal–an entirely separate Slavic state.
• members of the Black Hand–a  to assassinate the  archduke and his wife Sophie.

German Support

• assassination had not occurred in Serbia, Austro-Hungarian held the Serbians responsible.
• On July 5, Berchtold sent an envoy to Berlin to talk to the German emperor, William II.
• William assured Austria that Germany would give its full support to any actions Austria-Hungary might take against Serbia.

Declaration of War

• On July 23, Austria-Hungary gave Serbia an ultimatum:
• that Serbia allow Austro-Hungarian officials to suppress all Serbian subversive movements and to investigate the archduke’s murder.
• On July 25, rejected Austria-Hungary’s demand to take part in the investigation.
• Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914.
• Both countries immediately issued general orders for mobilization,

A European War 

• Russian government had to support Serbia now or risk the bitter hatred of all the Slavs in the Balkan region.
• July 30, 1914, Czar Nicholas II ordered a mobilization against both Austria-Hungary and Germany. 
• Austria-Hungary mobilized against Russia the following day.
• July 31, Germany issued Russia an ultimatum to cancel its mobilization order or face war and gave France 18 hours to decide whether or not it would remain neutral.
• August 1, Germany declared war on Russia & Two days later, Germany declared war on France as well.
• Germany hoped that Great Britain would stay neutral.
• Germany demanded passage across Belgium
• –a neutral country that had been guaranteed neutrality in an 1839 treaty signed by Great Britain, Russia, France, and Germany.
• August 3, Germans invaded Belgium England protested and demanding that Germany withdraw.
• When Germany refused, Great Britain declared war on Germany on August 4.

Question: Why do you think World War I came as a surprise to many Europeans?
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Section 3: The War
The Schlieffen Plan

• Germany’s invasion of Belgium on August 3 had been part of the Schlieffen Plan, a war strategy that German General Alfred von Schlieffen.
• reach Paris and defeat the French in six weeks, and Germany could then move on to the Eastern Front to fight Russia.
• Problems:
• The Germans encountered far stronger resistance than anyone had expected.
• The Russian army mobilized far more quickly than Schlieffen had estimated.

The Battle of the Marne

• France struggled to recover after the defeat   at Alsace-Lorraine.  The French chief of command, General Joseph Jacques Joffre, pulled back his troops to protect Paris.
• September 5, French and German armies collided in northeastern France in the Battle of the Marne.
• After four days of shelling, the French finally pushed the Germans back a distance of about 50 miles from Paris, saving the city.

A Russian Disaster

• Russia kept its word to the French and sent troops into battle even before its military was fully mobilized, surprising Germany and Austria-Hungary.
• August 13, the Russians had invaded East Prussia from the south and from the east, diverting German troops from the Western Front.
• End of August, Russian and German troops met at Tannenberg (present-day Poland). There the Germans were able to encircle and destroy the Russian army.

Years of Deadlock

• Germans and the Allies began a series of battles known as “the race to the sea,” attempting to reach the North Sea first
• November 1914, the war had reached a stalemate in a line extending from the Swiss border to the English Channel.
• Governments used propaganda to portray the enemy as beastly and inhuman.

Trench Warfare

• 1915, the war on the Western Front had turned into a deadly war of attrition, in which each side tried to wear down the other side by constant attacks.
• To protect themselves, soldiers on both sides dug trenches, or ditches.
• Eventually, two parallel trenches stretched for about 500 miles in an unbroken line from Switzerland to the North Sea.
• The desolate area that separated the two sides, which could vary from a half a mile to a few yards, was known as “no-man’s-land.”
• As attackers struggled through the barbed wire, their opponents mowed them down with heavy artillery and machine guns.
• At the Battle of Ypres in 1915, the Germans introduced a new weapon–poison gas.  The wind carried chlorine gas into French trenches, causing blindness, choking, vomiting, torn lungs, and death.

Verdun and the Somme

• Italy had denounced the Central Powers six months earlier and entered the war on the side of the Allies.
• February 1916, the Germans staged a surprise attack against French forces at Verdun.
• was one of the bloodiest of the war, causing both sides to suffer more than a half-million casualties.
• Later that year, the British, aided by France, launched a similar offensive against the Germans in the Somme River valley in northern France.
• The Battle of the Somme costing the Germans about 500,000 men, the British 400,000, and the French 200,000.

• The British introduced new weapon during this battle–an armored vehicle called the tank. 

The Eastern Front

• In 1915 Germany and Austria-Hungary made determined efforts to remove Russia from the war.
• By the end of the year, Russia had been forced to give up large areas of territory and had suffered staggering casualties.
• The Allies promised Russia control of Constantinople and the Dardanelles if their side won the war.
• Although morale in the Russian army suffered greatly as a result of the 1916 offenses, their efforts helped the Allies on the Western Front.

On the Seas

• Both Great Britain and Germany depended heavily on the seas for their food and war materials.
• Great Britain had successfully blockaded all ports under German control.
• At first, German submarines, or U-boats, struck only warships.
• In May 1915, a German U-boat torpedoed the British passenger liner Lusitania. About 1,200 people, including 128 Americans, were killed.
• 1916, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson demanding that they stop attacking passenger and freight ships.

United States Enters War

• The majority of Americans agreed with President Woodrow Wilson that the war was strictly a European conflict.
• February 1, 1917, it would sink any merchant ships heading to British or  western European ports.
• March 1917, when American newspapers printed the Zimmermann telegram.
• This was a message from the German foreign minister, Arthur Zimmermann,  to his ambassador in Mexico.
• in return for Mexican support, Germany would help Mexico to regain New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona.
• Finally, after the German sinking of four American merchant ships, President  Wilson asked Congress for and received  a declaration of war on April 2, 1917.

Question: Explain how World War I was a new kind of war.  Consider objectives, strategy, and technology in the course of your explanation.
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Section 5: Peace at Last
End of Fighting

• In July 1918, an Allied breakthrough on the Western Front finally came.
• Under the command of French General Ferdinand Foch, Allied forces stopped a huge German offensive against Paris.
• The Austro-Hungarian military breakdown led to the revolt of the empire’s many nationalities and to the end of the  Hapsburg monarchy.
• November 9, 1918, the kaiser abdicated, and a German republic was proclaimed. 
• November 11, the Germans signed an armistice.

Effects of the War

• The war shattered Europe’s aristocratic order and increased political and social instability.
• Nearly 9 million soldiers were dead, and another 21 million of them were wounded.  In addition, about 13 million civilians were dead of disease and starvation.
• Mass deaths or killings on a grand scale, such as those of the Armenians under the rule of the Ottoman Turks in 1915, added to the list of horrors.

Restoring the Peace

• The hopes of many Europeans and North Americans focused on United States President Woodrow Wilson to restore world peace.
• Wilson had put forth his Fourteen Points, a peace plan whose terms included freedom of the seas, limitations on arms, and an end to all secret alliances.
• One reservation came from the British,      who objected to the idea of open seas. 
• The other reservation was held by the French, who felt that a statement demanding reparations

The Paris Peace Conference 

• In January 1919, delegates from 27 nations gathered in Paris to work out 5 separate  peace treaties known as the Peace of Paris.
• In a break with tradition, heads of state–called the “Big Four”–attended the conference:
• President Wilson of the United States
• Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau of France 
• Prime Minister David Lloyd George of Great Britain
• Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando of Italy

The Treaty of Versailles

• Militarily, the treaty reduced the German army, banned conscription, and banned manufacturing major war weapons.
• Germany had to return Alsace-Lorraine, seized in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, to France.  Germany lost all of its overseas colonies as well.
• For a period of 15 years, France would also control the coal-rich Saar Basin, whereas Allied forces together would occupy the Rhineland region of Germany.
• The Allies also reestablished an independent Poland out of lands held by Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia.
• The Allies also demanded that Germany accept blame for causing the war and  that it pay reparations for Allied war costs and damages.
• The Allies signed the treaty at the Palace of Versailles on June 28, 1919.
• Only four of Wilson’s Fourteen Points and nine supplementary principles  emerged intact in the treaty, including the  Covenant of the League of Nations.

Other Settlements

• The Allied Powers signed separate peace agreements with Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Turkey.
• New nations that emerged in eastern Europe included Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia.

….To Be Continued!

• German economic strength remained largely intact, yet the harsh provisions of the Treaty of Versailles left Germany weakened, humiliated, and deprived of great-power status.
• The Germans’ festering resentment burst forth upon the world with an even greater violence two decades later in the form of Nazism.

Questions: Explain some of the problems created by the Treaty of Versailles.  How did this treaty lay the foundation for another international conflict?  How could it have been written to prevent this?
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