Para 1 - Cengage



CHAPTER 27

The Great Break: War and Revolution, 1914–1920

Instructional Objectives

After reading and studying this chapter students should be able to discuss the causes and consequences of World War I. They should be able to assess the impact of total war on civilian populations. They should also be able to make the connection between World War I and the outbreak of revolution in Russia. Finally, they should be able to describe the post-war peace process and offer reasons for the eventual failure of the peace settlement.

Chapter Outline

I. The First World War

A. The Bismarckian System of Alliances

1. After the German victory over France in 1871, Bismarck strove successfully to maintain peace between Austria-Hungary and Russia, and to keep France diplomatically isolated.

2. The Three Emperors’ League linked Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Russia.

3. Bismarck maintained good relations with Britain and Italy.

B. The Rival Blocs

1. In 1890, the new emperor, William II of Germany, dismissed Bismarck, partly because of his friendly policy towards Russia.

2. William then refused to renew the neutrality treaty between Germany and Russia (the Russian-German Reinsurance Treaty).

3. As a result, France and Russia concluded a military alliance in 1894.

4. Commercial rivalry and expansion of the German fleet led to tensions between Britain and Germany.

5. Between 1900 and 1904, Britain improved relations with France and the U.S. and signed a formal alliance with Japan.

6. The Moroccan crisis (1905–1906) brought France and Britain closer together and left Germany increasingly isolated.

C. The Outbreak of War

1. The weakening of the Ottoman Empire, the rise of independent and fiercely nationalist states in the Balkans, and Austrian attempts to expand in the area raised tension between Austria and Russian-backed Serbia.

2. On June 28, 1914, a Serbian nationalist assassinated Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne.

3. Austria decided that Serbia should be harshly punished and issued an ultimatum.

4. Germany offered Austria unconditional support and Russia backed the Serbs.

5. Fearful of falling behind in mobilization, all the major powers rushed toward war.

6. As part of its war plan against France, Germany attacked neutral Belgium. In response, Britain joined the Franco-Russian war against Germany.

D. Reflections on the Origins of the War

1. German encouragement of the Austrian attack on Serbia, plus Germany’s precipitous attack on Belgium and France, created a Europe-wide war.

2. German leaders after 1890 felt that Germany’s “Great Power” status was threatened.

3. Some historians argue that German leaders deliberately sought war to reduce social tension and the political power of socialism in Germany.

4. Nationalism certainly played a major role in motivating the war’s outbreak.

E. Stalemate and Slaughter

1. The French stopped the initial German advance into France at the Battle of the Marne (September 6, 1914).

2. The western front then settled into bloody, brutal, and indecisive trench warfare.

F. The Widening War

1. On the eastern front, warfare was more mobile, and the Russians and Austrians took heavy casualties.

2. In May 1915, Italy joined the Triple Entente of Great Britain, France, and Russia.

3. In October 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined Austria and Germany in the Central Powers.

4. The entry of the Ottomans brought the war into the Middle East.

5. The Balkans, with the exception of Greece, came to be occupied by the Central Powers.

6. In 1915, the Ottoman government ordered a genocidal mass deportation of the Armenians.

7. British efforts to capture the Dardanelles and Constantinople failed.

8. The British had some success inciting Arab revolts against the Turks.

9. Similar victories were eventually scored in the Ottoman province of Iraq.

10. War also spread to East Asia and Africa.

11. Unrestricted submarine warfare against merchant vessels by Germany brought the U.S. into the war in April 1917 on the Allied side.

II. The Home Front

A. Mobilizing for Total War

1. At first there was mass enthusiasm for the war, even among socialists.

2. Demands for munitions and other material far exceeded supplies, leading to central government coordination of economies.

3. In each country, government began to plan and control economic and social life in order to wage total war.

4. In Germany Walter Rathenau, head of the nation’s largest electric company, directed the War Raw Materials Board that inventoried and rationed every useful material from oil to barnyard manure.

5. After the Battles of the Somme and Verdun in 1916, the military leaders Hindenburg and Ludendorf were de facto rulers of Germany.

6. In late 1916, Germany introduced forced labor for adult males.

7. Food rations dropped to just over 1,000 calories per day by the end of the war.

8. In Germany, total war led to the creation of the first “totalitarian” society.

9. Great Britain mobilized for total war less rapidly and less completely than Germany.

B. The Social Impact

1. War created full employment. Labor unions cooperated with government and private industry.

2. Large numbers of women left home to work in industry, transport, and offices. Women also served as nurses and doctors at the front.

3. War promoted greater social equality.

4. In some countries, notably Britain, full employment greatly improved the material lot of the poor.

C. Growing Political Tensions

1. The pressures of total war eventually led to strikes, mutinies, and demonstrations in the combatant powers by 1916.

2. In Austria nationalist dissatisfaction with the Empire grew.

3. The strain of war was also evident in Germany.

III. The Russian Revolution

A. The Fall of Imperial Russia

1. Russian armies suffered from a lack of supplies and equipment.

2. Russia’s political system, with its weak Duma and powerful Tsar, was not conducive to total war mobilization.

3. The tsar, Nicholas II, distrusted the Duma and resisted calls to share power with his subjects.

4. In September 1915, the tsar took direct command of armies at the front, leaving his wife, Alexandra, and her adviser Rasputin in real control of the government.

5. In March 1917, troops in St. Petersburg mutinied as women rioted, demanding bread. The Duma formed a provisional government and the Tsar abdicated.

B. The Provisional Government

1. The March revolution was the result of an unplanned uprising.

2. The provisional government made Russia the freest country in the world on paper, with equality before the law, freedom of religion, and the right to strike.

3. Both liberal and moderate socialist leaders of the provisional government rejected social revolution.

4. The provisional government shared power with the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies.

5. The Petrograd Soviet issued Army Order No. 1, stripping officers of their authority.

6. Following the failure of Russia’s summer 1917 offensive, the army began to dissolve.

C. Lenin and the Bolshevik Revolution

1. Early Life of Lenin

2. Lenin’s political ideas:

a) Only violent revolution could destroy capitalism.

b) Socialist revolution was possible even in a backward country such as Russia.

c) Human leadership rather than historical laws made real revolutions.

d) Unlike many other socialists Lenin did not rally round the flag in 1914.

3. In April 1917, the Germans smuggled Lenin out of exile in Switzerland and into Russia.

4. An attempt by the Bolsheviks to seize power in July failed, and Lenin went into hiding.

5. Kornilov’s attack against the provisional government strengthened the Bolshevik position.

D. Trotsky and the Seizure of Power

1. In early November, militant Bolsheviks under the leadership of Leon Trotsky seized power from the Provisional Government in the name of the Petrograd Soviet.

2. Reasons for Bolshevik success:

a) By late 1917, Russia was in anarchy. Power was available to anyone who would seize it.

b) Bolshevik leadership was superior to that of the Imperial or Provisional Governments.

c) In 1917, the Bolsheviks succeeded in appealing to many soldiers and urban workers.

E. Dictatorship and Civil War

1. The Bolsheviks immediately legalized peasant seizures of land.

2. The Bolsheviks made peace with Germany in March 1918.

3. In January 1918 the Bolsheviks dispersed by force the democratically elected Constituent Assembly, which was to write a constitution for Russia.

4. The Bolshevik destruction of democracy led to civil war in Russia from 1918(1921.

5. The Bolsheviks won the civil war for several reasons.

a) They controlled the strategic center of the country.

b) The Bolsheviks’ “White” opponents were divided and lacked a single clear political program.

c) Trotsky created a superior army to the Whites.

d) The Bolsheviks mobilized the home front, introducing forced labor, grain requisitioning, and rationing.

e) The Bolsheviks used terror to maintain discipline and subdue opposition.

f) Allied military intervention against the Bolsheviks allowed the latter to appeal to Russian patriotic sentiment against foreign invasion.

IV. The Peace Settlement

A. The End of the War

1. After a renewed German offensive in summer 1918 failed, newly arrived American troops helped the French and British turn the tide and begin a war-winning attack.

2. In November 1918, German military discipline collapsed, the Kaiser abdicated, and socialist leaders declared a German republic.

3. On November 11, new leaders of the republic agreed to Allied terms for an armistice.

B. Revolution in Germany

1. In Austria-Hungary as in Russia, defeat led to revolution, but nationalist revolution. Independent Austrian, Hungarian, and Czech states were established.

2. In Germany as well, revolution broke out and took two directions, moderate socialist and radical communist, as in Russia. Unlike in Russia, the moderate socialists won.

C. The Treaty of Versailles

1. At the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sought the creation of a League of Nations to avoid future international conflict. Wilson also wanted lenient terms for Germany.

2. Lloyd George of Britain and Georges Clemenceau of France were indifferent to the League and sought harsher terms for Germany. France in particular feared future German attack.

3. Terms of the Treaty of Versailles

a) German colonies went to France, Britain, and Japan.

b) Alsace-Lorraine returned to France.

c) German army limited to 100,000.

d) Germany to pay war reparations.

4. Separate peace treaties were concluded with the other defeated powers.

D. American Rejection of the Versailles Treaty

1. The U.S. Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles.

2. Republicans led by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge disliked the League of Nations’ power to require member states to take collective action against aggression.

3. The United States refused to back up the peace settlement, leaving France to face Germany alone.

E. The Peace Settlement in the Middle East

1. The Ottoman Empire was broken up and Britain and France expanded their power in the Middle East.

2. Arab nationalists felt cheated and betrayed by the British.

3. The Balfour Declaration of November 1917 declared that Britain favored a “National Home for the Jewish People” in Palestine.

4. In 1914, Jews accounted for only 11 percent of the population of the three Ottoman administrative units the British lumped together to form Palestine.

5. Hussein ibn-Ali’s efforts at the conference to secure Arab independence came to nothing.

6. In 1920, Syria and Iraq declared their independence.

7. The French attacked Syria and the British took control of Iraq.

8. The Allies sought to impose even harsher terms on the Turks than the “liberated” Arabs.

9. Mustafa Kemal (1881–1938), later known as Atatürk, the Turks successfully resisted Allied efforts to dissolve their country.

10. Mustafa Kemal created a secular republic dedicated to modernization.

Using Primary Sources

Show students the film The Guns of August. Ask them to take notes while watching the film. Then, ask them to use the film as a stimulus for a paper entitled “World War I: Who Was Responsible?” What viewpoint is the film taking? What axe do the filmmakers have to grind? After reading and discussing their papers in class, have students read several passages in D. Lee, The Outbreak of the First World War (1970). Then, hold another discussion about the film and its intent.

classroom Activities

I. Classroom Discussion Suggestions

A. What prompted the United States to enter World War I?

B. Why did a communist revolution take place in Russia rather than in Britain or France?

C. What demands did World War I place on the home fronts of the major powers?

D. How were Wilson’s “Fourteen Points” accepted by the leaders of the other allied powers?

E. Was leaving Germany out of the League of Nations a strategic blunder?

F. How did events in the Middle East following World War I contribute to long-term regional instability?

G. Describe the political and social program of Mustafa Kemal. What aspects of Western politics and culture did he seek to emulate in Turkey?

II. Doing History

A. Historians continue to debate who was responsible for World War I. Involve students in the debate by having them read selections from the following sources in preparation for a class discussion and/or a short historiographical paper. Sources: L. Lafore, The Long Fuse (1971); J. Remak, The Origins of World War I (1967); L. C. F. Turner, The Origins of World War I (1970).

B. How did the Bolsheviks see themselves and their revolution? What insights can we gain about the personal lives of these leaders and the period in which they lived by reading primary sources? Sources: L. Trotsky, History of the Russian Revolution (1932); J. Reed, Ten Days That Shook the World (1919).

C. What was battle like for the common soldier? What were the people like who filled the trenches and cared for the wounded and sustained the war effort back home? Sources: J. Keegan, The Face of Battle (1983) (students should read the third part of the book, on the Battle of the Somme); A. Home, The Price of Glory: Verdun, 1916 (1979); J. Ellis, Eye-Deep in Hell (1976); V. Brittain, Testament of Youth (1933; reprinted in 1980).

D. How is the war reflected in literature? What can we gain by reading some of the period’s masterpieces? Sources: E. M. Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front (1929); H. Barbusse, Under Fire (1917); J. Romains, Verdun (1939); E. Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms (1929).

III. Cooperative Learning Activities

A. Organize the class into five teams. Have each team read selections in one of the following works about the origins of World War I: A. J. P. Taylor, From Sarajevo to Potsdam; L. Lafore, The Long Fuse; F. Fischer, German War Aims in the First World War; B. Tuchman, The Guns of August; G. Ritter, The Schlieffen Plan. After students have read and discussed the material, have each group present the author’s explanation of the origins of World War I.

B. Assign five student teams the task of discovering a poem that best illustrates the horrors of World War I. Allow time in class for discussion. When teams have decided on poems, have a member from each team read the poem in class. Discuss all five poems. Students might then be asked to write short poems on World War I.

Map Activity

1. Using a blank outline map of Europe, have students shade in the countries that constitute the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance.

2. Have students list the various states in the Balkans in 1914 on a blank outline map of Europe. How has the map of Eastern Europe changed today?

3. Using Map 27.3 (The First World War in Europe) as a reference, answer the following questions.

a. What was Germany’s offensive strategy? Why did German leaders believe that it was necessary to open up western and eastern fronts at the same time?

b. How would you explain the differences between warfare on the western and eastern fronts?

c. How did the geography of France and Belgium contribute to the emergence of trench warfare?

Audiovisual Bibliography

1. World War I: A Documentary on the Role of the USA. (28 min. B/W. Encyclopedia Britannica Films.)

2. The Outbreak of the First World War. (29 min. Color. Encyclopedia Britannica Films.)

3. 1917: Revolution in Russia. (28 min. Color. National Geographic Films.)

4. Lenin. (39 min. B/W. Learning Corporation of America.)

5. Versailles: The Lost Peace. (26 min. Color. Films, Inc.)

6. World War I: The War That Failed to End Wars. (Videodisc. 14 min. Color. Films for the Humanities and Sciences.)

7. The Battle of Verdun. (Videodisc. 26 min. B/W. Films for the Humanities and Sciences.)

8. American Journey, 1896–1945. (CD-ROM. Learning Services.)

9. Multimedia World Factbook. (CD-ROM. Learning Services.)

10. All Quiet on the Western Front. (DVD, 2003.)

11. Gallipoli. (DVD, 2003.)

12. Grand Illusion. (DVD, 1999.)

internet resources

1. Word War I: Trenches on the Web ()

2. The First World War: A Multimedia History ()

3. Word War I: Document Archive ()

4. BBC History: World War One ()

5. The Russian Revolution ()

6. The Empire That Was Russia ()

7. Marxist Internet Archive ()

suggested reading

E. Hobsbawm, The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914–1991 (1996), is a provocative interpretations by a famous historian, with a good discussion of war and revolution. O. Hale, The Great Illusion, 1900–1914 (1971), is a thorough account of the prewar era. J. Joll, The Origins of the First World War (1992), and L. Lafore, The Long Fuse (1971), are recommended studies of the causes of the First World War. V. Seiner, Britain and the Origins of the First World War (1978), and E. Brose, The Kaiser’s Army, 1870–1914: Technological, Tactical, and Operational Dilemmas in Germany During the Machine Age (2001), are also major contributions. K. Jarausch, The Enigmatic Chancellor (1973), is an important study on Bethmann-Hollweg and German policy in 1914. M. Neiberg, Fighting the Great War: A Global History (2005), is lively and up-to-date, while M. Howard, The First World War (2002), is a fine brief introduction. B. Tuchman, The Guns of August (1962), is a marvelous account of the dramatic first month of the war and the beginning of military stalemate. J. Winter, The Experience of World War I (1988), is a strikingly illustrated history of the war, and I. Ousby, The Road to Verdun: World War I’s Most Momentous Battle and the Folly of Nationalism (2002), is a moving reconsideration of the famous siege. J. Ellis, Eye-Deep in Hell (1976), is a vivid account of trench warfare, and P. Leese, Shell Shock: Traumatic Neurosis and the British Soldiers of the First World War (2002), is a carefully crafted study of a neglected topic. L. Zuckerman, The Rape of Belgium: The Untold Story of World War I (2004), is a poignant examination of German atrocities. J. Tucker, War of Nerves: Chemical Warfare From World War I to Al-Qaeda (2006), is comprehensive and informative. D. Gorham, Vera Brittain: A Feminist Life (1996), is a major study of Brittain’s life. A. Marwick, War and Change in Twentieth-Century Europe (1990), is a useful synthesis.

F. L. Carsten, War Against War (1982), considers radical movements in Britain and Germany. The comprehensive and exciting study by Chambers mentioned in the Notes is still very useful. M. Higonnet, J. Jensen, and M. Weitz, eds., Behind the Lines: Gender and the Two World Wars (1987), examines the changes that the war brought for women and for relations between the sexes. S. Hynes, A War Imagined: The First World War and English Culture (1990), examines intellectual and cultural reactions. Two important studies on France are M. Hanna, The Mobilization of Intellect: French Scholars and Writers in the Great War (1996), and J. Keiger, Raymond Poincare (1997), an excellent reconsideration of one of France’s most important leaders before, during, and after the First World War. H. Herwig, The First World War: Germany and Austria, 1914–1918 (1997), ably follows the hard road to defeat and collapse, while B. Davis, Home Fires Burning: Food, Politics, and Everyday Life in Berlin in World War I (2000), shows women struggling to feed their families. An excellent collection of essays, R. Wall and J. Winter, eds., The Upheaval of War: Family, Work, and Welfare in Europe, 1914–1918 (1988), probes the enormous consequences of the war for people and society. R. Abraham, Rosa Luxemburg: a Life for the International (1989), is an excellent biography. In addition to Erich Maria Remarque’s great novel All Quiet on the Western Front (1928), Henri Barbusse, Under Fire (1917), and Jules Romains, Verdun (1939), are highly recommended for their fictional literature inspired by the war. P. Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory (1975), probes all the powerful literature inspired by the war. M. Ecksteins, Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age (1989), is an imaginative cultural investigation that has won critical acclaim.

C. Read, From Tsar to Soviets: The Russian People Their Revolution, 1917–1921 (1996), is highly recommended. S. Fitzpatrick, The Russian Revolution (1982), is an older provocative interpretation. R. Suny and A. Adams, eds., The Russian Revolution and Bolshevik Victory (1990), presents a wide range of interpretations. Ulam’s work cited in the Notes, which focuses on Lenin, is a classic introduction to the Russian Revolution, whereas D. Vokogonov, Lenin: A New Biography (1994), is a lively study with some new revelations by a well-known post-Communist Russian historian. B. Wolfe, Three Who Made a Revolution (1955), an old but good collective biography of Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin, and R. Conquest, V. I. Lenin (1972), are recommended. L. Trotsky himself wrote the colorful and exciting History of the Russian Revolution (1932), which may be compared with the classic eyewitness account of the young, pro-Bolshevik American. J. Reed, Ten Days That Shook the World (1919). D. Koenker, W. Rosenberg, and R. Suny, eds., Party, State and Society in the Russian Civil War (1989), probes the social foundation of Bolshevik victory. W. Fuller, Jr., The Foe Within: Fantasies of Treason and the End of Imperial Russia (2006), is recommended. P. Gatrell, Russia’s First World War: A Social and Economic History (2005), is excellent for students and specialists. S. Volkov, St. Petersburg: A Cultural History (1997), is particularly moving on the great city’s tragic moments in the twentieth century. Boris Pasternak’s justly celebrated Doctor Zhivago is a great historical novel of the revolutionary era. R. Massie, Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), is a moving popular biography of Russia’s last royal family and the terrible health problem of the heir to the throne. M. Macmillan, Paris, 1919: Six Months That Changed the World (2001), is a comprehensive yet exciting account of all aspects of the peace conference, while Nicolson’s study listed in the Notes captures the spirit of the Versailles settlement. A. Mayer, The Politics and Diplomacy of Peacemaking (1969), stresses the influence of domestic social tensions and widespread fear of further communist revolt. D. Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace (1989), is a brilliant account of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and its division by the Allies. M. Yapp, The Near East Since the First World War (1991), is an excellent survey of major developments, and B. Lewis, The Shaping of the Modern Middle East (1993), is a stimulating synthesis by a distinguished scholar.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download