CHAPTER 25



CHAPTER 25

THE BEGINNING OF THE TWENTIETH-CENTURY CRISIS: WAR AND REVOLUTION

CHAPTER OUTLINE

I. The Road to World War I; Assassinations and other problems

A. Nationalism; growing national rivalries and alliances

B. Internal Dissent; ethnic minorities, class struggle and fear of revolution

C. Militarism; large armies, conscription and the influence of leaders

D. The Outbreak of War: The Summer of 1914

1. Another Crisis in the Balkans, Serbia, Austria and Russia

2. Assassination of Francis Ferdinand, Blank check

3. Declarations of War, Russian mobilization, Schlieffen Plan, Belgian Neutrality

II. The War

A. 1914-1915: Illusions and Stalemate; propaganda and public opinion, reasons for public excitement

1. War in the West; failure of the Schlieffen plan, trench warfare

2. War in the East; Russian successes, German counter attacks

B. 1916-1917: The Great Slaughter; trench warfare

1. Daily Life in the Trenches

C. The Widening of the War; Ottoman Empire, Italy switches sides,

1. A Global Conflict; Lawrence of Arabia, war in Asia and Africa, conscripting colonial peoples, Japan

2. Entry of the United States; German and British warfare, Lusitania,

D. A New Kind of Warfare

1. Tanks, airplanes, zeppelins

E. The Home Front: The Impact of Total War

1. Total War: Political Centralization and Economic Regimentation

2. Public Order and Public Opinion

3. The Social Impact of Total War

III. War and Revolution

A. The Russian Revolution: role of war, general problems in Russia, Rasputin,

1. The March Revolution; (Thanks for being such a concerned student – I really do appreciate how hard you all work) Women, bread, work, March 8, end of the Tsar, Provisional government, Soviets, Bolsheviks, Lenin, April Thesis, Bolshevik promises, general anarchy

2. The Bolshevik Revolution: Exile of Bolsheviks, Seizure of power, Council of People’s Commissars, Constituent assembly, 1st law, women’s rights, Treaty of Brest- Litovsk

3. Civil War; opponents to Bolshevism, Red and White armies, Death of the Royal Family, Reasons for success of Red army, war communism, reasons for hostilities to Allied Powers

B. The Last Year of the War; German attack on the west, Ludendorff, new government, mutiny, William II, Armistice

1. The Casualties of the War

C. Revolutionary Upheavals in Germany and Austria-Hungary; socialist uprisings, changes to the Austro-Hungarian Empire,

IV. The Peace Settlement (see reading questions)

A. Peace Aims

B. The Treaty of Versailles

C. The Other Peace Treaties

CHAPTER SUMMARY

The text rightly calls World War I the defining event of the twentieth century. The June 28, 1914, assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, by a Serbian terrorist, was the final spark. National rivalries were compounded by ethnic groups who had yet to secure their own “nation.” Social and class conflict led politicians to engage in foreign adventures to distract the masses. Conscript armies were ready. Perennial conflict in the Balkans threatened a wider war, given the tight-knit alliance systems. Austria, after receiving a “blank check” by Germany, declared war against Serbia on July 28. Germany declared war on Russia after the latter’s military mobilization. Germany’s Schlieffen Plan was to attack France through neutral Belgium. By August 4, the Great War had begun. Initially there was great enthusiasm. War gave excitement to ordinary lives and most assumed that it would soon be over. The Germans drove the Russians back in the east, but in the west a stalemate developed, with trenches extending from the Swiss border to the English Channel, defended by barbed wire and machine guns. Attacking troops had to cross “no man’s land”: 21,000 British died on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Artillery, poison gas, seasonal mud, and ever-present rats and decaying corpses added to the carnage.

The Ottoman Empire joined Germany and Italy adhered to the Entente. After German submarine attacks, the United States entered the war in 1917. Conscription ensured a steady supply of soldiers. Governments took the economic lead, especially in producing munitions, and wage and price controls were instituted. Propaganda was employed to keep up morale and newspapers were censored. Many women entered the labor force, and after the war were given the vote in the United States and Britain. Fortunes were made by some, but inflation hurt many.

Russia was unprepared for war, lacking a large industrial base or adequate leadership, and public support waned because of military losses. When bread rationing was introduced in March 1917, women demonstrated in the streets of St. Petersburg/Petrograd. The Duma established a Provisional Government and Nicholas abdicated on March 15. But socialist soviets, or workers’ councils, challenged the new government’s legitimacy. A faction of the Marxist Social Democrats were the revolutionary Bolsheviks of V.I. Lenin, who returned to Petrograd in April, where he campaigned for “Peace, Land, and Bread” and “All Power to the Soviets.” The war was increasingly unpopular, and in November the Bolsheviks seized power. Lenin established a dictatorship and signed a costly peace with Germany. Civil war broke out between the Bolshevik Reds and the Whites, who were unable to agree politically and militarily. Able military leaders, interior lines of defense, and “revolutionary terror” led the Bolsheviks to victory by 1921.

After Russia’s withdrawal from the war, Germany launched a massive attack in the west. However, the war had taken its toll in Germany, and in the fall, after American troops entered the conflict, the German government collapsed. On November 11, 1918, an armistice was signed. Riots occurred in Germany, but an attempted Bolshevik revolution failed. The peace delegates gathered at Paris in January 1919. Some, like America’s Woodrow Wilson, had idealistic hopes, including an association of nations to preserve the peace. Others wanted to punish Germany. The most important of five separate treaties was the Treaty of Versailles; Article 231 required Germany to accept guilt for causing the war and pay reparations. Its army was reduced to 100,000 and it lost territory to France and Poland. The Austrian and Ottoman empires were casualties of the war and the subsequent treaties. The United States refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles and did not join the League of Nations, the institution that was to guarantee permanent peace.

MAP EXERCISES

1. Europe in 1914. MAP 25.1. What were the geographical locations of the two contending alliances in

1914, and what strategic military challenges did both sides face? Who were the major contending powers in the Balkans, and why did the Ottoman Empire ultimately join Germany and Austria-Hungary in World War I? (page 719)

2. The Western Front, 1914-1918. MAP 25.2. What factors might explain the extent of the German

advances in the west in 1914 and again in 1918? Why is it that the actions on Western Front are so much

better known than those of the Eastern Front? (page 726)

3. The Eastern Front, 1914-1918. MAP 25.3. Note the sites of the major battles on the Eastern Front.

What is the geographical explanation for those several battles? (page 731)

4. The Russian Revolution and Civil War. MAP 25.4. What geographic advantages and disadvantages

did each side face in the Russian Civil War. From a geographical perspective, why did the Reds win?

(page 741)

5. Europe in 1919. MAP 25.5. Compare MAP 25.5 with MAP 25.1. Who were the winners and who were

the losers, and where? What impact did these geopolitical changes have on the period from 1919 to

1939? (page 746)

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR THE PRIMARY SOURCES (BOXED

DOCUMENTS)

1. “’You Have to Bear the Responsibility for War or Peace’”: How do the telegrams exchanged between

William II and Nicholas II reveal why the Europeans foolishly went to war in 1914? What do these documents reveal about the nature of the relationship between these two monarchs? From these telegrams, which of the two rulers, William II or Nicholas II, bears the greater responsibility for war? Why? If Germany and Russia had been true democracies, would the outcome have been different? Why or why not? (page 721)

2. “The Excitement of War”: What do these writings from Stefan Zweig, Robert Graves, and Walter

Limmer reveal about the motivations of ordinary people to join and support World War I? Could those

responses best be described as manifestations of nineteenth century Romanticism or in twentieth century

psychological categories? Does the passage reveal anything about the power of nationalism in Europe in

the early 20th century? Did the responses of most Americans after the terrorist attack of September 11,

2001, help illustrate the reactions of many Europeans in August 1914? (page 724)

3. “The Reality of War: Trench Warfare”: What does this excerpt from Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet

on the Western Front reveal about the realities of trench warfare? What is there in the passage quoted

that could give support to the idea that World War I was both the end of the nineteenth century and the

beginning of the twentieth century? Do you think it would ever be possible for the surviving frontline

victims of the war to describe or explain their experiences there to those left behind on the home front?

What subsequent tensions in post-war European society might be attributable to this disjuncture?

(page 728)

4. “The Songs of World War I”: Based on their war songs, what ideas or themes do you believe

maintained the will of soldiers on all sides to fight? How do you think the lyrics and performances of

these songs worked to shape the psychology of the singers? Are there any differences between the three

songs, and if so, what are they? (page 729)

5. “Women in the Factories”: How did work in a munitions factory broaden the outlook of an upper-

middle-class woman like Naomi Loughnan? What were the new experiences she found in the factory?

What obstacles did she and other women face, at least initially? What were some of the effects of

total war on European women? (page 734)

6. “War and the Family”: From these letters what can one tell about the ordinary officer's perspective on

and comprehension of the war? How great do you think the gulf was between frontline and home front?

What does the tone of Private Thompson's final letter suggest about the ordinary soldier's experience of

battle and the effects of such service on fighting men? (page 735)

7. “Soldier and Peasant Voices”: What do these letters reveal about the attitudes of at least two ordinary

people towards the Bolshevik Revolution and its aftermath? What are their specific criticisms of the

Bolsheviks? How would Lenin have responded to these angry letters? Is their anger and frustration

justified, given the conditions in Russia in early 1918? Why or why not? (page 740)

8. “Two Voices of Peacemaking: Woodrow Wilson and Georges Clemenceau”: Why did Wilson, the

American, and Clemenceau, the Frenchman, have such different views of the world? How did the

peacemaking aims of Wilson and Clemenceau differ? How did their different views affect the

deliberations of the Paris Peace Conference and the nature of the final peace settlement? Who won?

Wilson, Clemenceau, or neither? Why? (page 745)

RELEVANT WORLD-WIDE WEB SITES/RESOURCES

1. The Great War (PBS Television Series Site):



(One of the very finest web sites developed to complement a television broadcast--in this case the multi-

part PBS documentary on World War One. Documents, time lines, and maps. See video reference

below.)

2. History of the Battle of the Somme:



(Site dedicated to analysis of the war’s single greatest, catastrophic day of human slaughter. Site is also

superb for a general overview of the genesis and course of the war with excellent online documentation

stretching back to the mid-nineteenth century. Components of this site highly relevant to themes of

nationalism, militarism, and great power rivalry treated in earlier chapters of this text.)

3. Military Plans of the Great War:



(A superb site offering online detailed excerpts from and analysis of the grand war plans of all combatants

in World War One. Australian university site.)

4. Trenches on the Web: Photo Archive, The Somme 1916:



(Fine site offering graphic evidence of the destruction and terror of trench warfare. Excellent on material

culture and imagery of modern war with extensive links to other relevant sites offering analyses of battles

on Western and Eastern Fronts, memoirs of ordinary soldiers, war museum collections, and veterans

groups.)

5. World War One Document Archive:



(One of the most comprehensive collections online of documents relevant to all phases and aspects of the

Great War. Comes complete with images, extensive original document quotations, and a suite of links to

other relevant web pages. Highly recommended.)

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