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The alliances that were meant to keep European nations from going to war made it so that all of Europe would go to war.

Austria declared war on Serbia

Russia, Serbia’s ally, began moving its army toward the Russian-Austrian border

Expecting Germany to join Austria, Russia mobilized along the German border.

To Germany, Russia’s mobilization amounted to a declaration of war.  On August 1, the German government declared war on Russia.

Russia looked to its ally France for help.

Germany did not even wait for France to react. Two days after declaring war on Russia, Germany also declared war on France.

Great Britain declared war on Germany.

Nations take Sides:

By mid-August 1914, battle lines had been drawn.

Central Powers: Germany and Austria-Hungary

Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire would later join

Allies:  Great Britain, France, and Russia

Japan joined within weeks

Italy joined later

Used to be with Central Powers, but accused their former partners of unjustly starting the war

Most thought the war would be short, but a few saw what was to come

“The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.” -Sir Edward Grey ( Britain’s foreign minister)

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Less visible than the outward peace and harmony were darker forces at work in Europe . These were gradual developments that would ultimately help propel the continent into war.

Rise of Nationalism:

deep devotion to one’s nation

can be a unifying force within a nation

can cause intense competition among nations

fierce rivalry between Germany, Austria-Hungary, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, and France by the turn of the 20th century

causes:

competition for material and markets

territorial disputes

France never got over losing Alsace-Lorraine to Germany in Franco-Prussian War of 1870

Austria-Hungary and Russia tried to dominate in the Balkans but intense nationalism of Serbs, Bulgarians, Romanians, and other ethnic groups demanded independence

Imperialism and Militarism:

quest for colonies sometimes pushed European nations to the brink of war

rivalry and mistrust of one another deepened

rise of a dangerous European arms race

By 1914, all the Great Powers except Britain had large standing armies.

military experts stressed the importance of being able to quickly mobilize troops in case of a war.

Generals in each country developed highly detailed plans for mobilization.

Militarism: The policy of glorifying military power and keeping an army prepared for war

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Non-European Nations Joined

Central Powers: Ottoman Turks and Bulgaria

Allies: Australia, Japan, India

No alliances they formed or new battle-fronts they opened did much to end the slow and grinding conflict.

The Gallipoli Campaign:

Who: The Allies

What: attack the Dardanelles, a region in the Ottoman Empire

a narrow sea straight that was the gateway to the Ottoman capital, Constantinople

Why?

Take Constantinople

defeat the Turks

establish a supply line to Russia

When?

Started: February 1915

Ended: December 1915 when Allies gave up

What happened?

Turned into another bloody stalemate with trench warfare

Allies suffered about 250,000 casualties

Battles in Africa and Asia:

Attacks on German holdings

Japanese quickly overran German outposts in China

Japanese also captured Germany’s Pacific island colonies

English and French troops attacked Germany’s four African possessions and seized three

British and French recruited subjects in their colonies

Fighting troops and laborers came from

India

South Africa

Senegal

Egypt

Algeria

Indochina

Some colonial subjects wanted nothing to do with their European rulers’conflicts. Others volunteered in the hope that service would lead to their independence.

America Joins the Fight:

In 1917, the focus of the war shifted to the high seas.

Germans intensified the submarine warfare that had raged in the Atlantic Ocean

unrestricted submarine warfare: in January 1917, the Germans announced that their submarines would sink without warning any ship in the waters around Britain

Germany had already tried before

May 7, 1915, a German U-boat sunk the British passenger ship Lusitania and left 1,198 people dead, including 128 U.S. citizens.

Germany claimed that the ship had been carrying ammunition, which turned out to be true.

Nevertheless, the American public was outraged. President Woodrow Wilson sent a strong protest to Germany.

After two further attacks, the Germans finally agreed to stop attacking neutral and passenger ships.

Germans returned to unrestricted submarine warfare in 1917

gambled that their naval blockade would starve Britain into defeat before the United States could mobilize

German U-boats sank three American ships

Officials intercepted a telegram written by Germany’s foreign secretary, Arthur Zimmermann, stating that Germany would help Mexico “reconquer” the land it had lost to the United States if Mexico would ally itself with Germany.

the last straw

April 2, 1917, President Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany

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January 18, 1919

Palace of Versailles

Paris Peace Conference

delegates from 32 countries

vigorous, often bitter debate

major decisions were hammered out by a group known as the Big Four

Woodrow Wilson: US

Georges Clemenceau: France

David Lloyd George: Great Britain

Vittorio Orlando: Italy

Russia (at civil war), Germany and allies not represented

Wilson's Plan for Peace:

Fourteen Points: January 1918 while still at war, Woodrow Wilson drew up a series of peace proposals known as the Fourteen Points

end to secret treaties

freedom of the seas

free trade

reduced national armies and navies

adjustment of colonial claims with fairness toward colonial peoples

specific suggestions for changing borders and creating new nations

self-determination: allowing people to decide for themselves under what government they wished to live

a “general association of nations” that would protect “great and small states alike”

The Versailles Treaty:

At the beginning, Britain and France  didn't look like they would agree with Wilson

concerns of national security

strip Germany of war-making power

Treaty of Versailles: signed on June 28, 1919, between Germany and Allied powers

League of Nations:  an international association whose goal would be to keep peace among nations

Germany lost substantial territory and had severe restrictions placed on its military operations

Article 231: “war guilt” clause:  placed sole responsibility for the war on Germany’s shoulders

Germany had to pay reparations to the Allies

All of Germany’s territories in Africa and the Pacific were declared mandates, or territories to be administered by the League of Nations. The Allies would govern the mandates until they were judged ready for independence.

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Growing rivalries and mutual mistrust

creation of military alliances among the Great Powers as early as the 1870s

helped push the continent into war

Bismarck Forges Early Pacts:

Between 1864 and 1871, Prussia’s chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, used war to unify Germany.

In 1871, he declared Germany to be a “satisfied power.”

He declared France to be Germany's greatest threat and tried to isolate them.

1879: formed the Dual Alliance between Germany and Austria-Hungary

Triple Alliance:  formed three years after the Dual Alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy

1881: Germany makes a treaty with Russia

Shifting Alliances Threaten Peace:

1890: Huge shift in Germany's foreign policy

Kaiser Wilhelm II: became ruler of Germany in 1888 and did not want to share power with anyone else

He forced Bismark to resign in 1890

Let the treaty between Germany and Russia lapse in 1890

Russia formed an alliance with France in 1892 & 1894

began a shipbuilding program to form a navy as strong as Britain

Great Britain formed an entente, or alliance, with France

Triple Entente: in 1907, Britain formed an entente with France and Russia

Two sides of Europe - ready for war

Triple Alliance—Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy

Triple Entente—Great Britain, France, and Russia

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The Great War, as the conflict came to be known, affected everyone.

Governments Wage Total War:

total war: countries devoted all their resources to the war effort

entire force of government was dedicated to winning the conflict

wartime government took control of the economy

governments told factories what to produce and how much

facilities were converted to munitions factories

Nearly every able-bodied civilian was put to work

Unemployment in many European countries all but disappeared

rationing: people could buy only small amounts of those items that were also needed for the war effort

Governments suppressed antiwar activity

censored news about the war

propoganda: one-sided information designed to persuade, to keep up morale and support for the war

Women and the War:

Total war meant that governments turned to help from women as never before.

Thousands of women replaced men in factories, offices, and shops.

Women built tanks and munitions, plowed fields, paved streets, and ran hospitals.

They also kept troops supplied with food, clothing, and weapons.

Although most women left the work force when the war ended, they changed many people’s views of what women were capable of doing.

Women also saw the horrors of war firsthand, working on or near the front lines as nurses.

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The Versailles treaty was just one of five treaties negotiated by the Allies. In the end, these agreements created feelings of bitterness and betrayal—among the victors and the defeated.

The Creation of New Nations:

Western powers signed separate peace treaties in 1919 and 1920 with each of the other defeated nations:Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire.

led to huge land losses for the Central Powers

new countries were created out of the Austro-Hungarian Empire: Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia

the Ottoman Turks were forced to give up almost all of their former empire

retained only the territory that is today Turkey

Allies carved up the lands that the Ottomans lost in Southwest Asia into mandates rather than independent nations:

Britain: Palestine, Iraq, and Transjordan

France: Syria and Lebanon

Romania and Poland both gained Russian territory

Russia lost territory that became independent nations: Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania

"A Peace Built on Quicksand"

Treaty of Versailles did little to build a lasting peace

United States ultimately rejected the treaty. Many Americans objected to the settlement and especially to President Wilson’s League of Nations. Americans believed that the US's best hope for peace was to stay out of European affairs. The United States worked out a separate treaty with Germany and its allies several years later.

treaty with Germany, esp. the war-guilt clause, left a legacy of bitterness and hatred in the hearts of the German people.

Other countries felt cheated and betrayed by the peace settlements as well. Throughout Africa and Asia, people in the mandated territories were angry at the way the Allies disregarded their desire for independence.

Some Allied powers were embittered

Japan and Italy, which had entered the war to gain territory, had gained less than they wanted.

the League of Nations didn't have any power

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mountainous peninsula in the southeastern corner of Europe

home to an assortment of ethnic groups

“powder keg” of Europe

A Restless Region:

By the early 1900s, the Ottoman Empire was in rapid decline.

Some Balkan groups  had succeeded in breaking away from their Turkish rulers, forming Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, Romania, and Serbia.

Each group longed to extend its borders.

Serbia hoped to absorb all the Slavs on the Balkan Peninsula.

In 1908, Austria annexed, or took over, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Both had large Slavic populations.

Tensions between Serbia and Austria steadily rose

A Shot Rings Throughout Europe:

Assassination

June 28, 1914: heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife, Sophie paid a state visit to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia

They were shot at point-blank range as they rode through the streets of Sarajevo in an open car.

The killer was Gavrilo Princip, a 19-year-old Serbian member of the Black Hand (a secret society committed to ridding Bosnia of Austrian rule)

Ultimatum

July 23, Austria presented Serbia with an ultimatum

Serbia knew that refusing the ultimatum would lead to war and agreed to most of Austria’s demands

Serbia offered to have several demands settled by an international conference.

On July 28, Austria rejected Serbia’s offer and declared war.

War on the Horizon

Russia, an ally of Serbia,  ordered the mobilization of troops toward the Austrian border

Fragile  European stability seemed ready to collapse

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Russia Withdraws:

In March 1917, civil unrest in Russia—due in large part to war-related shortages of food and fuel—forced Czar Nicholas to step down.

A provisional government was established. The new government pledged to continue fighting the war.

However, by 1917, nearly 5.5 million Russian soldiers had been wounded, killed, or taken prisoner.

the war-weary Russian army refused to fight any longer.

In November 1917, Communist leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin seized power.

Lenin insisted on ending his country’s involvement in the war.

March 1918, Germany and Russia signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which ended the war between them.

The Central Powers Collapse:

Russian withdrawal allowed Germany to send all forces to Western Front

Final, massive attack against Allies in France in March 1918

By May 1918, they reached the Marne River and Paris was only 40 miles away

Victory was on the horizon

This exhausted the men and supplies

Allies counterattacked (with 140,000 fresh US troops)

July 1918: Second Battle of the Marne

Central Powers began to crumble

Bulgarians surrendered

Ottoman Turks surrendered

revolution swept through Austria-Hungary

German soldiers mutinied

German public turned on the kaiser

November 9, 1918, Kaiser Wilhelm II stepped down

Germany declared itself a republic

A representative of the new German government met with French Commander Marshal Foch in a railway car near Paris

armistice:  an agreement to stop fighting

November 11, World War I came to an end

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Western Front: deadlocked region in northern France

The Conflict Grinds Along:

Facing a war on two fronts, Germany had developed the Schliefen Plan.

Schliefen Plan: German plan to attack and defeat France in the west and then rush east to fight Russia

Russia lagged behind the rest of Europe in its railroad system and thus would take longer to supply its front lines.

Speed was vital

Germany needed to win a quick victory over France

Early on, it appeared that the plan would work

Early September: German forces  reached the outskirts of Paris. and a major German victory appeared just days away

September 5: the Allies regrouped and attacked the Germans northeast of Paris, in the valley of the Marne River. Every available soldier was hurled into the struggle.

More than 600 taxicabs rushed soldiers from Paris to the front.

After four days of fighting, German generals ordered a retreat.

The First Battle of the Marne was perhaps the single most important event of the war. The defeat of the Germans left the Schlieffen Plan in ruins. A quick victory in the west no longer seemed possible.

In the east, Russian forces had already invaded Germany.

Germany was going to have to fight a long war on two fronts.

German high command sent thousands of troops from France to aid its forces in the east.

War on the Western Front settled into a stalemate.

War in the Trenches:

By early 1915, opposing armies on the Western Front had dug miles of parallel trenches to protect themselves from enemy fire. This set the stage for what became known as trench warfare.

Trench Warfare:  warfare in which soldiers fought each other from trenches

Armies traded huge losses of human life for pitifully small land gains.

Life in the trenches was pure misery. “The men slept in mud, washed in mud, ate mud, and dreamed mud,” wrote one soldier.

The trenches swarmed with rats.

Fresh food was nonexistent.

Sleep was nearly impossible.

The space between the opposing trenches won the grim name “no man’s land.”

When the officers ordered an attack, their men went over the top of their trenches into this bombed-out landscape. There, they usually met murderous rounds of machine-gun fire.

Staying put, however, did not ensure one’s safety. Artillery fire brought death right into the trenches. “Shells of all calibers kept raining on our sector,” wrote one French soldier. “The trenches disappeared, filled with earth . . . the air was unbreathable. Our blinded, wounded, crawling, and shouting soldiers kept falling on top of us and died splashing us with blood. It was living hell.”

The Western Front had become a “terrain of death.” It stretched nearly 500 miles from the North Sea to the Swiss border.

A British officer described it in a letter: "farms, villages and cottages are shapeless heaps of blackened masonry; in which fields, roads and trees are pitted and torn and twisted by shells and disfigured by dead horses, cattle, sheep and goats, scattered in every attitude of repulsive distortion and dismemberment." VALENTINE FLEMING

Military strategists were at a loss. New tools of war—machine guns, poison gas, armored tanks, larger artillery—had not delivered the fast-moving war they had expected. All this new technology did was kill greater numbers of people more effectively.

Gas was introduced by the Germans but used by both sides.

The machine gun was much improved by the time of World War I.

The tank was introduced by the British in 1916 at the Battle of the Somme.

In 1914, the Germans introduced the submarine.

The slaughter reached a peak in 1916. In February, the Germans launched a massive attack against the French near Verdun. Each side lost more than 300,000 men.

In July, the British army tried to relieve the pressure on the French. British forces attacked the Germans northwest of Verdun, in the valley of the Somme River. In the first day of battle alone, more than 20,000 British soldiers were killed. By the time the Battle of the Somme ended in November, each side had suffered more than half a million casualties.

Near Verdun, the Germans advanced about four miles.

In the Somme valley, the British gained about five miles.

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Eastern Front:  stretch of battlefield along the German and Russian border

Russians and Serbs battled Germans and Austro-Hungarians

a more mobile war than that in the west

slaughter and stalemate were common

Early Fighting:

At the beginning of the war, Russian forces had launched an attack into both Austria and Germany.

At the end of August, Germany counterattacked near the town of Tannenberg.

During the four-day battle, the Germans crushed the invading Russian army and drove it into full retreat.

More than 30,000 Russian soldiers were killed.

Russia fared somewhat better against the Austrians.

Russian forces defeated the Austrians twice in September 1914, driving deep into their country.

Not until December of that year did the Austrian army manage to turn the tide.

Austria defeated the Russians and eventually pushed them out of Austria-Hungary.

For soldiers on the Eastern Front, the overall misery of warfare was compounded by deadly winters. “Every day hundreds froze to death,” noted one Austro-Hungarian officer during a particularly brutal spell.

Russia Struggles:

By 1916, Russia’s war effort was near collapse.

Unlike nations of western Europe, Russia was not industrialized.

Russian army was continually short on food, guns, ammunition, clothes, boots, and blankets.

Russian troops suffered due to their lack of food and clothing. “I am at my post all the time—frozen [and] soaked . . . ,” lamented one soldier. “We walk barefoot or in rope-soled shoes. It’s incredible that soldiers of the Russian army are in rope-soled shoes!”

Allied supply shipments to Russia were sharply limited by German control of the Baltic Sea, combined with Germany’s relentless submarine campaign in the North Sea and beyond.

In the south, the Ottomans still controlled the straits leading from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea.

The Russian army had only one asset—its numbers.

Throughout the war the Russian army suffered a staggering number of battlefield losses, yet continually rebuilt its ranks from its enormous population.

For more than three years,  Russia managed to tie up hundreds of thousands of German troops in the east.

Germany could not hurl its full fighting force at the west.

As the war raged on, fighting spread beyond Europe to Africa, as well as to Southwest and Southeast Asia and truly became a world war.

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Summarize the new weapons that developed during the course of WWI:

Military strategists were at a loss. New tools of war—machine guns, poison gas, armored tanks, larger artillery—had not delivered the fast-moving war they had expected. All this new technology did was kill greater numbers of people more effectively.

Gas was introduced by the Germans but used by both sides.

The machine gun was much improved by the time of World War I.

The tank was introduced by the British in 1916 at the Battle of the Somme.

In 1914, the Germans introduced the submarine.

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General Notes:

World War I was, in many ways, a new kind of war.

new technologies

war on a grand and global scale

left behind a landscape of death and destruction

Both sides paid a tremendous price in terms of human life.

8.5 million soldiers died

21 million soldiers wounded

death of countless civilians by way of starvation, disease, and slaughter

an entire generation of Europeans wiped out.

The war also had a devastating economic impact on Europe.

drained the treasuries of European countries

$338 billion

destroyed acres of farmland, as well as homes, villages, and towns.

enormous suffering left a deep mark on Western society as well

sense of disillusionment

insecurity and despair are reflected in the art and literature of the time.

Another significant legacy of the war lay in its peace agreement.

treaties to end World War I were forged after great debate and compromise.

they sought to bring a new sense of security and peace to the world

they prompted mainly anger and resentment