MOST OF HISTORY: THE FIRST HUMANS

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ERA 7 Global War The First World War!
Craig Benjamin Day Three, Session 4A
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Introduction

• World War I (aka the First World War) was a world
  conflict lasting from August 1914 to the final
  Armistice on 11 Nov 1918
• The Allied Powers (aka Triple Entente) led by
  Britain and France, and after 1917 the United
  States, defeated the Central Powers (led by
  Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire)
• Led to the collapse of four empires and a radical
  change in the map of Europe

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18 Million Dead

• War is infamous for the stalemate of trench
  warfare along the Western Front the trenches ran
  from the North Sea to the border of Switzerland
• War also characterized by dynamic invasion and
  battle, by fighting at sea and - for the first
  time - in and out from the air
• More than 9 million soldiers died on the
  battlefields, and nearly that many more in the
  home fronts because of food shortages and
  genocide committed under the cover of various
  civil wars

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End of the Old Order in Europe

• WWI caused a break with the old world order that
  had emerged after the Napoleonic Wars, which had
  then been modified by the mid-19th century
  national revolutions, European national
  unification and colonialism
• Three European land empires were shattered and
  subsequently dismembered to varying degrees the
  German, the Austro-Hungarian and the Russian
• In the Balkans and the Middle East, the Ottoman
  Empire experienced the same fate
• Three European imperial dynasties - the
  Hohenzollern, the Habsburg and the Romanov
  (pictured below) - also fell during the war

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Communism and Fascism
Russian Revolution, 1917

• During the following decades the old Russian
  Empire was transformed into the Union of Soviet
  Socialist Republics, a global power under the
  control of a Communist government
• In Central Europe the new states of
  Czechoslovakia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania,
  Estonia and Yugoslavia were born and Austria,
  Hungary and Poland were re-created
• After the war (1923) Fascists came to power in
  Italy and in 1933 Nazism took over Germany
• Problems created by the war would be highly
  important factors in the outbreak of World War II
  20 years later

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Lecture Program

• Part A Causes of the First World War
• Part B The Early Phases of the War
• Part C Later
• Phase of the War
• Part D Effects
• of the War

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Part A Causes of the War

• On 28 June 1914 Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of
  Austria, was assassinated in Sarajevo by Serbian
  nationalists
• Though this assassination was the immediate
  trigger for the war, its origins can be traced
  back to the complex web of alliances and
  counterbalances that developed between the
  various European powers after 1871
• Historians have grappled for nearly a century
  without reaching a consensus on what were the
  most important causes bus some of the major
  explanations are

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European Arms Race

• The escalating arms race (e.g. 1907 launch of HMS
  Dreadnought which made all previous warships
  obsolete)
• This opened a new chapter in naval warfare and
  sparked a major naval arms race in shipbuilding
• Nations in the Triple Entente became fearful of
  the Triple Alliance and vice versa

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No Turning Back

• The war plans of each power automatically
  escalated the conflict until it was out of
  control
• Germany's Schlieffen Plan (calling for a thrust
  at France through neutral Belgium) France's Plan
  XVII (calling for a thrust into Alsace and
  Lorraine) and Russia's Plan XIX (calling for the
  mobilization of armies against both
  Austria-Hungary and Germany) all created an
  atmosphere where generals were anxious to seize
  decisive victories
• Once the mobilization orders were issued there
  was no possibility of turning back

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Nationalism as a Cause

• Civilian leaders of the European powers found
  themselves facing a wave of nationalist zeal that
  had been building across Europe for years
• This left governments with few options and little
  room to maneuver as the last weeks of July 1914
  slipped away
• Frantic diplomatic efforts to mediate the
  Austrian-Serbian quarrel became irrelevant, as
  public opinion in key countries demanded war to
  uphold national honor

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Economic Competition and Imperialism

• Intense economic rivalry between states also led
  to war
• Economic and military conflict between nations
  was seen to be inevitable by many military
  leaders, and the prestige of attaining or
  preserving world power was an important
  consideration for politicians
• Germany's decision to increase its navy might is
  the prime example of this
• This enhanced Germanys industrial potential and
  eroded Britain's domination of the seas,
• for whom the navy served as a
• national icon
• But this led to military rivalry
• with Britain, which in turn
• increased its naval might and
• this became less and less
• favorable toward Germany

German navy, 1914
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Part B Early Phase of the War Hostilities Begin
in Europe
Site of Battle of Cer

• In Europe the Central Powers (German and
  Austro-Hungarian Empires) suffered from a lack of
  intelligence about each others intentions
• This confusion forced the Austro-Hungarian army
  to split its troop concentrations from the south
  in order to meet the Russians in the north
• The Serbian army defeated the divided Austrian
  army at the Battle of Cer on 12 August (Austria
  lost 21,000, Serbia 16,000) - the first major
  Allied victory of the war
• Austrians had not achieved their goal of
  eliminating Serbia, and it became increasingly
  likely that Germany would have to maintain forces
  on two fronts

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Germany Invades Belgium
Belgian Refugees Flee the German Advance

• The Schlieffen plan required Germany to attack
  France from the north, but this meant marching
  through Belgium
• Germany demanded free passage from the Belgian
  government, but when they refused Germany invaded
  and began marching through Belgium anyway
• Encountered resistance before the city of Liège,
  but the Germans continued to make rapid progress
  into France
• Britain sent an army to France (the British
  Expeditionary Force or BEF) which advanced into
  Belgium
• First British Empire soldier killed in the war
  was John Parr on 21 August 1914 near Mons

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Russia Enters the War

• Germans soon encountered resistance from the
  Belgian, French and British forces, and the rapid
  mobilization of the Russians
• Russia attacked in East Prussia, diverting German
  forces intended for the Western Front
• Germany defeated Russia in the Second Battle of
  Tannenberg (17 August 2 September)
• But this diversion allowed French and British
  forces to halt the German advance on Paris at the
  First Battle of the Marne (September 1914) and
  the Entente forced the Central Powers into
  fighting a war on two fronts
• German army had fought its way into a good
  defensive position inside France and had
  permanently incapacitated 230,000 more French and
  British troops than it had lost itself, but
  Germany had lost the chance for an early knockout

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A Short, Sharp War?

• In 1914, the war was romanticized by many people,
  and its declaration was met with great enthusiasm
• Common view on both sides was that it would be a
  short war with a few sharp actions and would end
  with a victorious entry into the enemy capital
• Many thought it would be finished by Christmas
  but others (including Kitchener and Ludendorff)
  predicted the war would be a long one
• International financial markets entered severe
  crises in late July reflecting worry about the
  financial consequences of war
• But spurred on by propaganda and nationalist
  fervor, many joined the ranks in search of
  adventure few were prepared for what they
  actually encountered at the front

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Technological Warfare Begins

• Advances in military technology meant that
  defensive firepower out-weighed offensive
  capabilities, making the war particularly
  murderous
• Barbed wire was a huge problem to massed infantry
  advances
• Lethal artillery (coupled with machine guns) made
  crossing open ground a nightmare
• European generals had ignored the lessons of the
  U.S. Civil War and were indifferent to massive
  loss of life
• By 1915 both sides were using poison gas, which
  made life even more miserable in the trenches and
  became one of the most feared horrors of the war

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Chlorine Gas

• After the First Battle of the Marne both sides
  tried to force the other to retreat
• The allies were soon facing entrenched German
  positions from Lorraine to Belgium's coast they
  then tried to take the offensive while Germany
  defended occupied territories
• German trenches were much better constructed than
  the allies (which were only intended to be
  'temporary' before their forces broke through)
• In April 1915, the Germans used chlorine gas for
  the first time, opening a four mile wide hole in
  the Allied lines when French troops retreated
  before it
• This was closed by Canadian soldiers the Second
  and Third Battle of Ypres (where over 5000
  Canadian soldiers were gassed to death)

Canadians wait to go over the top at Ypres
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French Troops Mutiny

• Neither side could deliver a decisive blow for
  the next four years, although by the summer of
  1916 the exhausted French army was on the brink
  of collapse
• Futile frontal assaults (at terrible cost to the
  French infantry) led to mutinies which threatened
  the front line in spring of 1917
• News of the Russian Revolution gave a new
  incentive to socialist feelings among the troops
• At the height of the mutiny 30,000 - 40,000
  French soldiers participated

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On the Western Front

• Between 1915-17 the British Empire and France had
  many more casualties than Germany, but both sides
  lost millions of soldiers to injury and disease
• 800,000 soldiers from the British Empire were on
  the Western Front at any one time the front
  contained over 6,000 miles of trenches
• In the Battle of Arras during the 1917 campaign,
  the only military success was the capture of Vimy
  Ridge by the Canadians
• It provided the allies with great military
  advantage and greatly contributed to the identity
  of Canada

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The Eastern Front

• While the Western Front had reached stalemate in
  the trenches, the war continued in the east
• Russia's initial advance into Galicia was largely
  successful, but they were driven back from East
  Prussia in Sept 1914.
• Russia's less-developed economy and military was
  unequal to the combined might of the German and
  Austro-Hungarian Empires
• In the spring of 1915, the Russians were driven
  back in Galicia, and in May the Russians to
  withdraw from all of Poland

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The Russian Tsar Abdicates

• Dissatisfaction with the Russian government's
  conduct of the war led to unrest the Tsar
  remained out of touch at the front
• The Empress Alexandra's incompetent rule drew
  protests from all segments of Russian political
  life, resulting in the murder of her favorite
  Rasputin at the end of 1916
• In March 1917, demonstrations culminated
• in the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II and
• the appointment of a weak Provisional
• Government
• This led to confusion and chaos, both on the
• front and at home, and the army became
• progressively less able to resist Germany

Rasputin
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Revolution!

• The war and the government, became more and more
  unpopular, leading to a rise in popularity of the
  Bolshevik party led by Vladimir Lenin, who were
  able to gain power
• The triumph of the Bolsheviks in November 1917
  was followed by an armistice with Germany
• The new government acceded to the Treaty of
  Brest-Litovsk on 3 March 1918, which took Russia
  out of the war and ceded vast territories
  (Finland, the Baltic provinces, Poland and
  Ukraine) to the Central Powers
• After the Russians dropped out of the war,
  Entente powers led a small-scale invasion of
  Russia (Archangel and Vladivostok)
• The invasion was made to punish the Russians for
  dropping out of the war and to support the
  Tsarists in the Russian Revolution

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1917 Submarine Warfare

• Events of 1917 would prove decisive in ending the
  war, although their effects were not fully felt
  until 1918
• The naval blockade of Germany began to have a
  serious impact on morale and productivity
• In response in February 1917 the German General
  Staff were able to convinced the Chancellor to
  declare unrestricted submarine warfare, to try
  and starve Britain out of the war
• Tonnage sunk rose above 500,000 tons per month
  from February until July, peaking at 860,000 tons
  in April, but after July, the convoy system was
  effective in neutralizing the U-boat threat
• Britain was safe from the threat of starvation

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Armistice with Russia

• In December the Central Powers signed an
  Armistice with Russia, releasing troops from the
  eastern front for use in the west
• With both German reinforcements and now American
  troops pouring into the Western Front, the final
  outcome of the war would be decided in that front
• The Central Powers knew that they could not win a
  protracted war now that American forces were
  certain to be arriving, so hoped for a rapid
  victory in the West
• Rulers of both the Central Powers and the Entente
  became more fearful that protracted
  industrialized war threatened social collapse and
  revolution throughout Europe
• Both sides urgently sought a rapid victory on the
  Western Front as they were both fearful of
  collapse or stalemate

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Part C Later Phase of the War -Entry of America
US President Woodrow Wilson

• America's long-standing policy of isolationism
  left the US reluctant to involve itself with what
  was popularly perceived to be a European war
• But the German renewed policy of unrestricted
  submarine warfare led to a final break of
  relations with the Central Powers
• After further U-boat attacks on American merchant
  ships, President Woodrow Wilson requested that
  Congress declare war on Germany, which it did on
  6 April 1917
• Wilson hoped a separate peace could be achieved
  with Austria-Hungary however, when it kept its
  loyalty to Germany, the US declared war on them
  in December 1917

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High American Casualty Rate

• The US Navy sent a battleship group and several
  submarines to Ireland to help guard convoys
• U.S. Marines dispatched to France, but it was
  some time before the US could contribute
  significant manpower to the Western and Italian
  fronts
• British and French wanted the US to send its
  infantry to reinforce their troops already on the
  battle lines, but American commander General
  Pershing resisted using Americans as
  reinforcements for British Empire and French
  units
• Without experience in this type of warfare,
  Pershing ordered his men into frontal assaults,
  and as a result the Americans suffered a very
  high rate of casualties in the summer and fall of
  1918

US Troops Learn About Western Front Mud!
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German Offensive of Spring 1918

• Ludendorff drew up plans for a 1918 general
  offensive along the Western Front which sought to
  divide the British and French armies in a series
  of advances
• Germans hoped to strike a decisive blow against
  the enemy before significant US forces could be
  deployed
• Operation Michael opened on 21 March 1918 with an
  attack against British forces near the rail
  junction at Amiens
• German forces achieved an unprecedented advance
  of 60 km!

German storm troopers at work during 'Operation
Michael' in March 1918
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Artillery Shell Paris

• The front line had now moved to within 120 kms of
  Paris, and three Krupp railway guns advanced and
  fired 183 shells on Paris, causing many Parisians
  to flee
• The initial stages of the offensive were so
  successful that German Kaiser Wilhelm II declared
  March 24 a national holiday
• But after heavy fighting, the German offensive
  was halted. German casualties between March and
  April 1918 were 270,000
• US divisions were assigned to the depleted French
  and British commands on 28 March
• British commander Douglas Haig handed control of
  his forces over to Ferdinand Foch, who was
  declared supreme commander of the allies

Results of the shelling of Paris
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Social Unrest Within Germany

• Following Operation Michael Germany launched
  another operation against the Channel ports,
  which was quickly halted by the Allies
• Operation Marne was launched on 15 July as an
  attempt to encircle Reims (the Second Battle of
  the Marne) but the Entente counterattack was
  their first successful offensive of the war
• By 20 July the Germans were back at their
  starting lines, having achieved nothing
• At the same time Germany was crumbling
  internally anti-war marches were frequent and
  morale within the army was at low levels
  industrial output had fallen 53 from 1913

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Hundred Days Offensive

• Allied counteroffensive (Hundred Days Offensive)
  began on 8 August
• Battle of Amiens developed with the 4th British
  Army on the left, 1st French Army on the right,
  and the Canadian and Australian Corps
  spearheading the offensive in the centre
• Involved 414 tanks type and
• 120,000 men
• Entente forces advanced
• 12 kms into German- held
• territory in just seven hours
• Called "the Black Day of
• the German army"

German prisoners taken during The Battle of Amiens
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To the Hindenburg Line

• After a few days the offensive slowed down, but
  the Second Battle of the Somme began on August 21
• 130,000 US troops were involved, along with
  soldiers from the British Armies
• Overwhelming success for the Allies German Army
  pushed back over a 55km front
• By September 2 the Germans were on the Hindenburg
  Line (starting point of the War)
• On Sept 26 260,000 American soldiers went "over
  the top". All divisions were successful in
  capturing their initial objectives, except the
  U.S. 79th Infantry Division which was unable to
  take Montfaucon

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Suicide Mission?

• News of Germany's impending defeat spread
  throughout the German Armed forces threat of
  general mutiny was rife
• Naval commander Scheer and Ludendorff decided to
  launch a last ditch attempt to restore the
  "valor" of the German Navy, and didnt inform the
  government
• When word of the impending assault reached
  sailors at Kiel many rebelled, refusing to be
  part of an offensive which they believed to be
  nothing more than a suicide bid
• The Kaiser dismissed Ludendorff on 26 October

Eric Ludendorff
Sailors mutiny at Kiel
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Collapse of the German Government
Germans take to the streets in Mullernbachen,
Nov 1918

• These divisions brought an end to the German
  monarchical government, and when von Baden was
  put in charge of the new German government,
  negotiations for a peace began immediately
• On 9 Nov Schiedman declared Germany to be a
  Republic, from a balcony atop the Reichstag
• Von Baden announced that the Kaiser was to
  abdicate Imperial Germany had died, and a new
  Germany had been born the Weimar Republic

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End of the War

• The end came swiftly Germany requested a
  ceasefire on 3 October
• Kaiser Wilhelm II ordered the German Fleet to
  attack the Entente's navies, but the sailors
  mutinied
• On 30 Oct the Ottoman Empire capitulated
• On Nov 3 Austria-Hungary sent a flag of truce to
  the Italian Commander to ask an Armistice, which
  took effect on 4 Nov
• Following the outbreak of the German Revolution,
  a Republic was proclaimed on 9 Nov
• The Kaiser fled the next day to the Netherlands
  which granted him political asylum

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Armistice Day (Eleventh hour of the eleventh day
of the eleventh month)

• On 11 Nov an armistice with Germany was signed in
  a railroad carriage at Compiègne in France
• At 11.00 hours that day a ceasefire came into
  effect and the opposing armies on the Western
  Front began to withdraw from their positions
• Canadian George Lawrence Price is regarded as the
  last soldier killed in the Great War he was shot
  by a German Sniper at 1130 hours the very same
  day
• A formal state of war between the two sides
  persisted for another seven months until it was
  finally ended by the signing of the Treaty of
  Versailles on 28 June 1919
• Many war memorials date the end of the war as the
  date the Versailles treaty was signed but most
  commemorations of the war's end concentrate on
  the Armistice of 1918

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Part D Effects of the War- Economic

• GDP increased for the main Allies (UK, Italy, US)
  but decreased in France and Russia, in neutral
  Netherlands, and in the main three Central Powers
• Shrinkage in GDP in Austria, Russia and France
  was between 30 to 40 (in Austria most of the
  pigs were slaughtered and there was no meat)
• To pay for purchases in the US, the UK cashed in
  its massive investments in American railroads,
  then began borrowing heavily on Wall Street
  (Wilson allowed a huge increase in US government
  lending to the Allies)
• After 1919, the US demanded
• repayment of these loans, which were
• funded by German reparations, which
• in turn, were supported by American
• loans to Germany
• This circular system collapsed in 1931
• and the loans were never repaid

Social unrest breaks out in Berlin, 1919
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Social Effects

• World War I was the first modern war, a total war
  where the civilian populations were deliberately
  endangered, a tactic that has continued in all
  subsequent wars
• Another effect was the expansion of governmental
  powers in Britain, France, and the United States
• To harness all the power of their societies, new
  government ministries and powers were created
  new taxes levied, and laws enacted, all designed
  to bolster the war effort, many of which have
  lasted to this day

Soldiers return home to Canada
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Women and the War

• Families were altered by the departure of many
  men
• With the death or absence of the primary wage
  earner, women were forced into the workforce in
  huge numbers
• Industry needed to replace the lost laborers sent
  to war, which aided the struggle for voting
  rights for women

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New Age of Humanity?

• At the outbreak of the war, it was hoped that the
  war would usher in a new age of humanity but it
  failed to deliver
• For combatants and non-combatants alike, the war
  had been justified for reasons that future
  generations simply would not be able to
  understand
• Instead of feeling jubilation, the victors
  entered a period of mourning
• For the defeated, the post-war world was an even
  greater disappointment, for the Treaty of
  Versailles was a bitter pill to swallow
• German public had been under the impression that
  the war was a defensive measure, so the harsh
  terms of the agreement did little to discredit
  this theory

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Germany Stabbed in the Back?

• Severity of Treaty raised suspicions about the
  Weimar Republic Germany's new democratic
  government became associated with the Treaty in
  the public eye
• Nature of Germany's defeat became another
  controversy, because accounts from soldiers as
  well as statements made by Ludendorff suggested
  that Germany had not really lost the war, but
  been betrayed from within
• The "Dolchstoßlegende" (dagger push legend)
  suggested that Germany had been "stabbed in the
  back" by Jews and communists, which later helped
  gain support for National Socialism

American aid groups tried to help impoverished
Germany in the 1920s
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Rise of Nazism the Result?

• Experience of the war established with German
  youths a militaristic and fascist mindset that
  made it possible for the Nazi party to take
  control of Germany two decades later
• In the aftermath of WW I, post-war economic
  depression and nationalist views were a prominent
  aspect of German public sentiment, an important
  cornerstone of what would become Nazi ideology

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Aftermath

• War ended with Europe scarred by trenches and
  littered with the bodies of the millions who died
  
• Direct consequence was the end of 300 years of
  European hegemony in the world
• No other war had changed the map of Europe so
  dramatically
• In Australian and New Zealand popular legend, the
  First World War is known as the nation's "baptism
  of fire - the first major war which the new
  countries fought, and one of the first cases
  where Australian troops fought as Australians,
  not just subjects of the British Empire
• Anzac Day (Australia New Zealand Army Corps) held
  in great reverence by many Australians and New
  Zealanders
• Similarly many Canadians refer to their country
  as a nation "forged from fire"

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Social Trauma

• War led to a collective national trauma
  afterwards for all the participating countries
• Optimism of 1900 was gone and those who fought in
  the war became known as "the Lost Generation" who
  never fully recovered from their experiences
• Some were revolted by nationalism and began to
  work toward a more internationalist world through
  the League of Nations
• Pacifism became popular but others had the
  opposite reaction, feeling that only strength and
  military might could be relied on for protection
  in a chaotic and inhumane world
• A sense of disillusionment and cynicism became
  pronounced many believed that the war heralded
  the end of western civilization

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• The First World War killed fewer victims than
  the Second World War, destroyed fewer buildings,
  and uprooted millions instead of tens of millions
  - but in many ways it left even deeper scars both
  on the mind and on the map of Europe. The old
  world never recovered from the shock
• Edmond Taylor
• Fossil Monarchies