The Great War and the Russian Revolution

1
The Great War and the Russian Revolution

• Causes, Course, and Consequences of the First
  World War, on Europe and the United States

2
Causes of the Great war

• Alliances call for quick reaction
• Mobilization plans based on timetables for
  assembly of troops and use of railroads
• Germany must avoid a two-front war
• An unforeseen event can trigger an unwanted
  conflict

3
Unrest in Southeast Europe

• Turkish empire is weakening
• Austria worried about Serbia and terrorism on
  its southern borders, annexes Bosnia in 1908
• War in 1912-13 enlarges Serbia, drives Turkey
  toward Germany
• Russia promotes pan-Slavism to offset its
  defeat in Asia
• Serbia seeks to increase its influence at cost of
  Austria, promotes unrest in Bosnia

4
Kaiser Bill
Extremely insecure and aggressive, Wilhelm nearly
started a war in 1911, with a speech in Morocco.
5
Sarajevo
Spark in July 1914
6
Reaction to Sarajevo

• Austria (encouraged by Germany) give ultimatum to
  Serbia
• Serbia appeals to Russia for help
• Russia, with slower mobilization facilities moves
  its troops after Austria mobilizes
• Germany, fearing a war with both Russia and
  France, mobilizes its troops
• Italy drops out of Triple Alliance
• France mobilizes
• Britain joins

7
German plan of attack
8
Timeline
July 31 -- As an ally of Serbia, Russia announces
full mobilization of her armed forces. Aug 1 --
Germany mobilizes her armed forces and declares
war Russia. Aug 3 Germany declares war on
France. Aug 4 Germany declares war on Belgium
and invades immediately. Britain declares war of
Germany.  Aug 6 -- Austria declares was on
Russia.
9
Popular appeal of war
Newfoundland, Autumn 1914
10
Russian army falters
German victory at Tannenberg offset the defeat
before Paris. A stalemate set in on the
western front.
11
Trench warfare
Miserable conditions, constant danger from
artillery fire, heavy casualties in attacks over
no mans land.
12
Trench warfare
Heavy casualties in trench warfare
13
Gas warfare
French use of tear gas in 1914 prompts Germany to
begin poison gas experiments, in order to break
stalemate on western front.
14
Advent of air warfare
The airplanes value as a reconnaissance tool
grew until both sides deployed large numbers of
aircraft.
15
Bombing
Bombing techniques were primitive
16
Pilots as celebrities
17
New Weapons The Tank
18
British naval blockade of Germany meant slow
starvation
19
Submarine warfare
20
Technology and death
21
Sinking of Lusitania
22
US Navy prepares for war
23
Expense of warfare
24
At the Somme (1916), British army lost 60,000 men
in five hours
25
War weariness
An entire generation of talent and leadership was
being destroyed in the war.
26
The Great War and culture
Writers, poets, painters, etc. began to question
if the war would completely destroy western
civilization.
27
Stalemate in France attempts to open other
fronts
28
Serbia vs. Austria
Heavily outnumbered, the Serbians relied on
irregular warfare partisans, whose style of
fighting was viewed by regular soldiers as
terrorism.
29
US sympathy for victims
U.S. groups organized aid for Serbia, Belgium,
other smaller nations caught up in the Great War
30
War with Turkey
31
Churchill and Gallipoli
Winston Churchill at the time of the Boer War,
1900
32
Slaughter at Gallipoli
33
Britain and Middle east
34
War and propaganda

• Every nation had secret treaties for obtaining
  territory from the losers
• Every nation sought to convince world opinion
  that the war was th fault of someone else
• US neutrality (until 1917) based of view that all
  were at fault
• US businesses were selling arms to Britain and
  France

35
American entry into war

• U.S. public increasingly angry over German
  atrocities in Belgium, France
• Zimmerman telegram proposes German alliance with
  Mexico against U.S.
• Germans decide to unleash unrestricted
  submarine warfare

36
The Fourteen Points
When US entered war, Pres. Wilson made the US war
aim a world safe for democracy
37
The Fourteen Points

• No secret treaties
• Freedom of the seas
• Free trade
• Armament reductions
• Self determination of peoples, based on cultural
  values of nationality (including an independent
  Poland, breakup of Turkish empire, adjustment of
  Austrian empire, restoration of Belgium, and
  replacement of European colonies by territories
  to be given independence).
• An international organization for maintaining
  peace and preventing future wars by negotiations
  Wilson called it a League of nations

38
U.S. in France
39
Disaster in Russia
Defeats in battle, poor management by Tsar
Nicholas, and distrust of Nicholas German wife
Alexandra, leads to collapse of Russian war
effort. Nicholas abdicates his throne in 1917.
40
Revolution in Russia
41
Civil war in Russia
42
Factions fight for control, independence
After WWI ends, U.S., Britain, Japan, send troops
to Russia to oppose Lenins government
43
Stalin
Extremely ruthless, very cunning in politics and
palace intrigue.
44
Treaty Rejected
After Wilson (left, with the French and English
leaders) returned to the U.S., the Senate
rejected the Treaty of Versailles. The U.S.
never joined the League of Nations as Wilson had
intended.
45
U.S. Regrets Role in War
In 1920, American voters elected Warren Harding
as President. Because Harding had opposed the
Treaty of Versailles, this vote was taken as a
rejection of Americas role in the Great War.
By the mid-1920s, U.S. history books called
American entry in the war a mistake.