World War I

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World War I

• The Great War

2
Two Predictions

• The Future Belongs to Peace French economist
• I shall not live to see the Great War
  Bismarck

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Pursuit of Peace

• 1896 Olympic games in Athens
• Emphasized love of peace and respect for life
• 1895 Nobel Peace Prize began
• Womens Suffrage
• Support for peace movements
• Women dont feel as men do about war They are
  the mothers of the race

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Pacifism

• First Universal Peace Conference
• Can not force nations to submit their disputes
• Cannot enforce its ruling
• Important step toward the idea of peace

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Counterbalance to Peace Aggressive Nationalism

• France and Germany
• Strong nationalism
• Germans proud of military power/industrial
  leadership
• France
• wants to regain leadership of Europe
• bitter about 1871 defeat, German occupation of A/L

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Treaties/Alliances Upset Balance of Power

• 1870 Balance of power upset
• Bismarck feared French revenge negotiated
  treaties to isolate France also feared Russia
• 1881-1887 Alliance of the Three Emperors
• Germany, Austria, and Russia
• mutual defense pact concerning Balkans (Russia
  refused to renew in 1887) desire to influence
  Serbia
• Triple Alliance, 1881 Germany, Austria and Italy

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Treaties/Alliances

• Russian-German Reinsurance Treaty of 1887
• neutrality if other was attacked
• Kaiser refused to renew after removing Bismarck
  in 1890
• Germany developed closer ties to Austria
• France courted Russia, became allies
• "Splendid Isolation" After 1891, Britain was the
  only uncommitted power
• Anglo-Japanese Alliance (1902)
• Britain sought Japanese agreement to "benevolent
  neutrality" to counter possible Russian threat in
  Asia

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Treaties/Alliances

• Entente Cordial (1904)
• Anglo-German naval arms race, causes Britain and
  France to settle all outstanding colonial
  disputes in Africa
• Triple Entente, 1907
• Britain, France and Russia
• formed to check Triple Alliance
• King of England and Tsar are cousins

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German View of Entente Cordiale
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Triple Entente
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King George V and Tsar Nichols II 1913 (below)
Kaiser Wilhelm II another cousin
14
Anglo-German Arms Race

• British policy larger fleet than combined
  fleets of any two rival nations
• 1898 Expansion of German navy to protect a
  growing international trade and colonialism
• Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz
• Haldane Mission (1912) British tried
  unsuccessfully to end naval arms race with
  Germany

15
Eastern Europe Russia

• Pan Slavism
• Nationalist movement
• encouraged Serbs, Bosnians, Slovenes, and Croats
  to seek a single political entity in Southern
  Europe
• Sponsored by Russia
• Lead and defend all Slavs
• All Slavs share a common nationality
• 1914 Russia supported Serbia against Austria

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Eastern Europe Fears and Tensions

• Austria-Hungary feared nationalism would foster
  rebellion
• Ottoman Empire weak, threatened by new nations
  such as Serbia and Greece
• 1912 Balkan states attacked Turkey
• Constant state of warfare
• Powder Keg of Europe

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Weaknesses of the Ottoman Empire

• Young Turks set up parliamentary government in
  Ottoman Empire (1906-1917)
• 1911-12 Italy took Turkish province of Libya
  showed how weak Ottomans
  
  had become

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Balkan Wars

• First Balkan War (1908)
• Serbia, Greece, and Bulgaria allied to drive the
  Turks out of the Balkans
• Serbia wants spot on the Adriatic, bitter when
  Austria created Albania (to deter Serbia)
• Second Balkan War (1913)
• Serbia defeated Bulgaria, Macedonia and gained
  Albania Russia backed Serbia
• Austria, with German support against Russia,
  prevented Serbia from holding Albania
• Serbia still frustrated it had no access to
  Adriatic Sea
• The Third Balkan War" between Austria and Serbia
  became World War I

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Rivalries

• Economic Interests Europe and abroad
• Britain threatened by Germanys rapid industrial
  growth
• 1900 Germany out-producing Britain
• Imperialism
• 1905, 1911 Germany and France nearly go to war
  over colonial claims in Morocco

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Imperialism

• Tensions over Africa
• Berlin Conference, 1885
• Kruger Telegram (1902)
• Germany congratulated Boers on victory over
  British troops in South Africa.
• 1906 Algeciras Conference settled First Moroccan
  Crisis
• Kaiser urged Moroccan independence, despite it
  being a French colony
• Britain and Italy supported French imperialism in
  Morocco and Tunisia

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The German Issue

• Britain, France, Russia, and U.S. saw Germany as
  potential threat
• Germany isolated (except for Austria's support)
• Claimed "encirclement" by other powers to block
  Germany's emergence as world power
• Second Moroccan Crisis (1911)
• German troops in Morocco protest French
  occupation of the city of Fez.
• Britain supported France again
• Germany backed down for minor concessions in
  equatorial Africa

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More Causes

• Social Darwinism survival of the fittest
• War is a biological necessity German general
• Militarism
• War romanticized, enlistment increases
• Expansion of armies, navies leads to arms race
• Naval rivalry between GB and Germany
• As tensions increase, military strategists gain
  influence

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M.A.I.N.

• Causes of World War I
• M Militarism
• A Alliances
• I Imperialism
• N Nationalism

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The Spark
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Sarajevo June 20, 1914

• Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand visits Bosnia
  (under Austrian rule)
• Ethnic, political tension Serbs vs. Slavs
• Serbs see Austria as foreign oppressor
• June 20 is a nationalist holiday for Serbs
• Unity or Death (sometimes known as Black
  Hand) decided to assassinate the tyrant

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The Conflict Begins

• Austrian Government sees this event as an excuse
  to harshly punish Serbian nationalists
• Ultimatum Serbia must end all anti-Austrian
  agitation
• Any Serbian official involved in the murder plot
  must be punished
• Austrians will oversee murder investigation
• Serbia refused these conditions
• July 28 Austria declared war on Serbia

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The Conflict Grows

• Germany supports Austrias ultimatum
• Serbia gets help from Russia to defend itself
• Russia begins mobilizing for war
• Germany sees this as an act of aggression,
  declares war on Russia
• French nationalists see war as opportunity to
  regain losses to Germany support Russia
• Germany sees this as a threat, declares war on
  France
• GB and Italy - neutral

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The Conflict Grows The Schlieffen Plan

• Plan for attacking France
• Designed to avoid a two-front war against France
  and Russia
• Schlieffen assumes Russia would be slow to
  mobilize, so Germany must defeat France quickly
  first

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The Schlieffen Plan
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The Schlieffen Plan in Action

• Germany must march through Belgium, swing south
  behind French lines
• August 3 Germany invades Belgium
• Big Problem Belgium is neutral
• Britain declares war on Germany
• Schlieffen Plan failed
• Russia mobilized quickly, German troops needed to
  return to eastern border
• Battle of the Marne destroys German offense

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Battle of the Marne

• August 1914 German troops approaching Paris
• Government flees to Bordeaux
• British and French forces keep Germans from
  advancing to Paris
• About 250,000 casualties for each side in a 3-day
  battle

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The Guns of August

• War seemed inevitable
• Countries were in a hurry to go to war
• Military staffs, goaded by relentless
  timetables, were pounding the table for the
  signal to move, lest their opponents gain an
  hours head start Barbara Tuchman, The Guns
  of August

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Another View of Impending War

• The lamps are going out all over Europe. We
  shall not see them lit again in our lifetime
  Edward Gray, British diplomat

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Warfare Reborn

• The Great War
• Largest conflict ever (at that time)
• French mobilized 8.5 million men
• British mobilized 9 million
• Russians 12 million
• Germans 11 million
• Devastating loss of life, dramatic social changes

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Case Study France

• 1/5 of French population fought in the war
• The Somme 600,000 French and British dead
• Allies win
• 8 kilometers of advance 75,000 lives lost per
  kilometer
• Missing Generation
• Bombed out cities are referred to as martyred
  cities

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Total Casualties 19 million military and
civilian
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The Western Front
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Trench Warfare

• French/Swiss border to the English Channel
• Rats, lice
• no mans land
• over the top
• Little gain

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Major Battles

• Marne, 1914
• Verdun, 1916
• 11 months, 600,000 dead
• 750,000 wounded
• Somme (summer, fall 1916)
• 60,000 British killed and wounded in one day
• 1 million dead in 5 months, no significant gain

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Modern Warfare

• Machine guns
• Artillery launchers (10 mile range)
• Poison gas
• Armored tank
• Aircraft, zeppelins
• U-boats unrestricted submarine warfare against
  US-led supply convoys

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British/Allied Naval Blockades

• Goal strangle Central Powers
• 1914 Central Powers cut off from overseas trade
• Germany loses control of its colonial empire
• Germany responded by sinking Allied vessels
• Lusitania, 1915 1,200 killed, including 129
  Americans
• Germany began unrestricted submarine warfare in
  1917 sinking all ships with its U-boats

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Eastern Front

• Baltic to Black Sea (1600 KM)
• Fewer trenches because fewer soliders per s.m.
• Less communication
• Less technology
• Major Battle
• Tannenberg, 1914 Russian defeat in Germany

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Southern Front

• 1915 Bulgaria joins Central Powers, crushes
  Serbia
• 1915 Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary and
  Germany
• Italy has a secret treaty with the Allies to gain
  Austrian land
• 1917 Austria and Germany attack Caporetto
• Italian retreat, but Allies stop further Central
  advances into Italy

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Gallipoli

• 1914 Ottoman Empire joined Central Powers
• Turks close off Dardanelles to Allies
• 1915 Allied troops (mostly British, Indian,
  Australian, NZ) to Gallipoli
• 10 months later, Allies retreat (200,000
  casualties)

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ANZAC Day

• ANZAC Day is commemorated by Australia and New
  Zealand on April 25
• Remembers Australian and New Zealand Army Corps
  (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli
• Australia one of the most spiritual and solemn
  days of the year
• Marches by veterans from all past wars

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Becoming a World War

• Japan Allied with England
• Captures German outposts in China and Pacific
  Attempts protectorate over China.
• 1916 Arab nationalists revolt against Ottoman
  Empire
• British send T.E. Lawrence to encourage Arab
  rebellion
• Allies takeover German colonies in Africa and
  Asia
• Colonial citizens fight for the mother country in
  hopes of gaining independence after the war

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The British and the Middle East

• Balfour Note (1917) Arabs and Jews in Palestine
  were promised autonomy if they joined the Allies
• Britain declared sympathy for idea of Jewish
  homeland in Palestine
• Problem British also actively supported Arab
  independence, but only from Russia and Germany
• British see Middle East as critical territory

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Winning the War

• Total War nations total resources thrown into
  war effort
• Economic Impact Taxes and loans to pay for
  wartime costs, rationing of food, gasoline, other
  items, price setting, strikes forbidden
• Propaganda control of public opinion
• Goal keep casualty figures, other news away from
  the public Censorship of literature, historic
  writings, movies, the arts

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Propaganda

• Promotes a certain cause or damages an opposing
  cause
• Exaggerated stories about atrocities
• Songs, posters, movies, newsreels

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Women and the War

• Took over jobs, even in war factories
• Womens branches of armed forces
• Womens Land Army (GB) went into fields to plant
  and harvest crops
• Nurses
• Led to womens right to vote
• Hard work is a challenge to the idea that women
  are too delicate to vote

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Edith Cavell

• British nurse
• Captured as a spy in Belgium
• Executed by Germans in 1915

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Connecting Cavell and the Lusitania
                                                                                          
Fig. 2 France. Gilt AE plaque by Victor Peter depicting the French cock defeating the German snake, which has pinned down the Lamb of Innocence. (David Simpson collection) 164 x 230 mm.
There is little debate today that the Germans
were technically justified in executing Cavell
for treason and in sinking the Lusitania as a
belligerent blockade runner. In the case of the
Lusitania, the Germans had countered the British
blockade of their ports with a submarine blockade
of British ports the British in turn responded
by arming several merchant ships (sometimes
deceptively under neutral flags such as the
United States) and issuing orders to all
merchant captains to ram submarines when
possible, all in violation of the received law of
the sea. Thus there was little incentive for
German U-boat captains to be chivalrous or spare
British liners. Moreover, the Lusitania, like
many blockade runners, was ferrying military
contraband 4.2 million Remington .303 rifle
cartridges, 1,250 cases of (empty) shrapnel
shells, and eighteen cases of fuses. Although
technically justified in their actions, the
captain of U-20, Walther Schwieger, and the
Brussels court martial blundered horribly by
sinking the Lusitania and ordering Cavells
execution, since the events became two of the
most successful focal points for Allied
anti-German propaganda, and as such were often
linked with each other to further enhance the
effect (see Figs. 2, 20-21, 23). There was little
the Germans could do to counter this in the
propaganda wars, they remained decisively on the
defensive.
                                                                                          
Fig. 3 British postcard, c. 1916, depicting the execution of Edith Cavell.
Atrocity Propaganda
                                                                                                                           
  Fig. 4 France. AE medal by Raoul Lamourdedieu, 1917. The inscription on the obverse translates The barbarians have passed through here. (ANS 1941.123.4, gift of S. H. P. Pell) 55 x 70 mm.
Part of the reason why the Cavell-Lusitania
propaganda was so effective was due to the
emotional groundwork laid by reports of German
atrocities filtering out of Belgium shortly after
the August 1914 invasion began. The Germans
invaded Belgium fully expecting to encounter a
franc-tireur (literally, free-shooter) Peoples
Army, as they had in France over forty years
earlier. The obsession with the idea of a
civilian resistance meant that advancing and
occupying troops believed that old men and young
girls everywhere were taking potshots at them
from rooftops and from behind walls. The German
response to unexplained shots (which often as it
turned out were fired by nearby Allied or even
German troops) was swift and brutal scores of
villagers would be executed for the purported
actions of a few and their houses looted and
burned. In Louvain, on August 25, 1914, drunk
German soldiers touched off a raging reprisal
against such unexplained shots, which resulted in
the near destruction of the city, including the
killing of 248 citizens and the burning of the
universitys library, with its esteemed
collection of medieval manuscripts. The actual
deeds of the troops were bad enough, but as the
stories circulated, reality merged with
invention The Germans became more and more
dehumanized, their actions more and more
revolting, with particular emphasis on acts
committed against women and children. Stories of
troops raping and mutilating women and girls in
front of their families were sickening, but even
those paled in comparison to ones describing the
fates of young children laughing Germans
skewered babes with bayonets or maliciously let
them live after chopping off their hands. There
were documented cases of rape, but none has ever
surfaced regarding the reported abuse of
children. Seizing on these stories, Allied
propagandists soon began depicting the invasion
of Belgium in a pointedly gendered fashion the
violation of women and Belgium were elided. This
use of highly sexualizedat times almost
pornographic (Fig. 4)images and words was
intended to create moral imperatives, to elicit
from British, French, and, eventually, American
men an unquestioning desire to join the fight in
order to protect their own women, children, and
by extension, country from the monstrous Hun. The
atrocity stories also made it that much easier
for propagandists to reduce the Germans to
caricatures of German-ness. Propagandists not
only resurrected images of Germanic barbarians
from a long-dead age but also parodied the more
recent concept of Kultur (culture), which, as a
nation-building tool following the creation of
the German state in 1870, emphasized the
linguistic and cultural particularity of the
German people. A personified Kultur, the
embodiment of perceived Prussian ferocity, was a
frequent character in Allied propaganda, as was
Kaiser Wilhelm II remade as Attila (see Fig. 10).
Paul Manships medal (Fig. 5) is a typical
example of these efforts, combining a gendered
perspective and marauding Kultur on the one side
with a Hun-like Wilhelm on the other.
                                                                                           
                                              Fig. 17 Great Britain. Iron copy of medal by Karl Goetz depicting the sinking of the Lusitania in box of issue, 1915. (ANS 1990.26.15, gift of George M. Golden)
                                                                                                                                       
Fig. 18 Germany. Iron satirical medal by Karl Goetz, 1916. (ANS 1978.38.226, gift of Ira, Lawrence, and Mark Goldberg) 59 mm.
                                                                    Fig. 19 Germany. AE plaque by Ludwig Gies depicting the sinking of the Lusitania, 1915. (ANS 1934.145.55, gift of Wayte Raymond) 95 mm.
                                                                                         
                                      Figs. 20 and 21. Two poster stamps of a series of four produced by Winox Ltd, England, 1915, depicting the sinking of the Lusitania and victims of Kultur. The other two stamps in the series depicted the execution of Edith Cavell (using the same image as in Fig. 3) and victims of Zeppelin bombings.
Such medallic discourse was far less subtle in
the case of German-Allied interaction. The
reverse of a portrait medal of General Alexander
von Kluck (Fig. 22), commander of the German
First Army, for example, was appropriated,
modified, and reinterpreted by the British for
propaganda purposes (Fig. 23 note the burning
city below the horse). The most notorious
example, however, of this type of appropriation
was the British reinterpretation of Goetzs
Lusitania medal, which was extensively copied in
Britain, with slight modifications, and
distributed with a special box and pamphlet (Fig.
17). In 1916, Goetz responded to this symbolic
hijacking with another medal (Fig. 18), this one
depicting Arthur Balfour, first lord of the
British Admiralty, using the misconstrued
Lusitania medal to make a case against Germany in
the presence of neutral Sweden (the Latin
inscription above Balfour is from the Roman
satirist Juvenal 1.30 and is translated as It
is hard not to write satire).
                                                                                           
Fig. 22 Germany. AR medal depicting General Alexander von Kluck, 1915. (ANS 1916.187.19, purchase) 34 mm.
                                                                                           
Fig. 23 Great Britain. Silvered AE satirical medal, 1916. (ANS 0000.999.42643) 36 mm.
Not only the overall volume of medals produced
but also discourses such as these attest to the
real importance of medals during the war as
vehicles of private artistic expression and more
importantly as instruments of state propaganda.
At times, of course, the line between the two
blurred. Belgium Deserted After the Germans
surrender in November 1918, those Belgians who
had lived in exile in Britain, France, and the
Netherlands returned home to find their country
utterly devastated. Besides the destruction that
the fighting itself had wrought, the Germans had
systematically picked the country clean,
thoroughly dismantling factories, tearing up
railroad tracks, and shipping it all, along with
any livestock, back to Germany. The intent was to
deny Belgium an economic future, and, at least
for the immediate future, they succeeded.
Unemployment in Belgium was at 80 percent in
1919, and food, clothing, and housing were
scarce. As was the case throughout the war,
mostly through the Commission for Relief in
Belgium organized by the future U.S. President
Herbert Hoover (Fig. 25), the United States
provided substantial relief through donations and
aid, but even this continued kindness was not
nearly enough. As the Versailles Treaty
negotiations got underway in early 1919, it soon
became clear that the British and French had no
intentions of allowing the Belgians to sit at the
table with the grown-ups. As Sally Marks observed
(1981 119), It was taken for granted that small
states would be treated like small children and
that great issues should be settled by great
powers. At stake were the substantial claims of
reparations that Belgium had made against
Germany, which were desperately needed to rebuild
the countrys infrastructure and economy. The
fiercely nationalistic British premier, David
Lloyd George, however, fought hard to keep the
negotiations closed to small countries,
particularly Belgium, and quite openly sought to
gain more reparations for his own country at
Belgiums expense. Interventions by the Belgian
king, the only royal to visit the negotiations,
and by U.S. ambassadors eventually helped to win
for the Belgians most of what they wanted, but
not before the Belgian public had grown
righteously indignant. Lloyd Georges actions
were particularly offensive to the Belgians
because the British and French had used the rape
of Belgium as a central metaphor for the War
(Gullace 2002 24), using it also to set the high
moral tone for the Allied cause. It was
frequently repeated that the invasion of neutral
Belgium was not only an unprovoked act of
aggression, so typical of Kultur, but also a
gross violation of internationally sanctioned
treaty law, and thus a barbarian affront to
civilization. The atrocities that followed only
generated further sympathies for the country, and
the Allies assured Belgium that the avenging and
restoration of that country was a primary
objective of the fight. All of this, apparently,
was now forgotten. A headline from the newspaper
De Standaard summed up the resentment in
Brussels Belgium Deserted and Humiliated by Its
Allies (quoted from Marks 1981 198).
                                                                                          
Fig. 24 France. Nickel galvano of Edith Cavell by Georges-Henri Prudhomme, 1915. (Jonathan Kagan collection) 200 mm.
The Meaning of a Memory It was within this
political, social, and economic context that
Bonnetain produced his medal of Edith Cavell and
Marie Depage. While on the surface a
straightforward commemorative piece for two lost
colleagues, the medals greater context meant
that it carried an embedded symbolic load. The
inscription 1915/ Remember! sought to steer
this symbolism toward narrow(er) interpretations.
Taken as a whole, the medal immediately recalled
the martyrdom of Cavell and the sinking of the
Lusitania, but from a decidedly Belgian
perspective (much as the Victor Peter plaque,
Fig. 2, offered a French perspective on the two
events). While Cavell was a universal symbol of
martyrdom, albeit with deep Belgian ties, Depage
was far from being a universal symbol for the
Lusitania. As the wife of a high-profile doctor
who turned politician after the war, Depage
likely achieved notoriety as the most important
Belgian to die on the ship. Thus using her to
represent the Lusitania tragedy would obviously
have greater significance for Belgians than it
would for others.
                                                                                           
Fig. 25 Belgium. AE medal commemorating the Commission for Relief in Belgium by George Petit, 1916. (ANS 0000.999.75868) 37 mm.
Working at the tail end of World War I medallic
production, Bonnetain would certainly have been
aware of propaganda medals portraying female
victims of Kultur, and was likely aware of other
works dealing directly with his subject. This
awareness would have had influence on his own
work and would therefore place his medal in
discourse with others. While we cannot be
entirely sure that Bonnetain was aware of
Prudhommes 1915 portrait of Cavell (Fig. 24),
it seems almost certain, given the close
similarities in dress, general style, and
lettering between the two works. Bonnetains
response was to develop a portrait far less
optimistic and more idealized than Prudhommes,
but still following his use of the traditional
format of profile portraiture, which offered a
dignified, less sensationalist way of dealing
with the subject, compared to what could be
expected on more typical propaganda medals. This
raised the level of discourse above the obvious
and unsophisticated the emotional content would
be less evident and more controlled. But whereas
one can picture Prudhommes confident, almost
smiling Cavell voicing her famous pre-execution
words of forgiveness (I realize that patriotism
is not enough. I must have no hatred or
bitterness towards anyone), this is not the case
for Bonnetains stern lady, who looks far less
forgiving. Moreover, while Prudhommes portrait
appears quite faithful to photographs of the
matronly Cavell, Bonnetain has softened her
features, making her appear younger (cp. Fig. 26,
the same would be the case for Depage too), thus
aligning Cavell (and Depage) with the typically
younger female victims in Allied propaganda (see,
for example, the treatment of Cavell in Figs. 3,
8-11). In subtle ways, Bonnetain has responded to
Prudhommes rather dispassionate work by
introducing greater emotional tension, and, by
leveraging general familiarity with Cavell and
Depages fates, he has infused the neutral
territory of medallic portraiture with the
political bias and purpose of the propaganda
medal. This politicized reading of the image
finds support in the simple inscription on the
reverse.
Fig. 26. Portrait of Edith Cavell c. 1890, around age 25.                                                 
During the course of the war, remembering became
a collective, not private, act, and one that was
not left to the whimsy of individual choice. It
was an imperative to all. In France,
state-endorsed societies were organized at both
local and national levels to foster the memory of
German atrocities and sustain the sacred hatred
for the enemy. The catch phrase (not to mention
name) of the national Ligue Souvenez-Vous!, for
example, ne loubliez jamais! (never
forget!), commanded the pamphlet reader or
poster viewer to maintain the level of
anger/hatred necessary to achieve total victory.
Similar imperatives to remember and sustain
hatred were found in England and the United
States as well. The imperative on Bonnetains
medal clearly derives from this public and
politically oriented function of remembering, not
from the solemn and private realm of remembering
the dead. But with the war over and victory in
hand, the imperative on the medal would serve a
diminished political purpose if it was intended
to sustain anti-German feelings among the
Belgians their daily lives served that purpose
well enough. What was meant to be remembered, and
the function of that memory, is therefore less
than clear. A clue, however, is provided by the
inscription itself it is in English, rather than
Flemish or French, which indicates that the
intended audience was not necessarily the
Belgians but the British (or less likely the
Americans), suggesting a new realm of political
function. On one level, we can certainly
interpret the medal as a simple plea to remember
the dead plenty of medals were produced during
and after the war to mourn the death of soldiers
as a group (see Fig. 12-13). Rarely, however,
were individuals singled out, and even then only
those considered in some fashion heroes. Cavell
and Depage were not heroes, but carefully defined
feminine victims of Kultur, and their remembrance
served less to inspire by example than to instill
moral outrage, the outward expression of which
seems frozen on the faces of Bonnetains nurses.
But where, in 1919, was this outrage directed? A
suggestion offered here is that in their
commemoration, the Commission de lEcole belge
dinfirmières diplômées commissioned a medal that
also admonished the British for their disloyalty
toward a one-time ally. By re-presenting the
martyrdom of Cavell and the Lusitania tragedy
from the Belgian perspective, the Commission (and
Bonnetain) claimed these highly symbolic memories
for Belgium, which the British and others had
freely used for their own purposes during the
war. In the mode of Allied medallic propaganda,
they retooled and redirected the appropriated
memories back toward the British, demanding both
recognition and recollection of Belgiums current
and previous suffering. Their claim to the
memories meant that the Belgians could now
determine their meaning the imperative to
remember commanded the viewer not only to
remember the nurses but to remember the rape of
Belgium, and, perhaps most importantly, to
remember the many broken promises. I thank
François de Callataÿ, Jonathan Kagan, and David
Simpson for their assistance with this article.
Primary Sources Bailey, T. A., and P. B. Ryan.
1975. The Lusitania disaster an episode in
modern warfare and diplomacy. New York Free
Press. Gullace, N. F. 2002. The blood of our
sons men, women, and the renegotiation of
British citizenship during the Great War. New
York Palgrave Macmillan. Horne, J., and A.
Kramer. 2001. German atrocities, 1914. A history
of denial. New Haven, Conn. Yale University
Press. Marks, S. 1981. Innocent abroad. Belgium
at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. Chapel
Hill University of North Carolina Press.
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74
Collapsing Morale

• Europe 1917
• German soldiers -- 15 year olds
• Britain nearly bankrupt
• Propaganda cannot hide the bleak picture of
  casualties, military failures, troop mutinies
• 1917 Russian Revolution
• soldiers desert to join conflict at home
• Allies welcome revolution, hope Russia will
  become democratic
• 1918 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk between Russia and
  Germany

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76
1917 the New Western Front

• Germany can focus on the Western Front
• The United States enters the war
• Unrestricted submarine warfare
• Germany cuts back on sub attacks, begin again in
  1916
• Cultural Ties
• Language, democracy in France, American
  Revolution
• Zimmerman Note

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78
Making the World Safe for Democracy

• April 1917 US Declaration of War
• Wilson is idealistic
• Join the War to end all war
• US troops finally arrive in 1918, providing
  morale boost
• fresh soldiers and economic boost

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80
The End of War in Europe

• March 1918 major German attack (gain 40 miles)
• Argonne Offensive
• Sept Nov. 1918
• AEF troops
• Allied counter-attack pushes Germans back
• 200,000 casualties total
• September 1918 German generals admit war cannot
  be won

81
End of the War

• Central Powers sought peace based on Wilsons 14
  Points (believing they would get fair
  treatment)
• Germany and Austria-Hungary in revolution
• Widespread Riots
• Austria surrendered on Nov. 3
• Germany surrendered on Nov. 11
• Wilhelm II abdicates and flees to Holland

82
Costs of War

• Death and destruction
• 20 million
• Influenza Pandemic
• 20 million deaths worldwide
• Financial Burdens
• Overwhelming, leads to demand for reparations
• Political Turmoil
• Collapsed governments in R, A-H, G, Ottoman
  Empire
• Conservatives feared the spread of Socialism
  (Bolshevism)
• Colonial unrest hopes for independence

83
Paris Peace Conference

• Wilson is a symbol of hope and confidence,
  bringer of democracy
• 14 Points should be basis for peace
• Self-determination and democracy
• Big Three
• Wilson
• David Lloyd George
• Wants Germany treated
  harshly, rebuild an
  England fit for heroes
• Georges Clemenceau
• Weaken and punish
  Germany

84
14 Points

• Diplomacy shall always be honest and in the
  public view
• Freedom of navigation upon the seas
• Removal of economic barriers and the
  establishment of equality of trade
• Reduction of armaments
• Impartial adjustment of all colonial claims
• The opportunity for Russia to become free
• Neutrality of Belgium restored

85
14 Points

• France territory should be freed and the invaded
  portions restored
• Readjustment of the frontiers of Italy
• Austria-Hungary should have autonomous
  development
• Occupied territories restored Serbia accorded
  free and secure access to the sea
• Creation of an independent Polish state
• A general association of nations must be formed

86
Paris Peace Conference

• Vittorio Orlando (Italy) insists Allies honor
  secret treaty
• Self-determination is nearly impossible
• Over-lapping territory
• Wilson must compromise many of his 14 points
• League of Nations
• Collective security
• Will eventually solve all conflict

87
Treaty of Versailles

• June 1919
• Germany accepts all blame for starting war
• Consequences
• Reparations -- over 30 billion dollars
• Military is limited in size
• Alsace and Lorraine returned to France
• Eastern borders decreased
• No German colonies

88
Treaty of Versailles

• Mandates for former colonies and territories of
  the Central Powers
• League of Nations U.S. Senate failed to ratify
  resulting in U.S. isolationism

89
Treaty of Versailles

• Europe redrawn
• creation of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and
  Yugoslavia
• Germany split in two by Polish corridor (East
  Prussia separated from rest of Germany)
• Gives Poland access to the Baltic Sea

90
Treaty of St. Germaine

• 1919
• Treaty between Allies and Austria-Hungary
• Empire was to be dissolved.
• Austria must recognize Hungary, Czechoslovakia,
  Poland, and Yugoslavia
• Reparations
• Austria is forbidden from entering into ANY
  alliance with Germany

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92
Results of the War

• End to political dynasties
• Hapsburg dynasty removed in Austria (had lasted
  500 years)
• Romanov dynasty removed in Russia (had lasted 300
  years)
• Hohenzollern dynasty removed in Germany (had
  lasted 300 years)
• Ottoman Empire destroyed (modern empire had
  lasted over 500 years)

93
Results of WWI

• Russian Revolution first communist country
• German resentment of harsh Versailles Treaty
  doomed the Weimar Republic
• Self-Determination in Eastern Europe
• New nations Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland
  newly independent, Czechoslovakia,
  Austria-Hungary divided, Yugoslavia (dominated by
  Serbian interests)
• U.S. became the worlds leading creditor and
  greatest producer due to the drain of Europes
  resources.
• Unresolved differences lead to WWII

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95
Yugoslavia

• In 1917, Allies declare intent to crate an
  independent nation state Unified Kingdom of
  South Slavs
• Corfu Agreement
• Represented Serbs, Slavs, and Croats not
  Bosnians or Montenegrins
• Serbia is like Sardinia, Prussia
• New capital is Belgrade (in Serbia)
• Ethnic conflict continues
• 1929 Autocratic dictatorship under King
  Alexander

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97
Post War Widespread Dissatisfaction

• Mandate System
• Territory in Middle East administered by western
  powers who have their own interests in mind
• Unfulfilled Goals
• Italy does not get land promised to it
• Japans claims on China not recognized
• Russia resents Poland and Baltic states
• Global Peace?
• 40 nations join League, but not US
• Power to negotiate but not legislate
• League is powerless to prevent war

98
France

• The Joyless Victors
• Economy is greatly weakened
• After the Treaty, France tried to keep Germany
  weak
• Eastern Alliances
• The Little Entente France allies with
  Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Romania ally to
  protect against Hungary
• Sends troops to the Ruhr Valley when Germany
  could not make reparations

99
Great Britain

• Economic difficulties after the war
• Unemployment rates never drop below 10
• Government controls most major industries
• Government cuts wages in key industries to make
  products competitive
• Coal industry most affected
• 1926 General Strike by workers to raise wages
• Most believe owners are still profiting, due to
  great demand for coal after the war.

100
The Subsidized Mine Owner
101
Czechoslovakia

• Became a democratic nation after WWI
• Created strong economy, strong middle class,
  continuation of traditional values
• Thomas Masaryk
• Big Problem Minority groups (Germans in
  Sudetenland) are shut out

102
Austria and Hungary

• Both have conservative governments
• Hungary earned separation from Austria after WWI
• By 1932 Austria is strongly anti-Semitic

103
1914 Irish Home Rule

• WWI suspended enactment of Home Rule bill
• 1916 Easter Rebellion uprising of militant
  Irish republicans who want independence, not just
  Home Rule
• 6 days of combat against British
• Failed, but seen as an emotional Success
• Irish Republican Army (IRA) is born, becomes
  leading force in independence movement
• By the end of WWI, most Irish voters side with
  the militant republicans and support physical
  force

104
Michael Collins

• By age of 19, had joined secret societies for
  Irish independence
• Member of radical group, Sinn Fein
• Elected representative from Ireland, but will not
  sit in British parliament. Instead, joins others
  in the Irish parliament in Dublin

105
Anglo-Irish Treaty

• 1921 Creates Irish Free State
• Government of Ireland Act Northeast Ireland
  (Ulster) has the opportunity to opt out
• Collins and others hope to make Northern Ireland
  too small to be economically viable

106
Republic of Ireland

• 1949 All political bonds with the United
  Kingdom are severed when Irish Free State
  proclaimed itself the Republic of Ireland
• Ulster became Northern Ireland part of a
  Protestant kingdom, but with a large Catholic
  population who prefer to be independent

107
January 1972

• Londonderry
• 26 protestors shot by British soldiers
• 14 died on Bloody Sunday
• Marks the beginning of 3 decades of The
  Troubles
• UDA reject unification
• Loyalist (protestant)
  

108

• Protestants dedicated to destroying Catholics in
  Ulster