CHAPTER 23THE BEGINNING OF THE TWENTIETH-

CENTURY CRISIS: World War I

Focus Questions• Q: What were the long-range and immediate

causes of World War I?• Nationalism: Archduke Ferdinand• Myth of Glorious War• Militarism & Submarine War fare• conscription• Imperial Rivalry: Treaty of Versailles, Mandates,

Paris Peace Conference• Internal Dissent & Propaganda: Defense of the

Realm Act

Imperial Rivalry• Greater Factor’s in rise of WWI -

competition– Economic rivalries– Military Expansion– Diplomatic maneuvering – International tensions

• Britain and Germany - struggle for world supremacy

• Myth of the swift and decisive war

Factors that led to WWI Imperial Rivalry (colonies, trade, expansion)

The Alliance SystemCentral Powers:

German, Austria-Hungary (Triple alliance)Italy alliance (1884) Ottomans joined in 1914

Allies: France and Russia - 1894 AllianceBritain and France – Entente Cordiale 1904Russia & Britain – Entente 1907Britain, France and Russia (Triple Entente) Colonial Soldiers: (Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa)Japan joined between 1914 – 1918Italy joined on the ally side in 1915America joined in 1917

1914

Factors that led to WWI

NationalismSlavic minorities in the Balkans

Socialist Labor MovementsWar deflects from internal revolution

Nationalism & Imperial Rivalry

• Rivalry between Austria-Hungary and Russia to dominate Balkan states– Serbia – supported by Russia

• Desire to create an independent Slavic state– Austria – wanted to maintain empire

• The Assassination of Francis Ferdinand, June 28, 1914, Sarajevo– Bosnian activist dedicated to realization of pan

Slavic kingdom

Factors that led to WWI

• Militarism & total war– Conscription (obligatory military service)

• Million man armies• New war technology• Influence of military leaders

– Military decisions taking precedence over political decisions or diplomacy

The Schlieffen Plan

based on the assumption of a 2 front war with France

and Russia

rapid invasion of France by Germany through neutral

Belgium.

Summer 1914 - 1915

• The Great War• Illusions

– Propaganda encouraged nationalism – Belief in swift and glorious war

• Stalemate– Trench Warfare immobilized French & German

armies for 4 years– 1915 Russia ended participation with 2.5 million

killed, captured or wounded

The Excitement of War© Courtesy of Archives Larousse (Moreau), Librairie Larousse, Paris, France

Myth of Victorious War

• In the first 3 months of the war– (August 1914) the original British army was

wiped out. – The British press

• Impression of victory

– German press • “All quiet on the western front.”

– 1917 the French military • Mutinies

Unprecedented Warfare

• Victory Not Swift• Two camps evenly matched • New technologies and methods

of warfare • Tanks• trench warfare

– rat infested –disease

• airplanes• barbed wire

German’s in a Machine Gun Nest– Mortar batteries– Heavy artillery– Chemical warfare (1915)

© Getty Images

© Getty Images

1916‑1917: The Great Slaughter

Trenches –

10 months 700,000 men dead in Verdun over a few miles

World War I, 1914–1918

British troops wait for the signal to attack

© Archives Charmet/The Bridgeman Art Library

Devastation & Carnage

• 8.5 million soldiers died, with 17 million wounded

• total casualties military and civilian reached 37 million.

• Europe lost an entire generation of young men, leaving behind an entire nation of young widows.

The Widening of the War

• 1. A Global Conflict– 1914 central powers included:– Ottoman empire, Germany, Bulgaria & Austria-

Hungary– 1914 Russia, GB, France and Japan allied

Soldiers from Around the World•Colonial Soldiers: 80-100,000’s Africans killed or injured in Europe or died as laborers

© Bettmann/CORBIS

German Possessions in Africa, 1914

1914-1916 GB moved to take German possessions in Africa (Togoland, Cameroons, Southwest Africa and German East Africa)

Imperial Spoils of War

German Possessions in the Pacific, 1914

Japan seized German territories in Asia:China, Marshal, Mariana and Caroline Islands

New Zealand & Australia Seized:

New Guinea & Bismarck Archipelago

Imperial Spoils of War

Sykes–Picot Agreement, 1916

• a secret agreement between France & the UK• Defined proposed spheres of influence in the

Arab provinces of the Ottoman empire– areas of future British and French control or

influence

The Middle East

in 1919

Factors of America’s entering into War

1. Strong economic ties with Britain• 800 million dollars a year in exports • 170 million to Germany and Austria-Hungary

2. Shared culture and language3. Economic Boom for the United states in providing

food, clothing and war supplies and equipment to France and Britain • American business and investors had a direct stake in an

Allied victory

Critical Perspectives• Anti-Imperialist and Socialist: Imperialist

war– advanced capitalist countries of Europe were

fighting over boundaries, colonies, spheres of influence

• Alsace-Lorraine, The Balkans, Africa and the middle east.

• Imperialist: Economic necessity – 1914 recession in the U.S.

• business depressed, farm prices deflated, employment serious,…

War Profits

• 1915 war orders for the allies stimulated the economy– by April 1917 more than 2 billion worth of goods

had been sold to the allies. Prosperity depended on foreign markets

• 1897: 700 Million in exports• by 1914 3 ½ billion in exports

– Even secretary of State, an anti-imperialist William Jennings Bryan advocated the righteous conquest of foreign markets.

Factors Continued…

4. British Blockade on German Ports (attempt to starve Germans into submission)

• America did not challenge its right to trade with Germany • Violated American neutrality• protested the blockade, created a recession in the US.

5. U-boat or submarine warfare • Combat British control of the seas• Flow of US goods to the allies.

Lusitania, 1915

• Significance of the sinking of the Lusitania– Brought public opinion in line with government

action– People supported a war they collectively did not

previously– In 1915 Germany suspended submarine warfare,

Germanys return to submarine warfare in 1917 led to Americas entry into the war

Germany’s Escalation of Aggression

• Beginning in 1918, Germany’s aggression against the allies began to escalate – United States entered into the war to reinforce

British lines• Allied powers won

• Germany asked for an armistice to be followed by peace negotiations based on Wilson’s 14 points

Wilson’s 14 points

• “Peace without victory” campaign won him re-election in 1916.– Culminated 14 points policy – Proposed a new world order

• All nations, weak and powerful, could participate as equals in the world.

Paris Peace Conference

• Wilson led the American delegation of the Paris Peace Conference

• 14 points– Code of conduct that embraced free trade,

freedom of the seas, open diplomacy, disarmaments, and resolution of disputes through mediation

League of Nations

• function as an international parliament and judiciary• establish rules of international behavior• resolve disputes between nations through rational

and peaceful means• nine member executive council• power to punish aggressor nations through

economic isolation and military retaliation• Due to opposition, congress failed to ratify the treaty

The Big Three

• Conference controlled by • Wilson• David Lloyd George of Britain• Georges Clemenceau of France

• France and Britain refused to include most of the 14 points into the peace treaty. They wanted to punish Germany.

The Big Four at Paris•David Lloyd George of Britain, Vittorio Orlando of Italy, Georges Clemenceau of France, and Woodrow Wilson of the United States © Getty Images

Treaty of Versailles (1919)• Awarded portions of Germany to Denmark, Poland

and Czechoslovakia– German territorial losses included the return of Alsace

and Lorraine to France and sections of Prussia to the new Polish state.

– German land west and as far as 30 miles east of the Rhine was established as a demilitarized zone

• disarmed Germany (all but 100,000)• forced admission of responsibility for the war• reparations of 33 billion dollars

Territorial Changes in Europe and the Middle East After World War I

The Home Front: The Impact of Total War

• 1. Political Centralization and Economic Regimentation – Draft/conscription– Mobilization of all resources– Price, wage, rent controls– Rationing– Nationalization of transportation systems

and industries

Socialist party Gains

• America, – 1917 up to 20,000 farmers protested the war, the

draft and profiteering. – It began to gain in strength rapidly.– Politically in municipal elections of 1917

socialists made gains.

The Home Front: The Impact of Total War

• 2. Public Order and Public Opinion– By 1916 casualties decreased public opinion– Government responded with expansion of police

powers and Propaganda against mounting opposition

• Britain DORA Defense of the Realm Act– Public authorities arrested dissenters as traitors– Newspapers censored– Publications suspended

British Recruiting

Poster•Propaganda pressured men to volunteer•By 1916 Britain resorted to compulsory military service

The Art Archive/Gianni Dagli Orti

Quieting Dissent

• France, – 1917 suspended civil Liberties

• America, – CPI (Committee of Public Information) campaigns

of 1917 and 1918– Espionage Act 1917– Sedition Act of 1918

Suppressing Dissent

• Espionage Act 1917– Heavy fines and 20 years in prison in

obstructing the war effort• Sedition Act 1918

– based on state laws designed to suppress labor radicals

• severe penalties for speaking or writing against the draft, bond sales, or war production or for criticizing government personnel or policies

• Prosecuted for writing or uttering any statement that could be construed as profaning the flag, constitution or military

Committee on Public Information

• 1917 Wilson - CPI – George Creel

• Goal “fight for the minds of men, for the conquest of heir convictions”

• publicize and popularize the war

• unprecedented propaganda campaign – “to make the world safe for democracy”– Self-determination of Nations

Renewed Protest

• Demanding U.S. live up to its ideals at home

– Industrial democracy– Women’s suffrage– Deliverance of African Americans from second class

citizenship– Ethnic groups – opportunity for success

The Home Front: The Impact of Total War

• 3. Women in the War Effort– Women assumed men’s jobs– 1, 345, 000 women entered workforce in Britain

• 1919 650, 000 unemployed, wages decreased for those who remained

– 1918 in Germany 38% of Krupp armaments workers were women

• Suffrage extended to women in Germany, Austria, Britain and America following the war

Wilson’s 14 Points & Paris Peace Conference

• Wilson’s 14 points – “self-determination” of nations

• 1919, Paris Peace Conference– “Big Three”

• George Lloyd• George Clemenceau • Woodrow Wilson

• League of Nations• Great Britain & France

– Right to rule former territories as mandates

» German Territories in Africa

» Ottoman Turkish lands in the Middle East

A Mandates

• Middle East• Almost ready for

independence– Advanced politically

and economically enough for provisional independence to be granted

• Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon

• Balfour declaration 1917 & creation of Israel

B MandatesNeeded Several generations of

“tutelage”Classification was constructed by European and United States Delegations

Based on perceptions of degree of inferiority of particular non-Western societies

The degree of deviance from Western Standards

Togoland (French West Africa)Kamerun (French & British mandates) German East Africa (British Tanganyika,

Rwanda, Burundi)

Intellectual Currents

• Social Darwinism– Herbert Spencer

• Darwin’s theory of biological evolution applied to competition among cultures, nations, people

• White Mans Burden– Rudyard Kipling

• Anglo Saxon Movement– Woodrow Wilson– Kaiser Wilhelm II

C mandates To Britain

Pacific unprepared for independence in the foreseeable future

Nambia given class C mandate to the Union of South Africa in 1922

New Guinea mandated to Australia

Western Samoa to New Zealand

North- Western Pacific Isand to Japan