ww ipt 2
TRANSCRIPT
The Eastern Front
• Much more mobile more than the West– But loss of life still very
high– 1915: 2.5 million
Russians killed, captured, or wounded
The Eastern Front
• Germany and Austria Hungary joined by Bulgaria in Sept. 1915– Attacked and eliminated
Serbia from war
THE TREATY OF BREST-LITOVSK
Vladimir Lenin was the leader of the Russian Soviet Socialist Party.
Russians were weary of World War I and the enormous sacrifices they endured. This
discontentment led to popular support of the Bolshevik Party. Its leader, Vladimir Lenin,
promised that if he were elected to a position of power, he would remove Russian forces from the
war. After winning the election in November 1917, Lenin pursued an armistice with Germany. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed, and Russia was no longer a combatant nation. The treaty
granted the Central Powers control of territory that included Finland and the Baltic provinces.
Lecture 3:
U. S. Involvement; WHY??
U.S. Involvement
• The U.S. declared war on Germany in April 1917.• Many reasons: unrestricted submarine warfare
(Lusitania), Zimmerman telegram, British propaganda, the Russian Revolution
• With America’s entry, the war was transformed (at least according to Woodrow Wilson) into a moral crusade: an ideological conflict between democracy and autocracy.
• He had been able to claim that because of the revolution in Russia.
· However, Britain and Germany set up blockades around the British and German coasts.
Freedom of the Seas
· The U.S., as a neutral nation, claimed the right to trade with either side in the war.
· German submarines, called U-boats, torpedoed enemy ships and neutral ships trading with the enemy.
German Submarine WarfareU-Boats
• Germany suffered because of the British blockade, so it developed small submarines called U-boats to strike back at the British.
• U-boats are named after the German for “undersea boat.”
• In February 1915 the German government declared the waters around Great Britain a war zone, threatening to destroy all enemy ships.
• Germany warned the U.S. that neutral ships might be attacked.
• The German plan for unrestricted submarine warfare angered Americans, and Wilson believed it violated the laws of neutrality.
• Wilson held Germany accountable for American losses.
America’s Involvement
• In 1915, Germany sank a luxury passenger ship to Great Britain called the Lusitania, killing many, including 128 Americans
• Americans were outraged, and Wilson demanded an end to unrestricted submarine warfare.
• The Germans agreed to attack only supply ships but later sank the French passenger ship Sussex, killing 80 people.
• Wilson threatened Germany again, and Germany issued the Sussex pledge, promising not to sink merchant vessels “without warning and without saving human lives.”
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What did it take to get the US involved?
1. Blockades
•In May, 1915 Germany told Americans to stay off of British ships
•They could/would sink them
· In 1915, a German submarine torpedoed the Lusitania, a British passenger ship, killing approximately 1,200 people, including 128 Americans.
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What did it take to get the US involved?•Lusitania torpedoed, sinking with 1200 passengers and crew (including 128 Americans)
•Was eventually found to be carrying 4200 cases of ammunition
German Propaganda Justifying Lusitania sinking
· Americans were infuriated with the destruction of the Lusitania.
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What did it take to get the US involved?
•The US sharply criticized Germany for their action
•Germany agreed not to sink passenger ships without warning in the future
Note in Bottle After Lusitania Disaster
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What did it take to get the US involved?
2. Unlimited Submarine Warfare •1917 Germany announced “unlimited submarine warfare” in the war zone
Why? Otherwise their blockade would not be successful
Re-Election, Espionage, and War
The U.S. Declares War• Wilson continued to resist.• Russians forced the czar to give up absolute power and formed a more democratic government, which Americans liked.
• Then German U-boats sank three American merchant ships, and Wilson’s cabinet convinced him to declare war, which Congress approved.
• Wilson promised not to go to war, and after his re-election in 1916 he began to work for a settlement of “peace without victory.”
• When Germany restarted unrestricted warfare, the U.S. ended diplomatic relations and started installing guns on merchant ships.
The Zimmermann Note
• German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmermann sent a telegram to a German official in Mexico proposing an alliance between Germany and Mexico.
• The Zimmermann Note asked for Mexico’s help in exchange for its lost Southwest territory.
• The Mexicans declined, but the British decoded the note, and Americans called for war.
On April 6, 1917, the United States joined the Allies. Now they needed to raise an army, train them, and ship supplies and troops.
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What did it take to get the US involved?
3. Zimmerman Note
•US intercepted a note from Germany to Mexico,
•It promised Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona back in return for an alliance
– secret message from Germany to Mexico urging Mexico to attack the U.S. if the U.S. declared war on Germany
Moving Toward War
Zimmermann telegram:
– Germany promised to help Mexico regain land it lost to the U.S. in the Mexican War.
* The U.S. declared war on the Central Powers in 1917.
Zimmermann Telegram: Decoded Message
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What did it take to get the US involved?
•Zimmerman Note + the sinking of 4 unarmed American ships led to a declaration of war
Americans in the Trenches
The Spanish Flu (Influenza)1918
• Struck in the trenches of the western front and then flourished when soldiers returned home.
• It became the greatest public health disaster of modern history– The pandemic killed between 22 and 30 million people
worldwide, or roughly twice as many as had died during the fighting
– In Spain, it killed roughly 40 percent of the population (8 million), thus giving it the name of the Spanish Influenza.
– British colonial troops carried it to India where it killed 12 million.
– No disease, plague, war, famine, or natural catastrophe in world history had killed so many people in such a short time.
Influenza Spreads—Did you know?
• Three waves of a severe flu epidemic broke out between 1918 and 1919 in Europe and in America.
• Of all American troops who died in World War I, half died from influenza.
• On the Western Front, crowded and unsanitary trenches helped flu spread among troops, then to American military camps in Kansas and beyond.
• This strain of influenza was deadly, killing healthy people within days, and during the month of October 1918, influenza killed nearly 200,000 Americans.
• Panicked city leaders halted gatherings, and people accused the Germans of releasing flu germs into the populace.
By the time it passed, over 600,000 Americans lost their lives.
Disease, Influenza and Pneumonia
Major Personalities• General John J. Pershingwas a general officer in the United States Army. Pershing is
the only person to be promoted in his own lifetime to the highest rank ever held in the United States Army—General of the Armies
Marshal Ferdinand Foch• general in the French army during World War I and was made
Marshal of France in its final year: 1918
• chosen as supreme commander of the Allied armies, a position that he held until 11 November 1918, when he accepted the German request for an armistice.
Field Marshal Earl Haig:Earl Haig is a title in the Peerage of the UK
• Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig• He commanded the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) from 1915
to the end of the War. Most notably he was commander during the Battle of the Somme, the 3rd Battle of Ypres and the series of
victories leading to the German surrender in 1918.
Lt. Gen. Erich von Ludendorff,1865-1937
• German Army officer
1916-he ran Germany's war effort in World War I until his resignation in October 1918.
Hindenburg, Kaiser Wilhelm II, and Ludendorff in January, 1917
Paul von Hindenburg• was a German field marshal, statesman, and politician, and served as
the 2nd President of Germany from 1925 to 1934• Was 84 years old when elected President!!• Chief of the General Staff from 1916• His deputy was Ludendorff in WW I• The famed zeppelin, Hindenburg, that was destroyed by fire in 1937
had been named in his honor
Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence
• known professionally as T. E. Lawrence, was a British Army officer renowned especially for his liaison role during the Arab Revolt of 1916–18. 1918 British armies defeated the Ottoman empire once and for all!
• Lawrence of Arabia, a title popularized by the 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia based on his life.
Society during the War• Creation of planned economies• People everywhere supported their countries (nationalism!)• Men were drafted & women took their places in the work force.
Female nurses & doctors, served on the war front.• Suffragettes put their campaign on hold during the
war….immediately after 1918…they go the right to voted in Britain, Austria, & Germany…US?
• Daylight Saving Time was used for the 1st time! Though mentioned by Benjamin Franklin in 1784, the modern idea of daylight saving was first proposed in 1895 by George Vernon Hudson] and it was first implemented during the First World War. Many countries have used it at various times since then
Germany• Had the most planned economy & the most advanced
chemical industry• They had successfully created an array of synthetic
products, from rubber, to nitrates(for fertilizer, or explosives)
• Walter Rathenau, Jewish industrialist, headed a German program to utilize everything!
• Will serve as as Foreign Minister
of Germany during the Weimar Republic.
Total War• “…if all the treasures of our soil that agriculture and
industry can produce are used exclusively for the conduct of War…all other considerations must come second.” --General Hindenburg
British Writers• Siegfried Sassoon & Wilfred OwenWrote poetry around themes of irony & bitterness
Other writer’sOswald Spengler(German)-Decline of the West in 1919book introduces itself as a 'Copernican overturning' and rejects the Euro-centric view
of history, especially the division of history into the linear "ancient-medieval-modern" rubric] According to Spengler the meaningful units for history are not epochs but whole cultures which evolve as organisms. He acknowledges eight high cultures: Babylonian, Egyptian, Chinese, Indian, Mexican (Mayan/Aztec), Classical (Greek/Roman), Arabian, Western or "European-American". Cultures have a limited lifespan of some thousand years. The final stage of each culture is, in his word use, a 'civilization'.
Other Writers
• Thomas Mann(German)-1929 Nobel Prize laureate The Magic Mountain
• widely considered to be one of the most influential works of 20th century German literature
• novel about disease, not merely of individuals, but also of a whole age. Where disease appears as the prerequisite of spiritual growth, Mann plays his favorite theme of the polarity between spirit and life; the transcendence of this polarity in the name of humanism is central to the novel. Where disease stands as the symptom of the moral deterioration of the capitalist and bourgeois order, Mann is the modern writer who must concern himself with the issues of his time. To attempt "to see the real in the spiritual and the spiritual in the real" was a fundamental maxim of his.
The end of the war!
• The German Defeat in the Great War!• No other war had changed the map of Europe
so dramatically—four empires disappeared: the German, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman and the Russian.
• Four defunct dynasties, the Hohenzollerns, the Habsburg, Romanovs and the Ottomans together with all their ancillary aristocracies, all fell after the war
ARMISTICE ENDS THE WAR
After a three days of negotiations, representatives of the Allied Powers and
Germany signed the armistice on a railway carriage in Compiegne Forest on November 11, 1918. The expression “the
eleventh of the eleventh of the eleventh” is derived from this date. The armistice went
into effect at the eleventh hour, on the eleventh day, of the eleventh month. According to the armistice, German
troops were to leave Belgium, France, and the eastern bank of the Rhine. The
remainder of the German fleet was forced to surrender its weapons and ships to the Allied Powers. Germany also was forced to renounce its peace treaties with Russia
and Romania.
The armistice was reached on
November 11, 1918.
With the failure of the Ludendorf Offensive, and with the exhausted state of Germany, the German generals recognized that it was time to sue for peace with the Allies. The Kaiser was forced to abdicate on the 8th November and a new democratic republic was established.
· At 11 a.m. on November 11, 1918, Germany agreed to an armistice, ending World War I.
•11th day, 11th hour, of the 11th month!
Peace at Last
On 8th November 1918, Imperial Germany came to an end when a democratic republic was established. Though it was intended to have Wilhelm tried as a ‘war criminal’ he was eventually allowed to spend the rest of his life in exile in the Netherlands. He died in 1941.
The Costs of War• Loss of life
– 8.5 million soldiers died– 21 million were injured– Civilians were also victims of the war
• Starvation, disease and slaughter
• Economic loss– Estimated $338 billion – Cities, towns, farmlands and homes were also
destroyed
* Approximately 13 million people died and 20 million were wounded in the war.
GERMAN EAGLE (to German Dove): "Here, carry on for a bit, will you I'm feeling rather run down."
Germany• Nov. 9, 1918, Kaiser Wilhelm II is forced to step
down• Germany declares themselves a republic…the
Weimar Republic
parliamentary republic established in 1919
“a brittle compromise agreement between American utopianism and European paranoia — too conditional to fulfill the dreams of the former, too tentative to alleviate the fears of the latter” – Kissinger
The Treaty!!• Paris Peace conference• meeting of the Allied victors following the end of
World War I to set the peace terms for Germany and other defeated nations, and to deal with the empires of the defeated powers following the Armistice of 1918
• took place in Paris in 1919 and involved diplomats from more than 30 countries
Coincidental Dates
• Arrival of Clemenceau, Lloyd George, and Wilson on January 18, 1919Anniversary of the beginning of the Second Reich in 1871
• Signed June 28, 19195 Years to the day of Ferdinand’s death
David Lloyd-George [Great Britain]
Orlando [Italy] Georges Clemenceau [France]
Woodrow Wilson [USA]
The Big Four
David Lloyd George• The prime minister of Great
Britain.• He was a realist.• An experienced politician who
realised there must be compromise.
• The people of Britain wanted revenge.
• He knew this would lead to war but he represented the people.
Georges Clemenceau• Premier of France.• Clemenceau had seen France
invaded by Germany in 1870 and 1914, he wanted to make sure this would never happen again.
• France had suffered greatly during the War they wanted compensation and revenge.
• Uncompromising.
Woodrow Wilson• President of the USA.• Wilson was an idealist and
reformer, who wanted to build a better and more peaceful world.
• He didn’t want the Treaty to be too harsh as he believed this would lead to revenge.
• He wanted to set up a peace keeping body – The League of Nations
• Wilson did not understand the deep feelings of hatred in Europe.
Wilson’s Fourteen Points
• In a speech to Congress before the war ended, President Wilson outlined a vision of a “just and lasting peace.”
• His plan was called the Fourteen Points, and among its ideas were—Open diplomacy, freedom of the seas, the removal of trade barriers, and the
reduction of military arms—A fair system to resolve disputes over colonies—Self-determination, or the right of people to decide their own political status and
form their own nations—Establishing a League of Nations, or an organization of countries working together
to settle disputes, protect democracy, and prevent future wars• The Fourteen Points expressed a new philosophy that applied progressivism to U.S.
foreign policy.• The Fourteen Points declared that foreign policy should be based on morality, not just
on what’s best for the nation.
Fourteen Points
• Created by Woodrow Wilson• First 5 points– Ended secret treaties– Freedom of seas– Free Trade– Reduced national armies and navies– Colonial claims
• Points 6-13– Readjustment of border changes for new nations
• What is self-determination?• What was the 14th point?
Vittorio Orlando• Italian Prime Minister.• Wanted land and territory
for Italy.• Self determination stopped
Italy getting the lands especially Fiume.
• Walked out of the meeting when he didn’t get his way in April 1919.
• Returned to sign the Treaty in May.
The Mood in 1919 Most countries felt Germany should pay for the damage and destruction caused by
the War. The countries of Europe were exhausted. Their economies and industries were in a poor state. Millions had died. Almost every family had lost a member in the fighting. Ordinary citizens faced shortages of food and medicine.
The Aims of the LeadersThere was disagreement about what the
conference was aiming to do.Some felt the aim was to punish Germany.Some wanted to cripple Germany so it
couldn’t start another war.Some felt the winning countries should be
rewarded.Some aimed for a just and lasting peace.
Terms of the Versailles Treaty(see class handout)
• G• A• R• G• L• E
"The Allied and Associated Governments affirm, and Germany accepts, the responsibility of Germany and her Allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associate Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of a war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her Allies."
Article 231
GERMANY ACCEPTED RESPONSIBILITY FOR STARTING THE WAR=Article 231
“G”
* Germany was an angry, humiliated nation, setting the stage for World War II.
Versailles Treaty
- Germany was forced to:
· take full blame for the war; Article 231
· completely disarm
· pay huge reparations to the Allies
· give up it’s colonies to the Allies
To do with Germany’s armed forces :
The German army was to be reduced to 100,000 men. It was not allowed to have tanks.
Germany was not allowed an airforce
The area known as the Rhineland was to be de-militarised
The Allies were to occupy the west bank of the Rhine for fifteen years
The German navy was to have no submarines or large battle-ships
“R”=REPARATIONS
Germany agreed to pay for the damage caused by her armies during the war. The sum she had to pay was later fixed at £6,600 million($33 Billion)
“G”= Germany Lost Land
Germany lost ALL of her overseas colonies
Alsace-Lorraine was given to France
The Rhineland was to be de-militarized
The Saar coalfields were given to France for fifteen years
The port of Danzig was made a Free City under the control of the League of Nations
“L”= League of Nations.
“E”=Extra points
• Forbade Anschluss(A union of Germany and Austria to create a 'Greater Germany', any attempt at an Anschluss was banned by this treaty, but Hitler drove it through anyway on March 13 1938)
• Estonia, Latvia, & Lituania, independent states
Wilson’s Plan for Peace
President Wilson’s goals for peace after World War I, known as the Fourteen Points, included the following.
· an end to secret agreements among nations
· formation of a League of Nations in order to protect the independence of all nations and settle international disputes
· freedom of the seas, free trade, and a limit on arms
· allow national groups self-determination
The Great War was to see the collapse of four continental empires. These were to be replaced by new nation states.
- Based on the goal of self-determination, many new nations were formed.
Examples: Finland, Poland, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia
Creation of New Nations
Austria-Hungary empire was destroyed and split into 4 independent nations.› Austria› Hungary› Czechoslovakia› Yugoslavia
• The Ottoman Empire lost most of their territory.
• The empire was split between Great Britain and France– Palestine– Iraq– Transjordan– Syria– Lebanon
Creation of New Nations cont’d
• Russia lost land too• Romania and Poland were given Russia
territory• Other nations were given their independence– Finland– Estonia– Latvia– Lithuania
Pre-WWI Ottoman Empire
Post WWI- Ottoman Empire
Fight over the Treaty
• President Wilson returned to the U.S. and presented the treaty to the Senate, needing the support of both Republicans and Democrats to ratify it.
• Wilson had trouble getting the Republican Congress’s support.
• The Senators divided into three groups:
• Reservationists thought the League of Nations charter requiring members to use force for the League conflicted with Congress’s constitutional right to declare war.
3. Reservationists, led by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, who would only ratify a revised treaty
2. Irreconcilables, who wanted outright rejection of U.S. participation in the League of Nations
1. Democrats, who supported immediate ratification of the treaty
UNITED STATES DOES NOT SIGN THE TREATY
• Wilson presented the Treaty of Versailles to the Senate. He was met with stiff opposition. The Republican leader of the Senate, Henry Cabot Lodge, was very suspicious of Wilson and his treaty. Article X of the League of Nations required the United States to respect the territorial integrity of member states.
• Many believed the League was the sort of entangling alliance the United States had avoided since George Washington's Farewell Address.
• Lodge sabotaged the League covenant by declaring the United States exempt from Article X. He attached reservations, or amendments, to the treaty to this effect. Wilson, bedridden from a debilitating stroke, was unable to accept these changes. He asked Senate Democrats to vote against the Treaty of Versailles unless the Lodge reservations were dropped. Neither side budged, and the treaty went down to defeat.
* In November of 1919 the Senate rejected the Versailles Treaty.
* Pres. Wilson refused to compromise on the treaty.
How did Germans React to the Treaty?
Germans thought the Treaty was a “diktat” : a dictated peace. They had not been invited to the peace conference at Versailles and when the Treaty was presented to them they were threatened with war if they did not sign it.
Most Germans believed that the War Guilt Clause was unjustified. The French and British had done just as much to start the war
The loss of territory and population angered most Germans who believed that the losses were too severe.
Many Germans believed the German economy would be crippled by having to pay reparations.
“A Peace Built on Quicksand”
• Was the Treaty of Versailles effective?• The United States rejected the treaty – They wanted to stay out of European affairs
• Others felt cheated by the treaty– Germany– Colonies in Asia and Africa – Japan – Italy
The Forgotten Allies • Japan
– Provided large amounts of war materials to the Allies
– Seized German possessions in the Pacific • Later given mandate over
these areas– Japan felt that they deserved
more– Proposed a “racial equality”
clause to the Treaty of Versailles• It was rejected
• Italy– Failed to annex land they
were promised by the British and French
– Italy felt like they were not being recognized enough for what they had given up during the war• “Mutilated Victory”
– Economic issues– Paved the way for fascism
Impact in Europe
• The effects of World War I in Europe were devastating.– European nations lost almost an entire generation of young men.– France, where most of the fighting took place, was in ruins.– Great Britain was deeply in debt to the U.S. and lost its place as the world’s
financial center.– The reparations forced on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles were crippling
to its economy.• World War I would not be the “war to end all wars,” as some called it.
– Too many issues were left unresolved.– Too much anger and hostility remained among nations.
• Within a generation, conflict would again break out in Europe, bringing the United States and the world back into war.
The Treaty of Versailles was signed on 28th June 1919. It officially ended the 1st World War. Many historians believe that it was a
major cause of the 2nd World War.Most Germans were horrified by the harshness of the Treaty.
There was anger amongst all groups in Germany, no matter what their political beliefs. Some German newspapers called for revenge
for the humiliation of Versailles.However anger was also directed against the government in
Germany. Already there was a myth growing in the country that the German army had been “stabbed in the back” by politicians…the so called “November Criminals”. Now these same politicians
had signed the “Diktat”, the dictated peace. The new democracy in Germany was now closely linked with the humiliation of Versailles.
Weaknesses of the Treaty• The Treaty of Versailles was written up by the allied powers without any input from
the Germans. • It failed to create a lasting peace.• The treaty was ruinous to Germany in many ways. It contained a "war- guilt clause"
under Article 231 which forced the Germans to accept all responsibility for damages caused to any of the allied countries during the war.
• It forced demilitarization of the Rhine, an elimination of the German air force and near elimination of the German navy, and a maximum allowance of 100,000 troops in the German army.
• The Germans were forced to give up the territories of Alsace and Lorraine to France, and a great deal of Prussian territory went to the new state of Poland.
• To be given the opportunity of signing a peace treaty at all, the Germans were forced to accept a democratic government.
What can be learned from this Treaty?
• Following the desire for revenge is ultimately UNSUCCESSFUL!
• Forcing one nation to assume all the blame is neither practical or fair!
• All nations should be included in the peace process!• If a major nation doesn’t support a treaty, the terms are
not on firm ground!• If a world peacekeeping body is going to be effective it
must have REAL POWER!
In Reality….
• Were the terms of the Treaty of Versailles actually carried out?
• See class handout!
Historical Interpretations
• Reasonable– Germany left mostly intact– Kinder than Brest-Litovsk
• Unreasonable– Reparations impossible– Polish corridor unfair
• Too much middle of the road• Helped Adolf Hitler ascend to power
THE TREATY WILL BE A MAJOR CAUSE 0F THE RISE OF HITLER
• Feelings like these led to a great deal of unrest in Germany in the years from 1919 to 1922.
• Returning soldiers formed armed gangs, the Freikorps, who roamed the streets attacking people. In March 1920, they tried to seize power.
• There was an attempted revolution by the Communists in January 1919, the Spartacist Revolt.
• There were many murders, including two government ministers, one of whom had signed the armistice.
• A number of extremist political parties were set up, including the German Workers' Party, which Adolf Hitler took over in 1921. He based his support upon the hatred that many Germans felt for the Treaty of Versailles.
AFTERMATH OF WORLD WAR I
future Chancellor of Germany, Adolf Hitler
In the aftermath of World War I, other conflicts that were a direct
result of the war took place. Germans believed the Treaty of Versailles was unfairly punitive. Adolf Hitler gained popularity in
Germany when he urged Germans to fight the injustices imposed on them
after World War I.
The collapse of the Ottoman Empire caused conflicts as nations sought to control territory in the Middle East.
These conflict would intensify throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century.
Reparations
• About $32 billion US dollars ($400B today)• Cut in half later in the year (still impossible)• John Maynard Keynes: The Economic
Consequences of the Peace (1920)– Would cripple German Economy– Would lead to European depression
• Weimar solution: print more money• 1923: French troops occupy Ruhr, German
industrial heart land, to force payment