WORLD WAR I

1. WORLD WAR I THE WAR TO END ALL WARS- THE WAR TO MAKE THE WORLD SAFE FOR DEMOCRACY- OVER THERE, OVER THERE!

2. Causes of the Great War • “Discussions of causes, like so many other things in history are constructions after the event. How many people in 1914 were really aware of all of the origins of the conflict that we abstract in leisure from the documents later?” Joachim Remak, 1971 • The “ISMS” • Nationalism • Militarism • Imperialism • Industrialism

3. European Powers Carve Out Their Place In The World • Nationalism – an extreme love of one’s country- had become a major factor in the politics of the world • Militarism – the pageantry, the parades, the colorful uniforms, and feeling that “our” country needed a large force to protect itself- led to many nations believing that they could use their military forces without severe consequences • Imperialism – the belief in the creation of an empire and the acquisition of colonies – was a major factor in the growth of Britain, France and Germany as world powers – and led to many secret treaties • Industrialism – the rise of industries led to a need for markets, resources, and labor • The Arms Race – The Europeans built up their navies and land forces to tremendous numbers. Sooner or later someone would have to use these forces to inflict their will on others

4. Secret Treaties Are Entered Into By The Major European Powers • These treaties were supposedly defensive in nature but their very existence made them offensive • The Triple Alliance was a self-defense treaty between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy • The Triple Entente was a self defense treaty between France, Britain, and Russia • Great Britain and Japan signed a secret defensive alliance

5. International Peace Conferences Had Failed Over The Last 20 Years • The Hague Conference of 1899 • Called by Czar Nicholas I of Russia • 26 nations attended including the United States • Set up a court to settle international disputes • Failed to disarm or slow the arms race

6. Peace Conferences - continued • The Hague Conference of 1907 • Czar Nicholas and Theodore Roosevelt called for it • 44 nations attended and approved the Drago Doctrine which said that the debts of nations should not be collected by force unless the debtor country did not abide by the rules laid down by the doctrine • This conference did not find any method to prevent war and there was no organization that stood for international peace

7. The Western World had a False Belief About The Possibility Of War • Many people in Europe believed that they could win a war because God was on their side and while the “other guy” might get killed they would not • Many Europeans and Americans felt that war was so terrible that no country would start a war or get into one – so if no one would start it then there would not be another big war – How realistic was this? • People on both sides of the Atlantic thought that since so many new, terrible weapons had been created, mankind would never go to war since the destruction would be so terrible

8. The Disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire Leads To Instability • Nationalism was on the rise in the Empire, and the Hapsburgs were not able to deal with it • The Dual Monarchy did not have strong leadership • There are a series of Balkan Wars which were bloody civil wars and based to a large extent on religion as well as nationalism • Bosnia and Serbia were two of the most troublesome areas

9. The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and His Wife, Sophie, June 28, 1914 • The Archduke was not well liked and came to Sarajevo, Bosnia, to review troops and to “win the hearts and minds of the people” • The Black Hand – a radical, nationalistic group in Serbia- plotted to kill Ferdinand • Seven anarchists are waiting in Sarajevo • Their plot was poorly planned – each would wait along the route that Ferdinand would take and each assassin would try to shoot or bomb the Archduke • Of the seven, four were students, one was a carpenter, one a printer and one a teacher • All of them had TB • They wanted to kill Ferdinand to gain a bigger place in the world for Serbia

10. June 28, 1914 • It was the 14th wedding anniversary of Ferdinand and Sophie • The four car motorcade went through the streets of Sarajevo with no protection • The first assassin let the cars go by – he choked- and the second assassin threw a bomb at the car • Ferdinand saw the bomb coming and deflected it – it blew up behind their car- several aides were wounded , some spectators were hurt, and Sophie had a cut on her face – the assassin swallowed a cyanide pill and dove into the river- but the pill only made him throw up and the river was only inches deep! • The next 3 assassins did nothing • Ferdinand gave his speech and then wanted to go to the hospital to see his aides

11. The motorcade heads for the hospital • No one told the lead driver of the change of plans and he kept on going on the original route! • The cars turned onto a side street, realized the error, stopped, and prepared to back up • At that point – by sheer bad luck – was Gavrilo Princip – standing on the sidewalk only 5 feet from Franz Ferdinand • Princip stepped up and fired his pistol twice, hitting Ferdinand in the neck and Sophie in the stomach, mortally wounding both • Both remained sitting upright in the car and an aide in the car thought that no one was hurt until Ferdinand started bleeding from the mouth and Sophie collapsed

12. Princip tries to Escape • Princip tried to shoot himself but the pistol was knocked out of his hand before he could pull the trigger by a spectator in the crowd • The crowd jumped on him and beat him badly • Princip swallowed a cyanide pill but it just made him vomit (So two cyanide pills fail and these two assassins lived to talk.) • Emperor Franz Joseph did not seem too upset when he got the news of the murder

13. The results of the Assassination of Franz Ferdinand and Sophie • The assassination of these two people will set off a series of events that lead to a horrible war of unbelievable proportions • A large portion of a generation of men (mostly Europeans) will be wiped out • Austria-Hungary, through it’s Foreign Minister Count Leopold von Berchtold, demanded that Serbia pay for the murders • Germany backed up the Austrians with a “blank check” and Russia gave Serbia the same type of support (both of these were through defensive alliances) • Britain had defensive treaties with France, Belgium and Russia and so Russia could take a much stronger stand knowing that Britain would back her up • Does all of this sound familiar in our world today?

14. Reasonable men lose control of the situation • All of the major powers had war plans prepared that called for precise timetables • The German plan was the Schlieffen Plan, designed in 1905 and altered over the years, and it was detailed to the minute • Once the mobilization plans started they could not be stopped or the plans would fall apart in chaos • The high commands of all of the major powers pressed their politicians to go to war so that “their” plans could be implemented first and efficiently

15. WAR IS DECLARED!!! • At 11 A.M. on July 28, 1914 Austria telegrammed Serbia that she had declared war on Serbia – the Serbs had already agreed to all of the Austro-Hungarian demands and the Germans were not even notified of the declaration! • On July 30 Russia mobilized her armies • On August 1 Germany declared war on Russia • On August 3 Germany declared war on France • On August 8 Britain declared war on Germany since German troops had marched in Belgium and Britain had a defensive treaty with Belgium • All of Europe went off to war as if it were a picnic – troops marched off singing and knowing that they would be home soon with a great victory

16. The Western Front • The Germans, used their updated Schlieffen Plan to march through Belgium to try to flank the French and capture Paris • The Germans ran into the British Expeditionary Force at Mons and finally forced the British, French, and Belgians back toward Paris • The Allies stopped the Germans at the Marne River north of Paris • The French used the “Taxi Cab Army” to help stop the Germans • It was a week long battle with tremendous loses, confusion and poor management by the high commands • This battle condemned both sides to a static war – a war of trenches – where there was no mobility of armies

17. The Russians and the Germans fought it out in the East • Two Russian armies pushed the Germans back in the early days of the war • The Russians commanders would not even speak to each other and the German commanders were replaced by Hindenberg and Von Ludendorff • At Tannenberg the Germans destroyed the Russian armies • The Germans simply listened to the Russian radio messages which were sent without coding and they prepared a trap that the Russians walked into • General Samsonov – one of the Russian commanders committed suicide after his army was virtually wiped out at Tannenberg • The Germans held the news of Tannenberg so that it countered the bad news of the Marne • Tannenberg was highly touted as a great victory but it did not change the over all strategic situation too much • This battle condemned the Eastern Front to a static war

18. Trench Warfare • This existed on both the Eastern and Western Fronts • Both sides dug in and went on the defensive • In France (The Western Front) the lines went from the North Sea to the Alps! – a distance of over 400 miles • Massive armies struggled to gain a few feet of land • The war became one in which there seemed to be a tremendous lack of creativity and intelligence • No Man’s Land was usually a slash of green between two lines of brown • The trench lines were ten miles deep and they dug hospitals, barracks, supply depots, rail lines and gun emplacements into the ground • The trench lines were designed so that one line supported the next line

19. British Soldiers in the Trenches • Look at the conditions in which these men – and all soldiers – lived for four years

20. The Fighting Was Unbelievable • Massive armies attacked each other and died in the mud of the front • Armies seldom made advances that were more than hundreds of yards, not miles, and casualties were often in the hundreds of thousands • At Verdun over a million men were lost and nothing was gained

21. The Bloodbath • 1914 – A Christmas Truce • 1915 – Gallipoli, Lusitania, Loos • 1916 – Verdun, Jutland, The Somme (at both Verdun and the Somme there were over one million casualties at each battle) • 1917 – Chemin des Dames, The French Mutiny, Ypres, Passchendale, Cambrai • 1918 – Amiens, The Marne , Chateau-Thierry, Meuse-Argonne

22. New Technology Helped To Make The War Even More Terrible • Machine guns • Air planes • Gas • Long range cannons • Long range sniper rifles • Effective hand grenades • Trench mortars • Submarines • Tanks

23. The United States Was Drawn Into The War • The United States had been closer to the Triple Entente (the British and the French) rather than the Germans • The U.S. had extensive cultural ties to Britain • The English language! • Allied propaganda pictured the Germans as “Huns” who ate babies and few versions of the German points of view got to the U.S. • The British and the French had an extensive propaganda campaign to win the hearts and minds of the Americans • The Americans had extensive economic ties with the British and French and these got stronger as the war went along • Britain and France had put a lot of money into businesses in the U.S. in the 19th century • The Americans had made large loans to the British and French as the war progressed and if they lost the war then the Americans would lose their money

24. German Policies Led to United States Involvement In The War • Unrestricted Submarine Warfare – The rules of war said that a submarine had to warn a ship before it tried to sink it • The British used “Q” ships and radios to surprise the subs and sink them • German submarines patrolled around Great Britain and tried to starve the British into submission • On May 7, 1915 a German submarine sunk the Lusitania off the coast of Ireland • The Germans had warned the passengers not to sail into the war zone • The Lusitania went down in 18 minutes with 1,198 people killed, including 128 Americans • The Lusitania had been carrying munitions • Due to bad publicity the Germans stop unrestricted submarine warfare but would start it again on February 1, 1917 On February 3, 1917, the U.S.S. Housatonic was sunk by a German sub and Woodrow Wilson broke diplomatic relations with Germany In the month of February, 1917, 781,500 tons of Allied shipping went down

25. The Zimmerman Note • The Germans offered a deal to Mexico in which they said if Mexico declared war on the United States then Mexico could have Texas, Arizona and New Mexico back • The note also said that Japan would come into the war on the side of Germany and Mexico • The British secretly decoded the Zimmerman Note and held it for the right time • The British told the Americans on February 24, 1917, during the time when the Germans have resumed unrestricted submarine warfare, and the American public was very mad • The American press called for the United States to get ready to repel an invasion from Mexico and to get ready to fight the Germans • The Germans were caught looking very bad and lost face in this country • The truth of the matter was that Mexico could not have really helped the Germans, nor could it have successfully invaded the United States

26. German Saboteurs Try to Destroy American Factories • German agents are caught trying to destroy factories and transportation facilities • There were not many German agents but they got a lot of publicity • The Allies had a great fear of German nationalism and German militarism and they transferred this to the Americans • The Germans were sure that the Americans would enter the war against Germany and so they were just trying to get ready for the declaration of war

27. To make The World Safe For Democracy • Many Americans, including Woodrow Wilson, had the idealistic view that the United States could save the world • Woodrow Wilson was seen as the moral leader of the world – he was almost a crusader • The United States took a strong stand for neutral rights, national honor, and a belief that the U.S. had a duty to help humanity • Many Americans transferred these feelings into a hatred for submarine warfare and a belief that the Germans were truly the disciples of the devil

28. April 6, 1917 • Wilson struggled over the decision to go to war for several months – after all, in 1916 President Wilson had run on a platform that said “he kept us out of war” • On April 2 Wilson called the National Guard into Federal service, and authorized the United States Nay to cooperate with the British • On April 2 Wilson addressed Congress and asked for a declaration of war against Germany • Wilson said that Germany was already waging war against the U.S. with its submarines and that we had to make the world safe for democracy • Congress wildly applauded the President • After his speech Wilson said, “My message today was one of death for our young men. How strange it seems to applaud that.” Then he broke down and cried. On April 6, 1917, Congress passed the War Resolution, with the Senate voting 82 to 6 in favor of war and the House 373 to 50

29. Send the word, send the word over there, that the Yanks are coming! • The Americans were not ready for a war and it would take a lot of time to raise, train, and equip an army • The entry of the United States into the war gave hope to the war weary British and French • Over 3 million Americans rushed to the colors – many volunteered and many were drafted (The Conscription Act of 1917) • The first American soldiers land in France on June 13,1917 and reach Paris on June 28 – they are led by General John “Blackjack Pershing • Pershing lays a wreath on the tomb of Lafayette and declares, “Lafayette, nous voila! (We are here)

30. The Allies Argued Over How To Use The American Army • The French wanted to divide the American troops into little groups and put them into the lines as replacements in the French and British armies • Both the British and French wanted the American soldiers to go into the lines immediately • General Pershing refused to divide his men up and let them be used as replacements and he also refused to let them go into combat until they were trained • During the rest of 1917 American soldiers arrived in France and were trained by the Allies – and by Americans – to prepare for trench warfare • The American soldier was called a “Doughboy” and by the end of the war he proved that he was one of the toughest soldiers to ever fight in any war

31. Russia Had A Revolution • The Russians had suffered millions of casualties – soldiers and civilians – by mid 1917 and the soldiers voted for peace with their feet • Bolshevik propaganda helped to bring about the fall of Czar Nicholas II and his government • A democratic government tried to keep Russia in the war but failed • In March, 1918, the Bolsheviks took over and made peace with the Germans, allowing the Germans to concentrate on the Western Front

32. The Germans Attack in 1918 • The Germans transferred over a million men from the Eastern Front to the Western Front • The Germans had overwhelming numbers in some areas and they pushed the French and British back – it appeared that the Allies would finally break • The Allies were desperate and begged the Americans to go into the fight – the Germans attacked on the Somme and Americans helped to stop them at St. Quentin • The Americans went into battle at Seicheprey and Cantigny – The Doughboys demonstrated great courage and the Germans were shocked and then stopped at the Marne– the French and British were pleasantly surprised

33. The Allies Counterattack • The Americans spearheaded the counter attack at Chateau-Thierry and drove into Champagne • The Americans were unified under the command of Pershing and played a major role in every battle • American forces fought at St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne • American Marines fought as infantry and drove the Germans back at Belleau Wood and earned the name “Devil Dogs” • On November 11, 1918, at 11 A.M. the Germans agreed to an armistice that ended the war • By the end of the war the U.S. forces occupied 83 miles of trench lines and there were 1,981,701 Doughboys over there

34. The End of theWar • The Germans agree to an armistice, but in reality it was a surrender • The Allies confiscated all of the materials that the Germans used to wage war – weapons, factories, munitions, land, and made the German soldiers prisoners • President Wilson had issued his 14 Points earlier in 1918 and he expected to create a treaty that would ensure peace and be fair to all • Wilson had no idea of the character of the other Allies leaders and he would not be able to bring his noble ideas to reality • The Treaty of Versailles of 1919 was imposed on the Germans and their allies and it was punitive in nature

35. The Treaty of Versailles • The Allies were led by David Lloyd George of Britain, Vittorio Orlando of Italy, Georges Clemenceau of France, and Woodrow Wilson of the United States • Clemenceau will really have the most power in creating treaty • The Allies will push for revenge, the destruction of German war making abilities, the return of lands such as Alsace-Lorraine on the German-French border (returned to France) and reparations to be paid by the Germans to the Allies to pay for the cost of the war • Wilson was able to get the creation of a League of Nations – the United States will not ratify the treaty and will not join the League • This treaty blames the Germans completely for the war – it insults them and wounds them but it does not destroy them • The Treaty of Versailles sets the stage for the Second World War

36. World War Poetry • “I Have A Rendezvous With Death” by Alan Seegar • “Loses” by Randall Jarrell • “Eleven O’Clock News Summary” by Phyllis McGinley • “Lines For An Interment” by Archibald MacLeish • “In Flanders Fields The Poppies Blow” by John McCrae

37. World War One Literature • A Farewell To Arms by Ernest Heminway • All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich M. Remarque • Death Of A Hero by Richard Aldington • Goodbye To All That by Robert Graves • Memoirs Of An Infantry Officer by Seigfried Sassoon • Parade’s End by Maddox Ford • The Case of Sergeant Grischa by Arnold Zweig • Three Soldiers by John Dos Passos