Chapter 17

The First World War

Chapter Summary
After 1870, the possibility of war loomed over Europe. The Great Powers formed unstable
alliances with each other that pitted France, Britain, and Russia against the Triple Entente of
Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. After a series of crises in the Balkans, war broke out with
the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, the heir to the Habsburg empire, in 1914. Hopes
that the war would end quickly dissipated as the warring powers settled into a stalemate. Russia,
facing internal pressures related to the revolution it had undergone in 1917, signed a treaty with
the Germans at the end of that year. The Americans began to mobilize, and their intervention led
to Germanys surrender to the Allies in 1918. The German and Austrian-Hungarian empires
collapsed, and Germany was forced to bear the brunt of the peace settlements. The experiences
of World War I left their mark on European culture, the relationship between governments and
national economies, and on international relations. The Treaty of Versailles would prove a failure,
as would the League of Nations, founded in hopes of preventing similar conflicts in the future.
Chapter Outline
17.84 The International Anarchy
a. Rival Alliances: Triple Alliance versus Triple Entente
i. A place in the sun
ii. The Triple Alliance
iii. Splendid isolation
iv. Naval race
v. Triple Entente
b. The Crises in Morocco and the Balkans
i. Testing the Entente
ii. Crises in the Balkans
iii. Ethnic and religious divisions
iv. The first Balkan crisis
v. Two Balkan wars
c. The Sarajevo Crisis and the Outbreak of War
i. The assassination at Sarajevo
ii. The German blank check
iii. English isolation
iv. Causes of the First World War
17.85 The Armed Stalemate
a. The War on Land, 1914-1916
i. The battle of the Marne
ii. War in the trenches
iii. The battle of Verdun
iv. The battle of the Somme
b. The War at Sea
i. Naval blockade
ii. Submarine warfare
iii. The Lusitania
c. Diplomatic Maneuvers and Secret Agreements
i. Italy joins the Allies
ii. The Zimmermann telegram
iii. Disruption in the Ottoman Empire
iv. Japan in China
v. German expansionism
vi. A peace without victory
17.86 The Collapse of Russian and the Intervention of the United States
a. The Withdrawal of Russia: Revolution and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
i. The Provisional Government
ii. The Bolsheviks return from exile
iii. The treaty of Brest-Litovsk

iv. American intervention

b. The United States and the War
i. America divided
ii. Unrestricted submarine warfare
iii. To make the world safe for democracy
iv. The French and the British hold the line
v. America mobilizes for war
c. The Final Phase of the War
i. The armistice
17.87 The Collapse of the Austrian and German Empires
i. Nationalities gain independence
ii. Democracy in Germany
iii. The Weimar Republic
17.88 The Economic, Social, and Cultural Impact of the War
a. Effects on Capitalism: Government-Regulated Economies
i. The planned economy
ii. The rationalization of production
iii. The allocation of manpower
iv. Export controls
v. Shipping and imports
vi. German war socialism
b. Inflation, Industrial Changes, Control of Ideas
i. Mortgaging the future
ii. Industry spreads
iii. Propaganda and public opinion
c. Cultural pessimism
i. War poets
ii. Freud and Spengler
iii. Tzara, Mann, Yeats
17.89 The Peace of Paris, 1919
a. The Fourteen Points and the Treaty of Versailles
i. A new era
ii. A League of Nations
iii. Alsace and Lorraine
iv. Germany loses its colonies
v. War damages
vi. The war guilt clause
vii. The Treaty of Versailles
b. Significance of the Paris Peace Settlement
i. National self-determination
ii. The failure of Versailles
iii. Victors uneasiness
iv. The League of Nations
Learning Objectives
Chapter 17 teaches students about:
1. the causes of WWI, which ranged from the crisis in the Balkans that set off the war to the
tensions created by the alliance system and Germanys ambitions.
2. the course of the war on land and at sea, resulting in a stalemate for several years.
3. the withdrawal of the Russians from the conflict.
4. the United States renunciation of neutrality and subsequent mobilization, which turned
the tide against the Germans.
5. the collapse of the German empire and the establishment of the Weimar Republic.
6. the impact of the war on the role of government in national economies, and the increasing
adherence to the idea of economic equality.
7. the shift in economic growth and influence globally as Europe suffered from inflation while
the U.S. and other regions rapidly industrialized.

8. the sense of crisis in the ideals of progress and western civilization provoked by the
experiences of war.
9. Woodrow Wilsons dream of creating an international regulatory body to prevent future
conflicts.
10.Allied demands of reparations and German resistance to such demands during the peace
negotiations.
11.the weaknesses of the treaty of Versailles.
Lecture/Discussion Topics
1. Why did Bismarck seek to form the Triple Alliance in 1879, as well as a reinsurance
treaty with Russia?
2. What brought the British out of their splendid isolation?
3. What points were agreed upon in the formation of the Triple Entente?
4. How did the Germans test the Triple Entente? Were their efforts to break up the alliance
victorious?
5. What caused the crises in the Balkans?
6. How did the assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand lead to the outbreak of war?
7. What, aside from the successive crises in the Balkans, were the causes of WWI?
8. What kind of internal crisis did Germany face on the eve of the war?
9. Why did the battle of the Marne change the character of the war?
10.How did technology determine the kind of war that was fought?
11.How did international law regulate the flow of goods to a country at war? Was international
law heeded during WWI?
12.What did the battle of Jutland reveal about both British and German naval power?
13.How did both sides attempt to recruit allies and stir up discontent in Europe and
elsewhere?
14.How did the Japanese turn their alliance with Britain into an opportunity for expansion?
15.What kinds of people made up the majority of Russias Provisional Government? How did
they view the war?
16.Why did the Bolsheviks negotiate with the Germans at Brest-Litovsk? What kind of
compromise did they forge?
17.Why was the U.S. divided over the issue of entering the war?
18.How did the Germans provoke an American declaration of war?
19.How did the U.S. mobilize for war? Did the Germans anticipate correctly the length and
strength of U.S. mobilization?
20.How did Germany become a republic in the aftermath of WWI?
21.How did the war change attitudes about work, consumerism, and the governments role in
the economy?
22.How did the various participants in WWI allocate labor to meet the demands of war?
23.How did WWI transform the relative economic positions of the major participants?
24.How did governments finance the war? How did European debt and economic ruin brought
by the war precipitate changes elsewhere in the world?
25.What role did the media play in WWI?
26.Why did WWI produce a sense of crisis in western culture? How did that feeling manifest
itself culturally?
27.Why did Wilson encounter difficulties in persuading Europeans to accept his Fourteen
Points?
28.What, during the peace negotiations following the war, were the most pressing concerns of
the French? The British? The United States?
29.What did the war guilt clause stipulate? Which other aspects of the Treaty of Versailles
did the Germans resist?
30.What were the major weaknesses of the Treaty of Versailles?

Causes of WWI
Inevitability of war:
June 28, 1914 Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria assassinated
July 5, 1914 Germany issues Austria-Hungary blank check
Pledging military assistance if Autria-Hungary goes to war against Russia
July 23, 1914 Austria issues Serbia an ultimatum
July 28, 1914 Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia
July 29, 1914- Russia orders full mobilization of its troops
August 1, 1914 Germany declares war on Russia
August 2, 1914 Germany demands Belgium declare access to German troops
..King Albert I of Belgium denied permission
August 2, 1914 Germany declared war on France
The Schlieffen Plan
August 4, 1914 GB declared war on Germany for violating Belgian neutrality
Background Information: MAIN
Militarism: Relaiance on armies/navies to decide issues
Arms race occurred in Europe
Military spending increased by 300%
In 1900, Germany passed the Navy Law
Alliances: Pledge a country to support another in times of war + provide support in
peacetime
Bismarck created alliances to protect Germany +isolate France
Triple Entente vs. Triple Alliance
Nations lost sight of their own nations weaknesses
Imperialism: Controlling foreign lands as colonies + building an empire
Due to technology, strong state system, a sense of Euro superiority
Colonies=good source of raw materials + markets for finished products
Nationalism encouraged race for colonies increased national pride
Nationalism: Deep feeling of loyalty to ones nation
Serbia, Germany, Russia
Immediate Causes
In June 1914 Gavrilo Princep member of the Black Hand assassinated Franz Ferdinand
and his wife
Balkan powder keg was ignited
Vienna charged Serbia with the responsibility for the crime and issued an unrealistic
ultimatum
Germany:
They would knock out France quickly then turn their entire force on Soviet Russia
Blank Cheque given to Austria-Hungary
Germany declared war on Russia
Austria-Hungary:
Death of Franz Ferdinand was the excuse needed to move against Serbia
Austria hoped for a limited war
Serbia + Russia:
Serbia agreed to all demands except those which dealt with sovereignty
Russia is prepared to mobilize and fight
Determined to support Serbian nationalism
Long Term Causes

Napoleon Bonaparte + Rise of Nationalist Sentiment

Colonial Expansion
Anglo-German Naval Race
Tension in the Balkans
Ascension of Kaiser Wilhelm I
Web of Alliances

Nationalism means being a strong supporter of the rights and interests of one's country.
The Congress of Vienna, held after Napoleon's exile to Elba, aimed to sort out problems in
Europe.
Delegates from Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia (the winning allies) decided upon a new
Europe that left both Germany and Italy as divided states.
Strong nationalist elements led to the Re-unification of Italy in 1861 and Germany in
1871.
The settlement at the end of the Franco-Prussian war left France angry at the loss of
Alsace-Lorraine to Germany and keen to regain their lost territory.
Large areas of both Austria-Hungary and Serbia were home to differing nationalist groups,
all of whom wanted freedom from the states in which they lived.
The French Revolution resulted in chaos and the ascent of Napoleon to power. Napoleon's
armies marched all over Europe, bringing not only French control, but French ideas.
The rise of ideas of nationalism, devotion and love for one's common people and ethnicity,
increased in popularity during the Napoleonic Wars.
Napoleon encouraged the spread of nationalism, which he saw in his troops, to better the
French war machine.
The French people began to feel pride in their culture and ethnicity. The world watched
nationalism for the first time and saw the power the French gained from it.
Following the Napoleonic Wars, all of Europe was sharing these ideas
Europe 1914
By 1914 Europe was divided as a continent in power struggling forces for the top place in
the world economic market.
At the start of the Great War in 1914, Germany was a relatively young power, only coming
into existence following a series of wars in 1871. Germany's Chancellor, Otto von
Bismarck, had shepherd the country into the 20th century with the adage that Germany
must always be in a majority of three in any dispute among the five great European
powers. His aim was to maintain peaceful ties with Russian.
When Kaiser Wilhelm II came to power, he quickly retired Bismarck, and upset the
Chancellor's delicate balance of power by refusing to renew Germany's friendship with
Russia. Germany soon found itself in a minority of two. Its only European ally was the
weakest of the European powers, Austria-Hungary.
Imperialism and Colonial Expansion
When Kaiser Wilhelm II came to power, he quickly retired Bismarck, and upset the
Chancellor's delicate balance of power by refusing to renew Germany's friendship with
Russia. Germany soon found itself in a minority of two. Its only European ally was the
weakest of the European powers, Austria-Hungary.
Imperialist rivalry had grown more intense with the "new imperialism" of the late 19th and
early 20th cent.
The great powers had come into conflict over spheres of influence in China and over
territories in Africa, and the Easter question , created by the decline of the Ottoman
Empire, had produced several disturbing controversies. Particularly unsettling was the
policy of Germany.
It embarked late but aggressively on colonial expansion under Emperor William II came
into conflict with France over Morocco , and seemed to threaten Great Britain by its rapid
naval expansion.
Militarism

 Militarism means that the army and military forces are given a high profile by the
government. The growing European divide had led to an arms race (competition between
nations to have the most powerful weapons) between the main countries.
The armies of both France and Germany had more than doubled between 1870 and 1914
and there was fierce competition between Britain and Germany for mastery of the seas.
The British had introduced the 'Dreadnought', an effective battleship, in 1906. The
Germans soon followed suit introducing their own battleships.
The German, Von Schlieffen also drew up a plan of action that involved attacking France
through Belgium if Russia made an attack on Germany. The map below shows how the
plan was to work.
Alliances
An alliance is an agreement made between two or more countries to give each other help
if it is needed. When an alliance is signed, those countries become known as Allies.
A number of alliances had been signed by countries between the years 1879 and 1914.
These were important b/c they meant that some countries had no option but to declare
war if one of their allies declared war first
Formation of the Triple Alliance
In 1879 Germany and Austria- Hungray agreed to form a Dual Alliance.
This became the Triple Alliance when in 1882 it was expanded to include Italy, The three
countries agreed to support each other if attacked by either France or Russia. It was
renewed at five-yearly intervals.
The formation of the Triple Entente in 1907 by Britain, France and Russia reinforced the
need for the alliance.
Formation of the Triple Entente
In 1882 Germany, Austria Hungary and Italy formed the Triple Alliance. The three countries
agreed to support each other if attacked by either France or Russia.
France felt threatened by this alliance. Britain was also concerned by the growth in the
Germany Navy and in 1904 the two countries signed the Entente Cordiale (friendly
understanding). The objective of the alliance was to encourage co-operation against the
perceived threat of Germany.
Three years later, Russia who feared the growth in the Germany Army, joined Britain &
France to form the Triple Entente.
The Russian government was also concerned about the possibility of Austria Hungary
increasing the size of its empire. It therefore made promises to help Serbia if it was
attacked by members of the Triple Alliance
Moroccan Crisis
In 1904 Morocco had been given to France by Britain, but the Moroccans wanted their
independence. In 1905, Germany announced her support for Moroccan independence. War
was narrowly avoided by a conference which allowed France to retain possession of
Morocco. However, in 1911, the Germans were again protesting against French possession
of Morocco. Britain supported France and Germany was persuaded to back down for part
of French Congo.
Bosnian Crisis
In 1908, Austria-Hungary took over the former Turkish province of Bosnia.
This angered Serbians who felt the province should be theirs. Serbia threatened AustriaHungary with war, Russia, allied to Serbia, mobilised its forces. Germany, allied to AustriaHungary mobilised its forces and prepared to threaten Russia. War was avoided when
Russia backed down.
There was, however, war in the Balkans between 1911 and 1912 when the Balkan states
drove Turkey out of the area. The states then fought each other over which area should
belong to which state.
Austria-Hungary then intervened and forced Serbia to give up some of its acquisitions.
Tension between Serbia and Austria-Hungary was high.
The Black Hand

 In May 1911, ten men in Serbia formed the Black Hand Secret Society. Early members
included Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijevic, the chief of the Intelligence Department of the
Serbian General Staff, Major Voja Tankosic and Milan Ciganovic.
The main objective of the Black Hand was the creation, by means of violence, of a Greater
Serbia. Its stated aim was: "To realize the national ideal, the unification of all Serbs. This
organisation prefers terrorist action to cultural activities; it will therefore remain secret."
By 1914 there were around 2,500 members of the Black Hand. The group was mainly
made up of junior army officers but also included lawyers, journalists and university
professors.
Three senior members of the Black Hand group, Dragutin Dimitrijevic, Milan Ciganovic, and
Major Voja Tankosic, decided that Archduke Franz Ferdinand should be assassinated.
Dimitrijevic was concerned about the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Ferdinand's
plans to grant concessions to the South Slavs.
Dimitrijevic feared that if this happened, an independent Serbian state would be more
difficult to achieve.
In 1914, Austria-Hungary was a world power, but its rulers were afraid.
They feared nationalism.
Many different races lived in the Austrian Empire; 15 different languages were spoken
within its borders.
If nationalism caught on in Austria-Hungary, the Empire would fall apart.
Small nation-states in the Southeast of Europe (`the Balkans') were very nationalistic.
Serbia was the worst.
In Serbia, there was a group called Union or Death (nicknamed the `Black Hand'). It was
the Balkan equivalent of the IRA. It was dedicated to uniting all Serbs.
Many Serbs lived in the Austrian province of Bosnia, and after 1908 the Black Hand waged
a terrorist war there, with bombings, shootings and poisonings.
The Austrian Army wanted to destroy the Black Hand by attacking Serbia.