World War I

Causes of the War

• Alliance System
• Alliances led to arms race, suspicion and repeated humiliation of countries.
• It brought nationalism to the boil.
• War seemed to be only solution.
Rotten

• Rabid Nationalism
• 19th century was the century of nationalism in Europe.
• Balkan nationalism intensified in the 1900s.
• This brought Europe to verge of war several times in 1900s.
• France: Alsace-Lorraine inspired nationalist feelings
• Italy wanted to get Trentino Trieste back from Austria.
• Serbia aspired to form Greater Serbia.
• Poles were under foreign rule and wanted independence.
• Role of Press

• Indulged in propaganda for the governments.

• Increased pressure on the governments.

• Nationalist press further increased nationalist feelings.
• All this made it difficult for governments to embrace conciliatory attitude.

• Colonial Rivalry
• Several disputes arose throughout the 1900s like the Moroccan Crises.
• It led to increased naval rivalry.
• It left strong nations embarrassed and determined to regain prestige.
• Naval Race
• Germany saw naval power as key to supremacy.
• Germany desired naval power to compete with Britain

• British “Dreadnought” ships rendered old warships obsolete → Germany

accelerated production

• Economic Rivalry
• Germany had desire for economic domination of Europe.

• This encouraged Germany in colonial pursuits.

• German capitalists have been said to promote war to ensure dominant position.
Dreadnaught Class Ships
• Rivalry between Austria-Hungary and Serbia
• It led to the immediate cause of war: Assassination of Franz Ferdinand
• Austrians seized on the assassination as an excuse for a preventive war on Serbia.
• A preventive war is meant to stop the enemy from growing stronger.

• Russian Support for Serbia

• Made Serbia reckless in her Austrian policy
• Russia was the first to order a general mobilization of army → provoked Germany
to mobilize
• Russia was leader of Slavic states

• Germany’s Support for Austria

• Dominant power → wanted a preventive war against Britain and allies
• A tragic miscalculation: Might have thought that Russia will be scared into
submission
 The Miscalculation
• Austrians and Germans
thought that Russia would not
support Serbia.
• Germany did not see the war
mushrooming into a world
war.
• Germany and Russia thought
that mobilizations would not
mean war.
• Germany thought Britain
would ignore Belgian
neutrality
Course
 Western Front (1914)

German advance into Germany was stuck in United Kingdom joined

France through Belgium due to strong the war when Belgian
Belgium. resistance neutrality was violated.

Germany was unable to

Battle of Marne: French
capture ports of the
pushed the Germans
English Channel →
back when they were
Britain gained access to
only 20 miles from Paris
European mainland
 Eastern Front (1914)

Germany drove
Russians invaded
Russians mobilized Russians out of
Austria and Germany
more quickly than Germany and invaded
simultaneously → were
expected. Russia → German self-
overwhelmed
confidence was boosted

Turkey entered the war

However - Germany
on German side →
now found itself fighting
Russia entirely cut off
on two fronts
from sea
 1915
• Stalemate on the Western Front

• Russia had some success against

Austria but was defeated by Germany

• Turkey successfully blockaded the

Dardanelles Strait

• Campaign of the Allies against Turkey

was a complete failure

• Italy entered the war against Austria-

Hungary
 Importance of Naval Power
War at the Sea- Allied Forces used the Naval Forces to-
• Blockade the Central Powers
• Keeping their own sea routes open
• Transporting British troops to the continent
• Central forces could not use Navy well.
• Allied forces searched neutral ships and confiscated doubtful goods U-Boat
• Germans retaliated with submarine attacks and mines
• Unrestricted submarine warfare or the U-boat campaign
• Central powers started attacking even neutral ships
• British adopted a convoy system where naval ships accompanies convoys of merchant
ships
• The losses due to the U-Boat Campaign brought the USA into the war
 1917
• Entry of the USA: April 1917

Why did USA enter war?

• Large-scale investment of the USA in Europe
• Trading relationship of the USA with Europe
• USA gave huge war loans to the Allied countries
• Submarine campaign → many USA citizens were also killed
• Discovery that Germany was inciting Mexico to declare war on the USA

Russian withdrawal from the war: December 1917

 1918-19
Reasons
• German Spring Offensive of War on two fronts for Decisive Allied sea
1918 failed Germany power

• Allied counter-offensive
began in 8th August, 1918
Failure of the German Able leaders on the
• Germany signed an armistice submarine campaign Allied side
on 11 November, 1918
Entry of the USA Spanish Flu took huge
• Central Powers Start to Lose toll on German forces

Germany was badly Continuous strain on

let down by Allies German soldiers
 Why the War was so Long?

The two sides were fairly Quickly became a global Strongly-held war aims of
balanced conflict both sides
Use of propaganda → Defeat of Russia Entry of the USA in the
public support encouraged German war prolonged the war in
generals Allied favour
Only Americans and Industrialists
benefited from the war
Analysis
• It began in a localized region of Europe → became a global conflict by end of
1914 → spread further in next years → by 1918, most of global population was
at war → even neutral countries had to take sides
Four characteristics of the War:
• Total control over society
• Mobilization of resources in service of war
• Nations shifted much of production capacity to fighting war
• Produced weapons at an astounding rate
• New inventions like two-way radios, tanks, mobile X-Ray machines, etc.
• Industries made huge profits → more innovations
• Almost all major countries enforced conscription.
• Blurring roles of soldiers and civilians [No Difference between Civilians and Soldiers]
• Rejection of compromise
 Political Impact

Revolutions in Germany Fall of Empires (German, A new balance of powers

and Russia Russian, Austria-Hungary) in Europe

Boost to democracy as Independence of Algeria Emergence of new

totalitarian regimes and Finland were nationalities like
collapsed recognized Austrians, Hungarians,
Polish, etc.
Boost to nationalism due Final stage in the Rise of Fascism and
to humiliation and Partition of Africa Nazism
formation of new
nationalities
Rise of communism Establishment of the Prestige of Europe as the
League of Nations centre of civilization
declined
 Economic Impact
Trail of Structure of Other
destruction international countries took
● Economic trade was advantage of
cost > altered European
$400 ● Europe distress
billion became an ● USA share
● European importer in world
economy instead of trade
badly exporter. increased
ruined from 10%
to 20% in
4 years
Overexpansion Japan and
of economy China started
due to the war their own
and post-war plans of
bust would industrializatio
lead to Great n
Depression
 Socio-cultural Impact
Over 8.5 million dead Extreme demographic General disillusionment
crisis and pessimism
Whole generations were ● Atheism spread
lost to war (called “war across Europe.
generations”)

General anti-war Governments actively

attitude engaged in education to
promote reconstruction
● France declared
compulsory free
education in 1928.
 Treaty of Versailles

Made Central Europe Unstable

Fragile Democracies of the Central Europe

• The War ended on November 11, 1918 when Germany signed the
armistice.
• Different opinions prevailed over how to treat Germany.
France ● Wanted a ruined Germany which could not attack
France again
Britain ● Wanted a less severe agreement so that Germany
could pay back reparation
USA ● Woodrow Wilson announced his “14 Points” in the
US Senate.
● He based these on why he thought the war started.
● Germany had already accepted these points before
the armistice.
 Paris Peace Conference

• The powers met in the Great Palace

of Versailles in Paris after the
Germans signed armistice.
• The Treaty of Versailles was handed
over to the Germans for signing.
• No opportunity was provided to the
Germans to present their case.
• It was signed by Germany on 28th
June, 1919.
 Clauses
• Germany lost the following territories

• Union (Anschluss) between Austria and Germany was prohibited

• German armaments were limited
• 1,00,000 troops
• Demilitarization of the Rhineland
• No tanks, armoured cars, military aircraft or submarines
• Only 6 battleships
• War Guilt clause
• The guilt of war was fixed on Germany.
• ex-Kaiser was to be put on trial for war crimes.
• War reparations Constitutional Monarch of Germany
• The amount was later fixed at £6600 million in 1921.
• This amount was to be paid to victor countries in instalments over next decades.

League of Nations
• It was an organization of the European countries aimed at maintaining
peace.
• Germany was not a part of the League.
• However, the Charter of the League was included in the Treaty of
Versailles.
Summary
Summary
Summary
Summary