NATIONALISM29.2 | The Destroyer of Empires

THE BALKANS

• Slavic nationalism • Russian Pan-Slavism• Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman decay: 1908 Young

Turks

• Destabilization led to conflict• The Great Powers exerted influence to “stabilize”

• A-H annexes Bosnia

• France, Great Britain, and Germany feud over Africa crises

SARAJEVO 1914

• Capital of Bosnia

• Archduke Franz Ferdinand of A-H [heir] • Touring city for support• Assassinated by a Bosnian nationalist

• German – A-H alliance• Wilhelm II pledges full support against Serbia• Austria-Hungary’s ultimatum

• Russian pan-Slavism • Began a partial mobilization to threaten A-H aggression• Germany viewed this as an act of war

• Their biggest fear was growing

DEMANDS

THE SCHLIEFFEN PLAN

• Germany feared a two-front war• Franco-Russian alliance • France as bigger threat• Russian slower to mobilize

• All-out preemptive attack on France • Eliminate them in 6 weeks [Russian mobilization]

• Tensions mounting• France assures Russia it will support them• Austria orders mobilization against Russia• Russia and Germany orders full mobilization

Heyy

THE BALANCE BREAKS

• Britain guaranteed Belgian neutrality

• August 3 Germany invades Belgium [Schlieffen Plan]• The “domino effect”

• The Triple Entente [later called the “Allies”]• Had superior numbers• Had superior financial resources• Had command of the sea

• The Central Powers [Germany, A-H, Ottomans]• Internal communication• On the attack

THE GERMANS HALTED

• The Battle of the Marne: September 1914• The speed of the advance led to miscommunication

• The “Western Front”• The Allies entrenched; then the Central Powers• Machine gun nests and artillery

• The “Eastern Front”• Russian advances into Austria• The Germans assist Austria

• The Battle of Tannenberg August 1914• Russian second army destroyed

STALEMATE

• Both sides sought more support• Italy joins the Allies 1915• The Ottomans and Bulgaria join the Central Powers 1915• Romania joins the Allies 1916 [fail]• Japan attacked German colonies in the East

• First Lord of the Admiralty [Britain] Winston Churchill• Proposes an invasion of the Dardanelles for

Constantinople• Hurt Ottomans; open up communications with Russia

• Failure and 150,000 casualties: 1915

• Western Front• Verdun [CP] 1916: nearly a million casualties • Somme [A] 1916: over a million casualties

CHANGING FORTUNES

• The Lusitania torpedoed 1915 [US isolationism continues]• German submarine warfare: British trade

• US funding of war: the reality of the Lusitania

• Woodrow Wilson • Sought to negotiate an end to the war 1916 [fail]

• Tsarist Russia collapses • Germany’s steady advance• Russian political instability [treaty Brest-Litovsk 1918]

• German Spring Offensive 1918• The balance of power: United States April 1917