Splash Screen Section 1-7 Nationalism and the System of Alliances Liberals during the first half of the 1800s hoped that the formation of European nation-states

Nationalism and the System of Alliances• Liberals during the first half of the 1800s

hoped that the formation of European nation-states would lead to peace.

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• However, the imperialist states that emerged during the second half of the 1800s became highly competitive over trade and colonies.

(pages 717–718)(pages 717–718)

Nationalism and the System of Alliances (cont.)

• Two main alliances divided Europe: The Triple Alliance (1882) was made up of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy; and the Triple Entente (1907) was made up of France, Great Britain, and Russia.

(pages 717–718)(pages 717–718)



Nationalism and the System of Alliances (cont.)

(pages 717–718)(pages 717–718)

• During the early 1900s, several crises erupted, particularly in the Balkans, which created a great deal of anger and tension between the nations of the two alliances.

• Each nation was willing to go to war to preserve its power.

Nationalism and the System of Alliances (cont.) • European ethnic groups, such as Slavs in

the Balkans and the Irish in the British Empire, dreamed of creating their own national states, which also increased tensions in Europe.

(pages 717–718)(pages 717–718)



Internal Dissent

(pages 718)(pages 718)

• Another source of strife in Europe was dissent within nations.

• As socialist labor movements became more powerful, they used strikes to achieve their goals, which led to unrest.

• Conservative national leaders feared that revolutions would break out.

• Some historians believe that these leaders may have been willing to go to war in order to suppress internal dissent.

• After 1900 there was a huge increase in the size of European armies, which increased tensions among nations.

Militarism

(pages 718–719)(pages 718–719)

• Conscription–compulsory service in the military–was common in Europe before 1914.

• Between 1890 and 1914 European armies doubled in size.

• The numbers of soldiers in European armies were: Russia, 1.3 million; France and Germany, 900,000 each; Britain, Italy, and Austria-Hungary, 250,000 to 500,000 each.



Militarism (cont.) • Prior to 1914, European countries

aggressively prepared for war.

• This militarism led to the increased power of military leaders, who created complex war plans.

• Because powerful military leaders did not want to alter their war plans, they greatly limited the choices of political leaders in time of international crisis.

(pages 718–719)(pages 718–719)

The Outbreak of War: Summer 1914• While militarism, nationalism, and the

desire to control internal dissent all had a part in starting World War I, the outbreak of fighting stemmed directly from events in the Balkans in 1914.

(pages 719–720)(pages 719–720)



• States in southeastern Europe had long struggled for independence from the Ottoman Empire.

• Russia and Austria-Hungary competed for control of these new states.

• In 1914, Serbia wanted to form a large Slavic state in the Balkans.

• Serbia was supported by Russia and opposed by Austria-Hungary.

• Many Europeans were afraid that this conflict in the Balkans would lead to war.

(pages 719–720)(pages 719–720)



• In June 1914, Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary and his wife were killed by the Serbian terrorist Gavrilo Princip in the city of Sarajevo.

• The Serbian terrorists wanted Bosnia to become independent from Austria-Hungary.

The Outbreak of War: Summer 1914(cont.)

(pages 719–720)(pages 719–720)



• The Austro-Hungarian government wanted to declare war on Serbia but was worried that Russian would come to Serbia’s aid.

• Austrian leaders asked for help from their German allies.

• Emperor William II agreed to give Germany’s full support.

• In July 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.


(pages 719–720)(pages 719–720)



• Russia responded by supporting Serbia.

• Czar Nicholas II ordered partial and then full mobilization of the Russian army.

• Austria-Hungary and Germany considered the mobilizations acts of war.


(pages 719–720)(pages 719–720)



• The Germans warned the Russians to halt mobilization, and the Russians refused.

• Germany then declared war on Russia on August 1.

• Because Russia and France were allies, Germany had planned to defeat France first and then attack Russia with full force.


(pages 719–720)(pages 719–720)



• This plan, designed by General Alfred von Schlieffen, was called the Schlieffen Plan.

• Germany declared war on France on August 3.


(pages 719–720)(pages 719–720)



• The Germans demanded that Belgium–a neutral country–allow German armies to pass through it on the way to France.

• This action led Britain, who was allied with France and Russia, to declare war on Germany.

• By August 4, World War I had begun.


(pages 719–720)(pages 719–720)

1914 to 1915: Illusions and Stalemate

(pages 721–723)(pages 721–723)

• The events of August 1914 shattered two previously held ideas: that war was not worth fighting and that diplomats could prevent war.



1914 to 1915: Illusions and Stalemate (cont.) • Government propaganda–ideas spread

to influence public opinion–had stirred up national hatreds before the war.

• When the war began, propaganda was used to urge people to defend their own country.

• The majority of people thought their country’s cause was just.

(pages 721–723)(pages 721–723)



1914 to 1915: Illusions and Stalemate (cont.) • All European wars since 1815 had only

lasted a few weeks.

• In August 1914, most people thought the war would be over by Christmas.

(pages 721–723)(pages 721–723)



1914 to 1915: Illusions and Stalemate (cont.) • On the Western Front, Germany swept

through Belgium into northern France and was stopped a short distance from Paris at the First Battle of the Marne.

• The Western Front turned into a stalemate, with neither side able to push the other out of the system of trench warfare they had begun.

• The trenches stretched from the English Channel nearly to the Swiss border.

• For four years both sides remained in almost the same positions.

(pages 721–723)(pages 721–723)



1914 to 1915: Illusions and Stalemate (cont.) • On the Eastern Front, the war was far

more mobile.

• The Russian army moved into eastern Germany but was defeated at the Battle of Tannenberg and the Battle of Masurian Lakes, making Russia no longer a threat to invade Germany.

• The Russians defeated Austria-Hungary and dislodged them from Serbia.

(pages 721–723)(pages 721–723)



1914 to 1915: Illusions and Stalemate (cont.) • The Italians, who had been allied with

Germany and Austria-Hungary, broke their alliance in 1915 and attacked Austria-Hungary.

• The Germans came to the aid of the Austrians and together they defeated the Russians in several battles and drove them back.

• About 2.5 million Russians had been killed, captured, or wounded.

(pages 721–723)(pages 721–723)



1914 to 1915: Illusions and Stalemate (cont.) • The Russians were almost out of the

war.

• After defeating Serbia, Germany turned its attention back to the Western Front.

(pages 721–723)(pages 721–723)



1916 to 1917: The Great Slaughter

(pages 723–724)(pages 723–724)

• The trenches on the Western Front included massive tangles of barbed wire, machine-gun nests, gun batteries, and heavy artillery.

• The soldiers lived in holes in the ground.

• The territory between the two sides was called no-man’s-land.



1916 to 1917: The Great Slaughter (cont.) • Military leaders did not know how to fight

trench warfare.

• They were used to mobile battles.

• The only plan they could devise was to order masses of soldiers to attack the other side and try to break through.

(pages 723–724)(pages 723–724)



1916 to 1917: The Great Slaughter (cont.) • Each side tried this tactic. • They would begin with heavy artillery and

then send in thousands of troops. • The men who attacked were completely

exposed to machine-gun fire. • Millions of young men died in these

attacks, and no breakthrough came. • At Verdun, France, in 1916, 700,000 men

were killed in 10 months. • World War I had become a war of

attrition, where each side tried to wear the other down.

(pages 723–724)(pages 723–724)



1916 to 1917: The Great Slaughter (cont.) • Airplanes for war were used for the first

time in World War I.

• By the end of 1915, airplanes spotted enemy positions from the air.

• Later they attacked ground targets.

• In time, machine guns were mounted on airplanes, and they fought each other for control of the air.

(pages 723–724)(pages 723–724)

1916 to 1917: The Great Slaughter (cont.) • The Germans used their giant gas-filled

airships to bomb points in Britain, but they stopped when the British realized that they could easily shoot down the airships.

(pages 723–724)(pages 723–724)



Widening of the War

(page 724)(page 724)

• Because the war in the trenches was bogged down, both sides tried to get new allies and to widen the war.

• In November 1914, Russia, Great Britain, and France (the Allies) declared war on the Ottoman Empire.

• In 1915, they tried to open a Balkan front by attacking Gallipoli, near Constantinople.



Widening of the War (cont.) • Then Bulgaria entered the war on the side

of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire (the Central Powers).

• The Allies withdrew from Gallipoli after a disastrous campaign.

• Italy opened up a front against Austria-Hungary on the side of the Allies.

• In 1918, British forces from Egypt defeated the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East.

• They used troops from Australia, India, and New Zealand.




Widening of the War (cont.) • The Allies seized German colonies in the

rest of the world.

• Japan, an ally of Britain, seized German-held islands in the Pacific Ocean.




Entry of the United States

(pages 725–726)(pages 725–726)

• The United States tried to stay neutral in the first years of World War I.

• This became more difficult as the war dragged on.



Entry of the United States (cont.) • The naval war between Britain and

Germany became the reason why the United States joined the war.

• In order to keep supplies from reaching their enemies, each country enforced a naval blockade of the other.

• German submarines sank both military and civilian ships, including passenger ships.

• This practice was called unrestricted submarine warfare.

(pages 725–726)(pages 725–726)



Entry of the United States (cont.) • In 1915, the Germans sank the British

ship Lusitania, killing 1,100 civilians and causing strong protests from the American government.

• The Germans stopped unrestricted submarine warfare for some time until German naval officers such as Admiral Holtzendorff convinced the emperor to resume the practice.

(pages 725–726)(pages 725–726)



Entry of the United States (cont.) • The Germans did not think that the United

States would enter the war before the British were starved.

• However, in April 1917, the United States responded to unrestricted submarine warfare by declaring war on Germany.

• Though large numbers of American troops did not arrive until 1918, the Allies were given a powerful psychological boost as well as money and supplies.

(pages 725–726)(pages 725–726)



The Home Front: The Impact of Total War

(pages 726–727)(pages 726–727)

• World War I became a total war that required a complete mobilization of people and resources.

• It demanded the total commitment of the countries involved, soldiers and civilians alike.

• The war had an enormous impact on everyone’s life.



The Home Front: The Impact of Total War (cont.) • As the war dragged on, governments

had to increase their powers in order to obtain the manpower and supplies they needed.

• Millions of men were drafted into the military.

• Governments set up planned economies, which included economic controls, food and material rationing, regulated transportation, and controls on imports and exports.

(pages 726–727)(pages 726–727)

The Home Front: The Impact of Total War (cont.) • Governments and leaders such as U.S.

president Woodrow Wilson saw all citizens as part of the war effort.

(pages 726–727)(pages 726–727)



The Home Front: The Impact of Total War (cont.) • As the casualties mounted in the war,

public support for the war waned.

• Authoritarian governments used force to keep people working.

• Other governments passed new laws to severely restrict dissent, exercised increased control of news sources, and tried to keep morale up with new propaganda techniques.

(pages 726–727)(pages 726–727)



The Home Front: The Impact of Total War (cont.) • Women assumed new roles during World

War I, taking over jobs previously held only by men, including factory and trucking jobs.

• These changes were generally seen as temporary, lasting only while men were away fighting the war.

• One positive result of women’s role in the war was that in Germany, Austria, and the United States they were given the right to vote not long after the war ended.

(pages 726–727)(pages 726–727)

The Home Front: The Impact of Total War (cont.) • Most women in Britain were given the right

to vote in 1918 before the end of the war.

(pages 726–727)(pages 726–727)



Background to Revolution

(pages 732–734)(pages 732–734)

• Due to a lack of experienced military leaders and technology, Russia was unprepared for World War I.

• The Russian army was poorly trained and equipped and suffered terrible losses.

• By 1917, the Russian will to continue fighting in the war had disappeared.



Background to Revolution (cont.) • Czar Nicholas II relied on his army and

government to keep him in power.

• His wife Alexandra cut him off from events.

• She was strongly influenced by Grigori Rasputin, who claimed to be a holy man.

• Though he had no military experience, Czar Nicholas II insisted on commanding the army in the field and was away from the capital.

• In his absence, Alexandra made important decisions with the help of Rasputin.

(pages 732–734)(pages 732–734)



Background to Revolution (cont.) • The Russian people became increasingly

upset with the czar and his wife due to military and economic disasters.

• Conservatives wanted to save the deteriorating situation and assassinated Rasputin late in 1916.

• However, this did not save the monarchy.

(pages 732–734)(pages 732–734)



Background to Revolution (cont.) • In March 1917, working-class women led

a series of strikes in the capital city of Petrograd.

• They were upset about bread shortages and rationing.

• They called a general strike that shut down all the factories.

(pages 732–734)(pages 732–734)



Background to Revolution (cont.) • Alexandra reported the situation to

Nicholas, describing the demonstrators as hooligans.

• Nicholas responded by ordering troops to break up the crowds with force.

• However, many soldiers refused to shoot and joined the demonstrators.

• On March 12, the Duma, or legislature, met and established a provisional government.

• The government then urged the czar to step down, which he did.

(pages 732–734)(pages 732–734)



Background to Revolution (cont.) • The provisional government was headed

by Alexander Kerensky and decided to continue fighting the war.

• This was a grave mistake, as it upset workers and peasants who wanted to end the years of fighting.

(pages 732–734)(pages 732–734)



Background to Revolution (cont.) • The government was also challenged by

the soviets–councils representing workers and soldiers–who came to play an important role in Russian politics.

• Soviets sprang up around the country, and were mostly made up of socialists.

(pages 732–734)(pages 732–734)



The Rise of Lenin


• The Bolsheviks were a small faction of a Marxist party.

• They were led by V. I. Lenin and were dedicated to a violent revolution to overthrow the capitalist system.



The Rise of Lenin (cont.) • Lenin lived abroad between 1900 and

1917.

• When the provisional government was formed, he went to Russia hoping that the Bolsheviks could seize power.

• German military leaders helped him travel to Russia in an attempt to create disorder.




The Rise of Lenin (cont.) • Lenin believed that the Bolsheviks should

try to gain control of the soviets.

• He saw the soviets as groups already in place that could help overthrow the provisional government.

• The Bolsheviks promised to end the war, redistribute land to the peasants, transfer control of factories and industries from capitalists to the workers, and transfer government power to the soviets.


The Rise of Lenin (cont.) • Three slogans summed up the Bolshevik

program: “Peace, Land, Bread,” “Worker Control of Production,” and “All Power to the Soviets.”




The Bolsheviks Seize Power


• By the end of October 1917, the Bolsheviks had 240,000 members and held majorities in the Petrograd and Moscow soviets.

• On November 6, the Bolsheviks seized the Winter Palace, and the provisional government collapsed.

The Bolsheviks Seize Power (cont.) • Lenin turned over power to the Congress

of Soviets, which represented soviets throughout Russia.


• He held on to the real power in a Council of People’s Commissars, however, which he ran.





The Bolsheviks Seize Power (cont.) • The Bolsheviks renamed themselves the

Communists.

• In March 1918, Lenin ended the war with Germany by signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, giving up territory in eastern Poland, Ukraine, Finland, and the Baltic provinces.

• He believed that these territories would eventually return to Russia as the socialist revolution spread through Europe.




Civil War in Russia


• Soon after the Communists took power, civil war broke out in Russia.

• Many people were opposed to the Communists, including groups loyal to the czar, liberals, and anti-Leninist socialists.

• They were aided by the Allies, who gave them troops and supplies, hoping Russia would rejoin the war.



Civil War in Russia (cont.) • The Communist (Red) Army fought in

many places between 1918 and 1921.

• The opposing, or White, forces first attacked from Siberia in the east.

• Other attacks came from Ukrainians and the Baltic regions.

• By 1920, the Red Army had defeated most of the White forces.

• The Communists then gained control over Georgia, Russian Armenia, and Azerbaijan.


Civil War in Russia (cont.) • The royal family was captured by the

Communists and moved to a mining town in the Urals, where they were eventually killed.




Triumph of the Communists

(pages 736–737)(pages 736–737)

• The Communists won the civil war in part because they had an excellent army.

• As commissar of war, Leon Trotsky had brilliantly organized the army and instituted rigid discipline.



Triumph of the Communists (cont.) • The opposition to the Communists was

not unified and was torn by political differences and mistrust.

• They lacked a common goal.

• Some wanted to restore the czar.

• Others wanted a more democratic government.

(pages 736–737)(pages 736–737)



Triumph of the Communists (cont.) • The Communists had a strong sense of

purpose and conviction.

• They were also able to put their ideals to work in practical ways, for example by controlling banks, farms, and industries to serve the Communist war effort, a policy known as war communism.

(pages 736–737)(pages 736–737)



Triumph of the Communists (cont.) • The Communists also used revolutionary

terror to further their goals.

• The Cheka, or secret police, sought out anyone who opposed the Communists and created an atmosphere of fear among the people.

(pages 736–737)(pages 736–737)



Triumph of the Communists (cont.) • When the Allies sent troops to oppose the

Communists, the Communists used this act to appeal to Russian patriotism.

• They asked Russians to join with them in fighting foreign attempts to control the nation.

(pages 736–737)(pages 736–737)



Triumph of the Communists (cont.) • By 1921, the Communists had complete

control of Russia.

• The country had become a centralized state dominated by a single party.

• Because of the role of the Allies in the civil war, the Communists mistrusted them and remained hostile.

(pages 736–737)(pages 736–737)



The Last Year of the War

(pages 739–741)(pages 739–741)

• During 1917, the Allies had been defeated in their offensives on the Western Front, and the Russians had withdrawn from the war.

• The Central Powers appeared to have the advantage.



The Last Year of the War (cont.) • The German military official Erich von

Ludendorff decided to take a military gamble.

• In March 1918, the Germans launched a large offensive on the Western Front and came to within 50 miles of Paris.

• The Germans were stopped at the Second Battle of the Marne by French, Moroccan, and American troops and hundreds of tanks.

(pages 739–741)(pages 739–741)



The Last Year of the War (cont.) • In 1918, the addition of more than one

million American troops helped the Allies begin to advance toward Germany.

• By the end of September, General Ludendorff told German leaders that the war was lost.

(pages 739–741)(pages 739–741)



The Last Year of the War (cont.) • The Allies were not willing to negotiate

with the German government under Emperor William II.

• The German people were angry and exhausted by the war.

• In spite of attempted government reforms, German workers and soldiers in towns such as Kiel revolted and set up their own councils.

• On November 9, William II left the country.

(pages 739–741)(pages 739–741)



The Last Year of the War (cont.) • The German Social Democratic party,

led by Friedrich Ebert, declared that Germany would become a democratic republic.

• On November 11, the new German government signed an armistice with the Allies that ended the war.

(pages 739–741)(pages 739–741)



The Last Year of the War (cont.) • In December 1918, a group of radical

socialists formed the German Communist Party and then tried to seize power.

• They were defeated by the new government, which was backed by the army.

• The revolutionary leaders were killed.

• The attempt by the Communists to take over the government left many middle-class Germans deeply afraid of communism.

(pages 739–741)(pages 739–741)



The Last Year of the War (cont.) • At the end of the war, ethnic groups in

Austria-Hungary sought independence.

• The Austro-Hungarian Empire disintegrated into the independent republics of Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia and the monarchial state of Yugoslavia.

• National rivalries in the region would weaken eastern Europe for years to come.

(pages 739–741)(pages 739–741)

The Peace Settlements

(pages 741–744)(pages 741–744)

• In January 1919, representatives of the Allied nations met in Paris to make a final settlement of the war.



The Peace Settlements (cont.) • President Woodrow Wilson outlined his

“Fourteen Points,” with which he intended to create a lasting peace.

• The points included proposals for open treaty negotiations, reducing military strength, and ensuring self-determination, or the right of each people to have its own nation.

• Wilson proposed a new world order based on democracy and cooperation among nations. He suggested creating an association of nations to guarantee political independence for all countries.

(pages 741–744)(pages 741–744)



The Peace Settlements (cont.) • The Paris Peace Conference was

complicated by many factors.

• Secret treaties had been made before the war that promised territories to certain nations.

• National interests created problems as well.

• For example, the British under Prime Minister David Lloyd George wanted to make the Germans pay for the war.

(pages 741–744)(pages 741–744)



The Peace Settlements (cont.) • Led by Georges Clemenceau, the French

wanted to insure national security.

• They sought to do this by stripping Germany of all weapons, having them make huge payments, called reparations, and creating a buffer state between Germany and France in the German Rhineland.

(pages 741–744)(pages 741–744)



The Peace Settlements (cont.) • The United States, Britain, and France,

known as the Big Three, made most of the important decisions at the Paris Peace Conference.

• Germany was not included. Russia was in a civil war and could not attend, and Italy was not given a large role.

(pages 741–744)(pages 741–744)



The Peace Settlements (cont.) • The Big Three argued about many

points.

• Wilson wanted to create a League of Nations to be an international peacekeeping organization.

• The conference accepted his proposal.

• In return he agreed to territorial settlements that were not consistent with his idea of self-determination.

(pages 741–744)(pages 741–744)

The Peace Settlements (cont.) • The French gave up their wish for a

Rhineland buffer state and accepted a defensive alliance with Britain and the United States to guarantee future security against Germany.

(pages 741–744)(pages 741–744)



The Peace Settlements (cont.) • The Treaty of Versailles was the final

peace settlement of World War I.

• It was actually five separate treaties with the defeated nations: Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey.

• The treaty declared that the Germans were guilty of starting the war.

• It ordered Germany to pay reparations for all damages suffered by the Allies.

(pages 741–744)(pages 741–744)



The Peace Settlements (cont.) • The treaty required Germany to greatly

reduce its military forces and return the territories of Alsace and Lorraine to France.

• Sections of eastern Germany became part of a new Polish state.

• German land on both sides of the Rhine was turned into a demilitarized zone to prevent future aggression toward France.

(pages 741–744)(pages 741–744)



The Peace Settlements (cont.) • The German government accepted the

peace terms because it had no choice.

• To refuse would mean to go back to war.

• However, the treaty outraged and angered the German people, who felt the Treaty of Versailles was a harsh and unfair peace.

(pages 741–744)(pages 741–744)



The Peace Settlements (cont.) • Eastern Europe was greatly changed as a

result of the war and the peace treaties.

• The Russians and Germans lost much territory.

• The Austro-Hungarian Empire was gone.

• New nation-states emerged, including Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Hungary.

(pages 741–744)(pages 741–744)



The Peace Settlements (cont.) • Lands in the Balkans changed hands as

Romania received territory from Russia, Hungary, and Bulgaria.

• Yugoslavia was formed, which included Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.

(pages 741–744)(pages 741–744)



The Peace Settlements (cont.) • Though the Paris Peace Conference was

supposedly guided by the principle of self-determination, the mix of peoples in eastern Europe made this very difficult, and many compromises were made.

• As a result, almost every eastern European state included ethnic minorities.

• For example, there were Germans in Poland and Hungarians in Romania.

• These ethnic mixes would lead to conflicts in later years.

(pages 741–744)(pages 741–744)



The Peace Settlements (cont.) • The peace treaty also broke up the

Ottoman Empire.

• In return for Arab support, the Allies had promised Arab states within the Ottoman Empire that they would be independent after the war.

• France and Britain changed their minds and took over control of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Palestine.

(pages 741–744)(pages 741–744)



The Peace Settlements (cont.) • Because Wilson opposed new colonial

acquisitions, these acquisitions were called mandates.

• Under the mandate system, a country controlled another as a mandate on behalf of the League of Nations, but it did not officially own the territory.

(pages 741–744)(pages 741–744)



The Peace Settlements (cont.) • World War I undermined the previously

held idea of human progress.

• Entire populations had slaughtered each other in unprecedented ways.

• The devastation of the war also opened the door to revolutions and further instability.

(pages 741–744)(pages 741–744)

Documents

Splash Screen Section 1-7 Nationalism and the System of Alliances Liberals during the first half of the 1800s hoped that the formation of European nation-states