THE GREAT WAR1914-1918

•Catastrophy for Europe

•Protracted horrors of battlefield

•Immense destruction of life and property

•Deep social and political upheavals leading to the Second World War

GERMAN MILITARY STRATEGY:

THE SCHLIEFFEN PLAN

General Alfred von Schlieffen(1833-1913)

WAR BY TIMETABLE

SPEED, MOBILITY, SURPRISE

• Accurate maps• Railroad transportation• Well-trained conscripts

Main Goal: Avoiding two-front war Swift victory

How ? Bypassing French fortifications

SPEED, MOBILITY, SURPRISE??

• MILITARY STALEMATE FOR FOUR LONG YEARS

• DIPLOMATIC FAILURE TO FIND NEGOGIATED PEACE from 1915 onwards

SCHLIEFFEN’S MISTAKEN ASSUMPTIONS

• Shlieffen underestimated…

• Strength of the Russians

• Power of Belgian resistance

• Effectiveness of British Expeditionary Forces

• Importance of French Railway system for bringing up reserves

MILITARY STRATEGY AND TACTICS

• GROUND: fortified trench-lines

high-explosive shells

concrete block-houses

• IN THE AIR: weak and unreliable engines – mainly reconnaissance

•AT SEA: submarine torpedoes more lethal than

15- inch guns

INITIAL CONFIGURATION

• France alone possessed a large standing army.

• Two precarious years before full potential could be realized by:

• Firstly, tempting Italy to join in May 1915• Secondly, steady military build-up in

Britain and British Empire• Thirdly, by the entry of the USA in April

1917

INITIAL CONFIGURATION

• Central Powers – Germany and Austria-Hungary enjoyed the advantages of interior lines of communication

• Lost Associate through Italy but gained an unexpectedly resilient ally with Ottoman Empire

THEATERS OF WAR

• Western front : titanic battles of Verdun and Somme

• For three and a half years neither side advanced more than a few miles despite such new weapons as

• Poison gas (Ypres 1915) and

• Tanks (Somme September 1916

THEATERS OF WAR

• Eastern Front

• Exhausting defense by Russians over large territories

• Balkan Theater

• Mediterrenean

• Levant

WAR OF ATTRITION

• Mobilizing the reserves -- women, elderly, juveniles

• Building armaments industry• Borrowing money• Mobilizing minds -- propaganda

IF I SHOULD DIE THINK ONLY THIS OF ME…

• Aristocratic youth decimated

• Mass of drafted peasants decimated

• Unskilled workers decimated

• Death of often spared aristocrats of labor:

• Skilled workers and foremen laboring in war plants at home

TOTAL WAR

• Industrial warfare• Old distinctions between civilians and front-line

soldiers blurred• Relentless, desperate demand for men and

weapons. Women in factories.• Government of national unity• Free-market capitalism abandoned• Planning, rationing, price and wage controls• Civilians both the source and the object of large-

scale brutalization

IMPORTANT DATES

• August 1914 Outbreak of War

• Sept. 1914 Failure Schlieffen Plan

• 1916 Battles of Verdun and Somme

• November 1917 Bolshevik Coup

• April 1917 U.S. joins Allies

• 11 Nov. 1918 German Armistice

1917: HINGE YEARSTRAIN IN POLITICS

• London: New War Cabinet

• Paris: Mutinies

• Vienna: New Emperor

• St. Petersburg: End of Tsarist Regime

• Washington, DC: War fever

The Entente was gaining a partner with great potential whilst losing its most powerful ally in the field.

THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION

• At least in terms of its effects, one of the biggest events in the history of the world

• The Revolution should be conceived as a general crisis of authority: rejection not just of the state but of all figures of authority: judges, policemen, civil servants, army and navy officers, priests, teachers, foremen, landowners, village elders, husbands…

UNSTABLE PILLARS

• The Tsar -- father and God

• The Bureaucracy -- elitist

• The Church -- aloof

• Liberal segments -- The zemstvos & Duma

• The peasantry -- backward

• The workers -- a clear minority

THE INTELLIGENTSIA

• Censorship

• What is to be done?

• Populism

• Marxism

• The Lessons of 1905

1917: PART ONETHE FEBRUARY REVOLUTION

• Bread Lines

• Provisional Government

• The Soviets

• The April Theses

1917: PART TWOTHE OCTOBER REVOLUTION

• Storming the Winter Palace

Overcoming backwardness:• War Communism (1917-1921)• NEP (1921-1928)• Collectivization (End of 1920s)• First Five Year Plan (1930s)