Russian Revolution: Causes and Consequences

• An intense period of rebellion continued into the early 1900s.
• Nicholas II, the last Russian tsar, was assassinated in 1918 due to his lack of understanding of the political opposition to his rule.
• Rebellions erupted against long-standing authoritarian governments in Russia, China, and Mexico in the 20th century's first two decades.
• Revolutionaries challenged existing order and instituted their own political philosophies and practices by unseating ruling governments.
• Established land-based and maritime empires collapsed due to internal and external pressures.
• A new global order emerged by the end of the century.

Revolution in Russia

• Russia was falling behind most of Europe, the United States, and Japan in wealth and power by the early 20th century.
• Russia's challenges were primarily internal, including slow economic growth promotion, inadequate education and infrastructure expansion, and resistance to political reform.
• Internal problems led to external ones, weakening Russia's international affairs due to a weak economic base for military support.
• Russia lost the Crimean War (1853–1856) against the Ottoman Empire, which was supported by Great Britain and France.
• Russia lost the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) in a battle for power in East Asia.
• The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, seized power in the fall of 1917 and set up a communist government.
• Communists believed in workers' ownership of production means and collective ownership for prosperity and a just society.
• The Soviet government abolished private trade, distributed peasants' crops to feed urban workers, and took over ownership of factories and heavy industries.

Key Events Leading to Revolution in Russia

• Bloody Sunday, January 22, 1905: Thousands of workers marched peacefully to petition the tsar but were shot by troops and police, resulting in about 1,300 deaths.
• The Revolution of 1905: Strikes involving 400,000 workers occurred in response to Bloody Sunday, but thousands were killed, injured, or exiled despite the tsar's attempts to appease protesters.
• Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905): Japan won easily against Russia, marking the first time an East Asian state defeated a European power in modern history, as both Russia and Japan wanted to expand their influence in Korea and Manchuria.
• World War I: Germany declared war on Russia in 1914, revealing the poor training and arming of Russian troops and causing extreme food shortages for civilians.
• The success of the Bolsheviks in taking power frightened the world and became an important issue shaping world affairs in the rest of the 20th century.

Upheaval in China

• China was another land-based empire that collapsed due to internal and external issues
• A revolution in 1911 overthrew the Qing Dynasty, which had come to power in 1644, and created a republic led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen.
• China faced Internal Challenges of ethnic tensions and the constant danger of famine.
• The Qing rulers were Manchus, while the Han people never fully accepted the Qing as legitimate rulers.
• China experienced rapid population growth between the mid-1700s and mid-1800s, but could not expand food production quickly enough.
• Government revenues were low due to an outdated tax system.
• External Challenges included growing threats from European industrialization.
• Europeans could only trade in Canton (Guangzhou) in the late 18th century.
• Europeans commonly bought tea, rhubarb, porcelain, and silk, while the Chinese received European silver in exchange.
• Many Chinese rallied behind the empress in the 1890s in response to growing European influence.

Chinese Republic

• In 1911, the last Chinese dynasty was overthrown by a revolutionary movement led by Sun Yat-sen. Sun believed that China should continue to follow Confucian principles

The Three People's Principles

• Democracy: Sovereignty for those Chinese who were "able," with the country governed by pragmatic experts.
• Nationalism: Advocated patriotism and loyalty, primarily to central authority.
• Livelihood: Aimed to end the unequal distribution of wealth and harsh economic exploitation.
• Sun Yat-sen had little military strength and gave up his position to a military leader after two months.
• The Chinese Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, would later regain power and rule China for two decades before losing a civil war with Chinese Communists.

Self-Determination in the Ottoman Collapse

• The Ottoman Empire was the "sick man of Europe" by the beginning of the 20th century.
• Reforms known as the Young Turks emerged, advocating for a constitution like those of European states.
• The Young Turks advocated Turkification, an effort to make all citizens of the multiethnic empire identify with Turkish culture, which was heavily Islamic
• Turks resented economic policies of Europeans. Foreign investments had given Europeans undue power.
• The Allied forces occupied Anatolia.
• The Turkish National Movement fought for self-determination.
• The Republic of Turkey was established in 1923, with Kemal as the first president.
• Kemal was awarded the surname Atatürk (“father of the Turks")
• Atatürk reformed Turkey to make it more like the Western democracies
• Atatürk implemented reforms: establishing public education for boys and girls, abolishing polygyny, and expanding

Power Shifts in Mexico

• Mexico was under the control of dictator Porfirio Díaz, who oversaw stability and economic progress but allowed foreign investors to control many of the country’s resources.
• The wealthiest 1 percent of the population controlled 97 percent of the land.
• In 1910, Díaz jailed Francisco Madero, an opposition candidate, sparking the Mexican Revolution due to his strong-armed policies, accommodation to foreign powers, and opposition to land reform.
• Madero escaped and set up revolutionary offices in El Paso, Texas.
• In 1911, Madero's troops, under Francisco “Pancho” Villa, defeated Mexican troops, sending Díaz into exile.
• Emiliano Zapata began redistributing land to impoverished peasants.
• Until 1920, Mexico suffered political instability and violence, resulting in around 2 million deaths.
• Mexico adopted a new constitution in 1917, including land redistribution, universal suffrage, and public education.
• The Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, was formed in 1929 and dominated Mexican politics until 2000.

Causes of World War I

• Social and political developments contributed to the escalation of tensions that led to a global conflict before World War I.
• European nations competed for raw material resources in Africa and Asia by expanding their empires.
• Mutual alliances created entanglements that committed nations to defense systems.
• Arms races, the rise of nationalism, and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand caused WWI.
• World War I lasted from 1914-1918.

Immediate Causes of the Great War

• Assassination by Gavrilo Princip of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, on June 28, 1914, sparked World War I.
• Austria-Hungary sent an ultimatum to Serbia, demanding an end to anti-Austrian agitation, but Serbia rejected it.
• Austria-Hungary looked to Germany for military assistance, while Serbia looked to Russia for help.

Long-Term Causes of the Great War

• The acronym MAIN (Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, and Nationalism) can be used to remember the sources of WWI tensions.
• Militarism: European powers competed for dominance through aggressive military preparedness.
• Alliances: European nations formed secret alliances for protection.
• Imperialism: Rivalries developed due to competition for overseas colonies.
• Nationalism: Pride in one's national identity fueled tensions.

Consequences of the Great War

• World War I shattered the optimism of the early 20th century.
• It led to the downfall of monarchies in Russia, Austria-Hungary, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire.
• The war redrew the maps of Europe and the Middle East, disintegrated empires, and led to the beginning of the end of colonialism.
• New technologies made it the deadliest and most destructive war in human history.
• The war disrupted European economies, caused social consequences, and shifted power from Europe to the United States.

Conducting World War I

• Wilfred Owen labeled “The old Lie” in his poem.
• Britain went to war without universal conscription, or compulsory enlistment in armed forces.
• British Army recruited "Pals Battalions" made up of men who already new each other.
• Few people understood the brutality of 20th century warfare at the time, though the world became aware of horrific effects of new technology and tactics like trench warfare, poison gas, machine guns, submarines, airplanes, and tanks.
• The experience was the time spent in trenches (long ditches dug in the ground with excavated earth banked in front for defense against enemy fire). Trenches were often cold, muddy, and rat-infested.
• Many soldiers died of unhygienic diseases conditions.
• Chlorine, phosgene, and mustard gas were the poison gases used.
• Machine guns could fire more than 500 rounds of ammunition per minute.
• Submarines wreaked havoc on the shipping lanes of the Atlantic Ocean.
• Airplanes were small and unable to carry many weapons but were fitted with machine guns by 1915 so aerial combat could begin.
• Tanks moved across vast areas of difficult terrain, over trenches, with the ability to fire at the enemy.
• The result of these advances was stalemate: a state where neither of the sides could defeat the other.

The United States Enters the War

• Economic ties between the United States and the Allies led to U.S. entry into the war in 1917, as did the belief the Allied nations were more democratic than the Central Powers.
• Growing resentment against Germans led to the sinking of the Lusitania, and the Zimmermann Telegram pushed the United States into the war.

Total War

• Combatant nations intensified the conflict in World War I by committing all their resources to help the war effort.
• domestic population, and their military was committed to winning.
• Women worked in factories producing war materials.
• Workers from China were helping make up for labor shortages in Britain, France, and Russia.
• Economies were used to win the war, with Governments censoring the media and imprisoning those who spoke out.
• Propaganda was used to communicate or influence community opinion by spreading information.
• Posters and newspaper articles depicted the enemy crudely and often misrepresented war facts, leading to hatred and bitterness among the public.

A Global War

• World War I was fought in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
• Most of the major combatants ruled colonies, causing competition for colonies, Imperialism, and major battles in North Africa and the Middle East.
• The British seized most of Germany's colonies in Africa.
• Colonial troops reinforced "home countries" forces in several battles.
• Troops formed a special corps known as ANZAC and fought in Gallipoli (a peninsula in northwestern Turkey)
• Canadians fought in European battles and Britain drafted Africans and Indians for combat roles in Europe
• The French Army included Africans and Indochinese.
• Arab troops attacked Ottoman forts in Arabia and present-day Israel and helped the British take over Baghdad, Damascus, and Jerusalem.

Women and the War

• Women replaced men on farms and in factories and also served as ambulance drivers, and switchboard operators.
• Russia created propaganda for women to fight in the war.

The Paris Peace Conference

• The war damaged Europe greatly.
• Paris Peace Conference leaders became known as the Big Four: Woodrow Wilson (United States), David Lloyd George (Great Britain), Georges Clemenceau (France), and Vittorio Orlando (Italy).
• Wilson wanted to establish "peace without victory."
• Clemenceau believed out of all the Allies, France deserved special considerations.

Fourteen Points

• Wilson wanted to create a League of Nations where all nations discussed global conflicts.
• Senate didn't agree to ratify Treaty of Versailles with Germany.

The Treaty of Versailles

• Wilson could not convince France and Britain not to punish Germany.
• Germany paid war reparations, gave up its colonies, and restricted its army.
• This harsh treatment and economic problems set stage for Nazis to take power.

Explore the intense period of rebellion in Russia in the early 1900s, leading to the assassination of Nicholas II. Examine the internal challenges, including slow economic growth and resistance to political reform, that fueled the Russian Revolution.