WWI Causes & Road to War

Causes of WWI

• High instability and tension made the region known as a powder keg
• Rising nationalism, imperialism, and socialism put pressure on governments to engage in war
• Alliances were formed to maintain the balance of power and prevent war, it was thought alliances would help if one country was attacked
• The alliance system led to a domino effect, drawing more countries into the war, ultimately causing a total war

Road to War

• Austria-Hungary (AH) wanted to declare war on Serbia following the assassination of Ferdinand and Sophie
• Germany supported Austria-Hungary due to being allied
• Germany feared France and Russia, who were also allied
• Kaiser Wilhelm went on vacation, but Austria-Hungary issued Serbia a harsh ultimatum behind his back and Russia mobilized to support Serbia
• Austria-Hungary mobilized without informing the Emperor that Russia had mobilized
• Germany issued Russia a 12-hour ultimatum to call off mobilization and France an 18-hour ultimatum to pledge neutrality

Early Engagements

• Germany was at war with France and Russia, siding with Austria-Hungary
• Britain got involved after Germany invaded Belgium, violating its neutrality
• Germany crossed the Luxembourg border and seized the country within 24 hours
• Germany's invasion of Belgium led to Britain getting involved
• Russian armies advanced into East Prussia and the Battle of Tannenberg resulted in a significant German victory
• German forces continued to follow the Schlieffen Plan, leading to the Battle of the Marne, Germans were pushed back, leading to trench warfare

Critique

• Germany agreed to help Austria with a "blank check", which was unwise and the Kaiser went on vacation
• Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia despite not being able to win
• The alliance system was flawed and dangerous
• Treaty of Versailles was unhelpful and left many countries resentful
• The Schlieffen Plan was based on unrealistic assumptions
• The Battle of the Somme had lots of casualties due to the plan being poorly executed

Russian Revolution

• Mass discontent, food shortages, and a severe political crisis were some of the unifying motivations for the Russian Revolution
• The Bolsheviks seized power by taking over government buildings and provisional government, they gave people what they wanted
• They withdrew from the war, redistributed land, and gave workers control of factories
• Leon Trotsky helped to create a strong Red Army
• Vladimir Lenin's policies included war communism and suppressing opposition with the Cheka
• Lenin wanted a vanguard party to lead the revolution and believed the state needed to remain strong to defend it
• Some viewed Lenin a hero and some viewed him as a dictator

Bismarck's Plan

• Otto von Bismarck aimed to keep Germany as a top power
• Isolating France so it could not make any treaties with other countries after the Franco-Prussian War was key to the plan
• He wanted to maintain peace in Europe by managing alliances and treaties
• Keep an eye on Great Britain, Russia, and France, to prevent other powers from rising and threatening Germany
• Kaiser Wilhelm II dismissed Bismarck and this plan was abandoned

Long-Term Causes of WWI: MANIA

• Militarism where Bismark wanted to keep the balance of power after the Franco-Prussian War
• Countries started stockpiling weapons
• New military technology
• Alliances pulled many countries into the war
  • Examples: Russia-Serbia, Germany and Austria-Hungary, Britain France and Belgium, Japan and Britain
  • Triple Alliance: Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary
  • Triple Entente: France, Britain, and Russia
• Nationalism was sparked by Imperial Rivalries
  • Countries wanted to be the best, prove dominance, and expand power
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina wanted to be part of Serbia, not Austria-Hungary
• Imperialism- Everyone wanted colonies in Africa for resources and troops
  • Germany wanted land that Britain controlled and wanted to stop France from making a protectorate in Morocco
  • This made Britain and France closer allies, uniting them against Germany

Event that Started WWI

• Assassinations in Sarajevo, Bosnia
• Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were assassinated by 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip
• Princip was part of a Serbian-Austrian terrorist group called the Black Hand
• Historians agree that this event started the war

Brinkmanship

• The pushing of a dangerous situation hoping the other side backs down before disaster occurs

Alliance System

• Countries made alliances over time
• Alliances prior to the war: Triple Alliance (Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary) and Triple Entente (France, Britain, and Russia)
• During the war: Triple Alliance became Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Ottoman Empire)
• Triple Entente became Allied Powers (Italy, France, Britain, Belgium, Russia, Switzerland, Japan, and China later joining)

Balkan Crisis

• A series of conflicts and tensions in the Balkans during the late 19th and early 20th centuries
• Driven by ethnic rivalries, territorial disputes, and decline of the Ottoman Empire
• First Balkan War (1912): Balkan states fought the Ottoman Empire to gain territory and Ottoman Empire lost
• Second Balkan War (1913): Bulgaria was defeated by Serbia, Greece, and Romania with Bulgaria, gaining additional territories

Key People

• Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the heir to Austria-Hungary and his assassination sparked World War I

Greater Serbia

• A political and nationalistic idea to create a larger Serbian state by uniting territories where ethnic Serbs lived

Blank Check

• Austria-Hungary asked Germany for unconditional support and Germany agreed

Short War Illusion

• Belief that the war would be quick due to new technologies
• "Short war illusion” did not come to fruition

Trench Warfare

• Rats were rampant and enormous and were a common horror
• Trenches were muddy, leading to many deaths
• Chlorine gas was super poisonous, prompting the creation of gas masks

Stalemate

• A situation where both sides were locked in defensive positions, making it difficult to achieve a clear victory, especially on the Western Front

Mustard Gas

• A chemical weapon used in World War I, first used by Germany in 1917
• Caused severe chemical burns and blisters on the skin, eyes, and respiratory system

Western and Eastern Fronts

• Western Front: Where Germany fought France and Britain, marked by bad trench warfare and stalemate
  • Battles of the Somme, Verdun, Isonzo, and Ypres
• Eastern Front: Where Germany and Austria-Hungary fought Russia
  • Battle of Tannenberg in 1914 gave the Germans a significant victory
• Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918 allowed Germany and Austria-Hungary to shift focus to the Western Front

Key Figures

• Kaiser Wilhelm II: German Emperor after Kaiser Wilhelm I, fired Bismarck
• Aleksei Brusilov: Russian general, led Russia to victory in the Brusilov Offensive

Generals

• Winston Churchill (Great Britain): Lord of Admiralty, later became Minister of Munitions
• Joseph-Simon Gallieni (France): French general, set up defenses around Paris
• Joseph-Jacques-Cesaire Joffre (France): Good French commander in the Battle of the Marne, bad in Battle of Somme
• Douglas Haig (Great Britain): Commander of the British Expeditionary Force, known as the butcher of the Somme
• Horatio Kitchener (Great Britain): War Minister and Field Marshall
• Erich Ludendorff (Germany): German general, worked alongside General Paul von Hindenburg in the Battle of Tannenberg
• Alexander Samsonov (Russia): One of the two Russian commanders in the Battle of the Marne, killed himself after the Battle of Tannenberg
• Paul von Hindenburg (Germany): Worked alongside Ludendorff in the Battle of Tannenberg
• Helmuth von Moltke (Germany): Led Germans in the Battle of Lorraine and Liege, was replaced by Eric von Falkenhein

Plans

• Alfred von Schlieffen (Germany): Created the Schlieffen Plan to avoid a two-front war
• Schlieffen Plan: A German capture of Paris

First Battle of the Marne

• The idea was to have the French attack Alsace-Lorraine and then flank them
• In order for this to work, they had to invade Luxembourg and Belgium
• The French did better than expected and before the British come, stalemate occurred
• Germans didn't capture Paris, so it’s seen as a British and France victory

von Kluck's change in the Schlieffen Plan

• German general made a crucial change where instead of swinging southwestward around Paris, he moved inward to the South to pin French armies
• The Battle started on September 5th and bled through 7 dreadful days
• Gallieni rushed reinforcements to the front
• History's first use of gasoline-powered mobility in the war
• Though there were few troops in the east, the Battle ulitmately fails because Russia did not have the arms

Siege of Tsingtao

• Tsingtao was a German colony in China leased from China in 1898 and had become an important Naval base
• When World War I broke out, Japan, part of the Allied powers, declared war and wanted German possessions in Asia
• Japan had already been part of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance with Britain
• Japan greatly outnumbered the Germans and won
• First time Japan really came into World War One and had the first naval launch, also expanded Japan's power
• The Anglo Japanese alliance survived the siege but not the war

Battle of Verdun

• Germany invaded France to take land and Erich von Falkenhayn believed that bleeding France white would force them to negotiate peace
• Germany chose Verdun because they believed it would cause the French to commit large forces to his defense
• France won and it motivated them to continue
• Question what would be an ideal place for this battle? An ideal place for battle of nutrition because it has good resources

Battle of the Somme

• A battle between the British and French and the Germans, which drew Germans away from Verdun
• It became a war of attrition
• British general Haig's plan was bad and he had terrible planning
• France and Great Britain won but gained little
• The battle presented new technologies and military tactics used in future fighting

Gallipoli Campaign

• The goal was to open up a supply route to Russia via the Dardanelles Strait, as well as push the Ottomans out of war
• The allies wanted to capture Dardanelle
• The ottoman empire won

Battle of Jutland

• Fought between the British Navy and the German Navy
• Germany wanted to destroy the British blockade and the British wanted to keep control of the North Sea
• British blockade prevented German ships from accessing the North sea

Brusilov Offensive

• Russia against Austria-Hungary
• One of the few Russian victories of the war
• Alexi Brusilov broke through the Austrian defenses in Galicia
• Despite victory and Austria getting destroyed beyond repair, Russia had to pull out of the war

Goals of Each Victory

• Russia led to one of its view victories
• Austria, Hungary got damaged beyond repair and had to rely on Austria
• It led to The End of the Austro-Hungarian Empire

Battle of the 2nd Marne

• Allies won!
• The war had Germany losing
• Germans were pushed back and the signing of the armistice in November 1918

Battle of Ypres

• Fought between Great Britain and France versus Germany
• No won but both sides thought they did
• Used chemical warfare tactics

Battles of the Isonzo

• A series of 12 battles between Italy and Austria Hungary + last battle between Italy and Germany
• Fought in the mountains rather than trenches

Battle of Tannenberg

• Germany vs Russia
• Demonstrated Russia's bad communication systems
• Germans trapped and annihilated much of the Second Russian Army
• Garmany gained confidence to go into unnecessary battles

Total War

• A type of warfare where all civilian and military resources of a nation are mobilized for their war effort

Lusitania & Zimmermann Telegram

• A boat traveling from New York to London that Germany sunk after claiming that it had weapons attached, though they were unsure
• Arthur Zimmermann sent a telegram to the German government for mexico to join them in the war if the U.S. joins too
• When the U.S government read the telegram they pushed the U.S. to join the Allied Powers

Armenian Genocide

• Young Turks seized power of the empire and joined the war on Germany's side
• Armenian people were rounded up and killed after the Turks grew wary that they were going to side with Russia
• There are 8 stages of genocide and at the end they say group deserved it

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

• Causes Russia to lose land is Germany wins this war

Treaty of London

• Italy signs with triple entente promising them more money if the joined the triple entente
• They didn't get the money during the war and so it makes their government unpopular
• Which leads to Benito Mussolini

Treaty of Versailles

• Happened between Allies and Germany in Paris
• Germany didn't go
• Reduced men and 1/3 of army of land was taken

Stabbed in the Back Myth

• Internal group has stabbed them in the back making the pull out of war
• Hitler thrives

Russian Government

• Alexander refused to share power and takes down rebel crew

Russo-Japanese War

• Russia persuades China to lease Liaodong Peninsula, sparking Japan
• Russia and Japan ended up in war signing the Treaty of Portsmouth
• Japan got full control of Korea and Korea became part of the Japanese Empire.

Revolution of 1905

• Russian people were mad because of a bad year for harvest
• Lost the Russo Japanese war
• Then bloody sunday happened
• reforms took place and a duma was created Didnt overthrow Tsar but it set the stage for Russian rev of 1917

Bloody Sunday

• Father Garp on came to ask peacefully for Tsar not to open fire
• Ignited wave or rebellion that the myths of Tsar were disproven

Vladmir Lenin

• His older brother was executed in 1887 for his plans
• Made him against Tsar regime

February/March Revolution

• Mass discontent
• Dissident Elites
• Antiwar Anti-Tsar- Socialism
• bad harvest
• Troops were the rioters

Provisional Government

• Duma and liberal factions
• Lenin returned and promised peace land and break
• Lenin wanted things to be voilent and Trotsky were great speakers with soviets to peasents and stop war - Lenin wnet into hiding
• Overthrow officers, the officers went home1

October/November Revolution

• Execute and takeover
• Trotsky and Petrograd Soviet
• Lenin was declared head of new government

Bolsheviks

• Redistribute land
• Pull out of WW1

Russian civil war

• Anti Bolshevik vs Bolshevik
• Trotsky led and they had war - Communism
• Suppresed checks

Joseph Staling

He overthrew Trotsky after

Leonid Trotsky

Adapted Karl Marx's ideas adapted to russian content

Speilvogel

• Germans lost battle and were to blame
• Lots of problems with France to punish Germany
• GB want money
• league of nations lack teeth