World War One 

I.  Causes usually discussed by historians

• failure of diplomacy
• nationalism (esp. in the Balkans)
• the arms race
• imperialist competition
• social imperialism
• the zeitgeist (the "spirit of the age")
• bad decisions by national leaders

II.  The breakdown of diplomacy

•     two alliance blocks in Europe by 1907:  England-France-Russia vs Germany-Austria Hungary-Italy
•     tensions between Germany and the French-British over colonial expansion in Africa (see previous lecture)
•     tensions over the Balkans (decline of Ottoman Turkey's empire and ambitions of the Austrians--who in 1908 annexed Bosnia-Herzogovina--and the Russians; rising nationalism of the Serbians)
•     three wars in the Balkans in 1912-1913 involved Serbia and other Balkan states, Austria and Turkey, but Serbia's ally Russia did not directly participate
•     28 June 1914 assassination of Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand in Sarajevo (Bosnia)

THEN

• Austria declared war on Serbia. 
• Russia declared that it would defend Serbia and began to mobilize.
• Germany prepared to mobilize to support Austria and declared war on Russia.
• This in turn drew France, England, then Italy and Turkey into the war. 
• (Italy switched sides in 1916 and joined the British alliance; the US joined the war in 1917 on the British side)

III.  Imperialism and social imperialism as causes

•     Frustration of German imperialist ambitions in Africa had led the German leadership to decide that it was willing to fight for wider empire
•     1912 meetings of Kaiser Wilhelm and his closest advisors (including Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg and industrialist Walter Rathenau) to discuss Germany's aims in the next war
•     German aims:  German control over "middle Europe"; German colonization of Eastern Europe and Russia; German control over "middle Africa"; expanded German influence in Asia and the Middle East
•     Social imperialism--war as a way of preventing revolution in Germany (fear of rising Social Democratic opposition)

IV.  The War

•     Enthusiasm for war in Fall 1914
•     Germany (and all other combatants) had planned on a quick victory
•     German advances stopped in France; trench warfare on the Western front
•     Initial German and Austrian victories on the Eastern front vs Russia, which was not prepared for the war; by late 1915, trench warfare on Eastern front
•     Ottomans enter war in late 1914; by late 1915, trench warfare on Southern front
•     New technologies for killing and the realities of trench warfare
•     1917--USA entered the war; rebellions in the French army; revolution in Russia and the near collapse of the Russian army; still no clear winner
•     Fall 1918--German military collapse,  German military leadership lobbied for peace, vs. civilian officials (Rathenau) who wanted to continue fighting.  Austria knocked out of war in early November.  
•     9 November 1918--revolution in Berlin overthrew the Kaiser, who fled to Holland.  Germany declared a Republic.  New government signed an armistice on 11 November 1918.  War over.

V.  Domestic impacts of the war

•     Enormous economic and domestic dislocation (shortages, destruction, refugees, etc.)
•     Increased state intervention and planning in the economy to keep the war effort going (economic planning, state control over key industries, state-union-ownership cooperation in all major combatants, and esp. in Germany)
•     Shifts in gender roles and (in the USA) impact on race relations
•     Death toll (approx. 10 million dead)
•     Cultural shock at level of violence and death undermined faith in progress and weakened faith in democracy

VI.  Revolutions

•     1917 Russian revolutions (Tsar overthrown in March 1917; weak provisional government; Lenin and Bolsheviks [Communists]  seize power in November 1917 and held on to it to win a a 3-year Civil War [1918-1921]  (see linked notes on Soviet Russia, 1917-1941)
•     1918 German revolution established a Republic, at first a Social Democratic-Liberal coalition
•     1918-1919, revolutions in Hungary and in Turkey
•     1919-1920, failed attempted Communist uprisings in Germany

VII.  Break up of old empires

    Austria-Hungarian, Russian, Ottoman empires all  broken up into several new countries 

 VII.  The Peace Process

•     US government's position (President Wilson)--Liberal post-war world
•     Paris Peace Conference of 1919
•     Treaty of Versailles (1919):  required that Germany accept blame for the war; resulted in German territorial losses; loss of all German colonies; limits placed on size and armaments of the German military; Germany required to pay reparations for war damage.
•     Similar treaties drawn up for for Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey
•     Creation of the League of Nations