The Consequences of World War I

Question to Start

•Why do we forget about World War I and not World War II?

Four Big Results of World War I

• 1. Russian Revolution• 2. Treaty of Versailles• 3. The Development of a World Culture• 4. The Ascendency of the United States

Russian Revolution

• Actually two different Revolutions in 1917– February Revolution – eliminates Tsar, creates

provisional.– October Revolution – Bolshevik Revolution -

Communists

Why Russian Revolution?

• Late Industrialization• Disaffected Workers• Development of Middle Class• Huge differences in rich/poor• Weak Rulership• Bloody Sunday - 1905• The War casualties / losses

February Revolution

• Tsar Nicholas II at the front / Grigori Rasputin– 1.8 M. Dead / 2 M. captured / 1 M. missing

• Started with bread strikes in Petrograd • Duma / Army turned against him• Provisional Gov’t set up – responded to

Soviets (local workers councils)• Alexander Kerensky

October Revolution

• Vladamir Lenin – greatest secret weapon ever– Peace, Land, Bread

• Started when government was said to have no teeth vs. Germans

• Treaty of Brest-Litovsk• Mencheviks v. Bolsheviks – white v. red.• Leon Trotsky – Propaganda minister – basically

ran four year war v. White Russians.• Operation Archangel

The “First” Soviet Russia

• Lenin’s view of communism – closer to Marx.– Run by Politburo and party meetings– New Economic Policy – mixed economy

• Lenin dies of strokes in 1924• Fight between Trotsky and Stalin for power.– Trotsky wants more bureaucracy, less

centralization – international fight– Stalin wants more centralization, becomes a

totalitarian dictatorship.– Trotsky loses by 1928 – goes into exile.

Stalin’s Russia - 1928• Centralized totalitarian dictatorship by 1932– Collectivization – command economy – necessary

because of scissor effect – Ukrainian Famine – Stalin’s Holocaust – 4-5 million– Cult of Personality– Great Purge – 700,000 killed / millions sent to

gulags– 5 Year Plans of Industrialization – 1933 / 1938– Creation of KGB– Heavily repressed Orthodox Church

Paris Peace Conference

• Big “Four” – Woodrow Wilson (US), Georges Clemenceau (Fr.), David Lloyd George (UK), and Vittorio Orlando (It.)

• Redrew world map• Huge reparations on Germany and admission

of guilt for war• Started League of Nations

International Grievances• Australia – sought to expand power in pacific• China – sought to get Japan out of its territory• Italy – Sought the land promised by Entente• Japan – Racial Equality Proposal (rejected)• Zionists – recognition of Israel• France – punish Germany (Article 231)• US – Bring 14 points to life• Great Britain – Protect the empire• Sykes-Picot Agreement• Ho Chi Minh – not allowed to air grievances

against France

The Sykes-Picot Agreement

Treaty of Versailles

• Germany took responsibility for war• Responsible for 38 billion in war reparations• Germans lost territory to French• Ottoman Empire broken up into

French/English territory• Austro-Hungary Empire broken up

Europe Pre/Post World War I

Zionist Map Used at Paris Peace Conference

Proposed “New Middle East” in 2006

League of Nations• Created as part of 14 points plan of Wilson’s.• Wilson wanted to create a harmonious

balance of power and provide for ethnic minorities.

• Had to sacrifice most of the points to keep the League as a potential.

• Lost the League when US refused to join.• US had to sign Berlin Treaty in 1920, just to

get other benefits of Versailles Treaty.