The Era of the Masses

World War I

Mass Culture

Mass Production and Consumption

1910-1939

Was war inevitable? • Economic and imperial rivalries fueled

tensions and threats of wat

• Arms race sees massive stores of weapons and mobilization of resources

• Pan Slavic ethnic nationalism and growth of tensions in the Balkans; demise of the Ottoman Empire

• The breakdown of the balance of power system of diplomacy

The Balkan Powder Keg • assassination of the

Archduke Franz Ferdinand  (heir to the Austrian Hungarian throne)  and his wife, in Sarajevo Bosnia on June 28, 1914

• shot by a 19 year old Bosnian student; member of a national liberation group, The Black Hand,  with links to Serbia

• the final crisis that tipped the balance from peace to war

Chronology of July 1914 • early July: Austrians perceive the assassination

as a threat from Serbia• German Chancellor issues 'carte blanche' to

Austria; says Germany will support them no matter what

• Late July: Austrians issue ultimatum to Serbia• July 28:  Austria and Russia mobilize for war• Germans issue ultimatum to Russia to cease

mobilization• August 1, 1914:  Germany declares war on

Russia and France• August 4, 1914: Britain enters the war against

Germany, in defense of Belgium

Stalemate in the West

• September 1914: French and British mount a counter offensive at Marne

• British Expeditionary Force had been in full retreat, but Lord Kitchener determined that the British army had to stand with the French army and fight; were able to check the advance of the German army

• But, created a stalemate; German army established a fortified line that the French and British were unable to break---the Western Front--line from Switzerland to the English Channel--25,000 miles

Trench Warfare

a war of attrition

military engagements marked by 'going over the top‘

'The Troglodyte World'

Verdun, February 1916

• German assault on this town; not strategically important but wanted to break the morale of the French-10 month struggle, no significant territorial gains

The Home Front• August 1914--Europeans welcomed the

prospect of a short adventurous war that would clear the air, but within six months-became clear that the reality was to be very different

• Demand of 'total war' on civilian populations: mobilization of all aspects of society and the economy

• Industry and the Trade Unions mobilized• Rationing and coping with shortages

• German poster, 1917: “Through work to Victory! Through Victory to Peace!”

Women at War

• female workers and the munitions industry

• conscription for men, January 1916; created demand for women replacement workers

• 'dilution' of the work force with unskilled men and women workers

• impact of war on gender relations: permanent or temporary gains?

War Fatigue--1917• by 1917--strains of war being

felt by all nations involved--morale on the front lines suffering as a result of the high casualties and small gains

• 'shell shock' and desertion • acts of mutiny by soldiers

dismissed as result of pacifist propaganda-but soldiers wanted the governments to realize that the armies were made up of men, not beasts to be sent to slaughter

• morale on the home front

The Eastern Front

• Russian society initially united in the war effort --common goal of defeating the Germans and Austria Hungarian empires

• Conditions on The Eastern  Front are bloody and desperate

• By 1917 Russia is in crisis and the Czar is forced to abdicate – the Bolsheviks take power in October and in March 1918 sign a separate peace with Germany, abandoning the Triple Alliance

An End in Sight: November, 1918

• German army sends troops from the east to the west to break the stalemate

• German army was within 50 miles of Paris in April 1918

• With a fresh influx of American troops (the U.S. declared war on Germany only in April 1917) the Allies push back the German advance

Wilson’s fourteen points• Wilson called • US President Woodrow Wilson’s vision of post-

war world was one where the right of self-determination for all nations would be respected

• Envisioned a League of Nations where international disputes are solved without resort to war

• Replace the old system of ‘balance of power’ diplomacy with ‘collective security’ model

David Lloyd-George (Britain), Vittorio Orlando (Italy), Georges Clemenceau (France), and Woodrow Wilson (USA)

Paris Peace Conference (1919)

• Many delegates to the Paris Peace Conference were hopeful that Wilson’s 14 points would be put into practice – but they were not

• The French wanted revenge from Germany while Britain wanted to maintain its empire – thus they were able to shape the treaty that emerged

Arab Representation• Led by Prince Feisal of Jordan, the Arab

delegation to the conference sought independence for the Middle East (from the Ottoman Empire)

• Their hopes were dashed when the British and French saw this as an opportunity to expand their own control over the area

• The British also supported the creation of Jewish state in Palestine

• This sowed the seeds of Nationalist movements in the Middle East

Prince Feisal at the Paris Peace Conference. Behind him and to his left is T.E. Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia

Egypt• The Egyptian delegation to the Paris

Peace conference was denied entry – leading to riots and insurrection against British officials

• The British had occupied the area around the Suez Canal before the war, and officially made it a protectorate in 1914

• The insurrection was put down violently – and the British maintained their presence there until after WWII

The Russian Revolution• In Feb. 1917 a general strike and general

upheaval forces Nicholas II to abdicate• A moderate constitutional government is

founded – but Russia remains at war• The Marxist Bolshevik party agitates for a

separate peace and promising land for the people

• The Bolsheviks under Lenin seize power and are able to muster an army to maintain that power

• Lenin wanted to make Russia into an industrial society where workers owned the means of production

• A classless society based on the political philosophy of Karl Marx

• To achieve this goal, Russia needed to have a perpetual revolution where the masses would be educated in a revolutionary worldview

• Special powers had to be given to the state in order to achieve the goals of the revolution and transform a mainly agrarian society into the vanguard of world revolution

Lenin in power• First had to make peace with Germany –

but all military efforts go to the civil war (Reds vs. Whites)

• Redistributes land to the peasants and state takes ownership of industry, resulting in famines and unemployment that stir the civil war

• The New Economic Policy allows some concessions for small business and landowners to compete

Cultural life of the Revolution• The early revolution develops a very

vibrant intellectual culture and is open to exchange of ideas and debate

• Socialist realism, an art style that draws on European modernism and themes promoting workers’ lives

• This artistic and intellectual openness comes to an end after Lenin’s death in 1925 and the rise to power of Joseph Stalin