World War I, Russian Revolution, and Communism

Lsn 15

Part 1: World War I

Theme: Causes and Results of Global War

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Agenda

• Causes• Schlieffen Plan• Trench Warfare• Attempts to break the stalemate

– Gas– Peripheral Operations: Gallipoli– Frontal Assaults at Verdun and the Somme– Hutier tactics– Tanks– American Involvement

• Technological Developments• Surrender and Settlement

Causes of World War I

• Colonial disputes

• Nationalism

• Alliances

• Militarism

Colonialism

• Virtually all the major powers were engaged in a scramble for empire to bolster their economies

• The fiercest competition was between Britain and Germany and between France and Germany

Nationalism

• The French Revolution had spread nationalism throughout most of Europe– The idea that people with the same ethnic origins,

language, and political ideals had the right to form sovereign states through the process of self-determination

• Nationalist aspirations of subject minorities threatened to tear apart the multinational empires of the Ottomans, Hapsburgs, and Russians– Such a development would affect the regional

balance of power

Nationalism: Austria-Hungary

• Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes all had nationalist aspirations, especially the Serbs

• The Serbs were strongly supported by the Russians as part of the pan-Slavic movement

• The Austria-Hungarians were strongly supported by the Germans

Nationalism: Assassination of Ferdinand

• Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary went on a visit to Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina which Austria-Hungary had annexed in 1908

• Sarajevo was a hotbed of pan-Serbian nationalism

• As he drove through Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, seven assassins from the terrorist group Black Hand waited for him– The Black Hand advocated for a

greater Serbia

Archduke Ferdinand

and his family

Nationalism: Assassination of Ferdinand

• Gavrilo Princip shot and killed Ferdinand• Austria issued an ultimatum to Serbia

demanding that Austrian officials take part in any investigation of people found on Serbian territory connected to the assassination

• Serbia refused this demand as a violation of its sovereignty

• On July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia– A tangled alliance system then began to realize itself

Triple Alliance

• Germany and Austria-Hungary signed the Dual Alliance in 1879, committing the two states to mutual assistance in the event of attack by France or Russia.

• The Dual Alliance was expanded into the Triple Alliance in 1882 when Italy joined. – Italy proved to be an equivocal partner,

declaring itself neutral when the war began and ultimately siding with the Allies

Triple Entente

• The Triple Alliance was counter-balanced by the Triple Entente of France, Russia, and Britain.

• As a result, by 1907 Europe was divided into two armed and rather fearful camps.

Tangled Alliances

• So…– When Austria-Hungary declared war on

Serbia on July 28, on July 29 Russia began mobilizing to defend its Serbian ally

– Then, in consideration of mobilization timetables, Russia also mobilized against Germany

– In response, Germany declared war on Russia on Aug 1

Tangled Alliances

• It continues…– France started to mobilize on behalf of its ally Russia– On Aug 3, Germany declared war on France and also

began to attack through neutral Belgium to France in accordance with its war plan

– Belgium protested to the signatories of the 1839 treaty guaranteeing its neutrality

– When Germany refused Britain’s (one of the treaty signatories) ultimatum on Aug 4, Britain declared war on Germany

Militarism

• The reason all this happened so fast was the advanced state of militarism– World War I was the

first war in which the opponents went to war with detailed and precise plans that had been written years before the outbreak of hostilities

• “Mobilization means war” (German ambassador to the Russians)

• War Plans– Austria: Attack Russia, Italy, or

the Balkans (Variants R, I, and B)

– Russia: Attack Austria-Hungary (Plan A) or defend against Germany (Plan G)

– Germany: Attack France before Russia could mobilize (Schlieffen Plan)

– France: Attack Germany (Plan XVII)

– Great Britain: Deploy BEF

The Plans

• French Plan XVII disregarded Belgian frontier (thought Germans wouldn’t violate Belgian neutrality)

• Schlieffen Plan had main effort through Belgium

Schlieffen Plan

• The Schlieffen plan sent a powerful right wing through western Belgium, the Netherlands, and northern France in a gigantic wheeling movement

• The idea was to destroy France before Russia could mount an effective offensive against the weak German forces in the east and thus avoid fighting a two-front war

Alfred von Schlieffen (1833-1913), chief of the

German general staff

Moltke’s Modifications to the Schlieffen Plan

• Helmuth von Moltke replaced Schlieffen as chief of the general staff in 1906 and modified Schlieffen’s original plan– Weakened the right wing and strengthened the left

• Moved four and a half corps from the west to the east to protect East Prussia

• Modified sweep of right wing so that Germans would not violate the Netherlands’ neutrality

• Added a counterattack mission to the left wing– Violated Schlieffen’s dying words to “Keep the right wing

strong”

Problems with the German Plan

• Became inflexible “war by timetable”– Required enormous logistical effort to move

men and equipment from Aachen to around Paris in a little more than five weeks

– Committed Germany to a two front war• Necessitated attacking before Russia or France

could seize the initiative (even if Germany wasn’t ready)

Result

Schlieffen Plan worked initially but stalled due to logistical demands; static warfare began

Trench Warfare

Attempts to Break the Stalemate: Gas

• Various efforts were made to break the stalemate

• The Germans first used gas against the Russians on Jan 13, 1915 with little effect

• They were more successful at Ypres on Aug 15 Even German dogs were

outfitted with gas masks

Dulce et Decorum Est(“Sweet and Fitting it is to Die for One’s

Country”)

Gas! GAS! Quick boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,

Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time:

But someone still was yelling out and stumbling

And floundering like a man in fire or lime. –

Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light

As under a green sea, I saw him drowning-- Wilfred Owen

“Gassed” by John Singer Sargent

Attempts to Break the Stalemate: Peripheral Operations

• Ottoman Empire entered war on the side of the Central Powers on Oct 31, 1914

• Seen, especially with the British, as a new theater that offered an alternative to the deadlock on the Western Front

• End result was a series of operations on the periphery of Europe, including the disastrous Gallipoli campaign

Attempts to Break the Stalemate: Frontal Attacks

• On Feb 21, 1916, the Germans launched a massive attack on Verdun which was preceded by a 12-hour bombardment

• Fighting continued until December 19 and caused over an estimated 700,000 dead, wounded and missing

• The battlefield was smaller than ten square kilometers

Attempts to Break the Stalemate: Frontal Assaults

• On July 1, the British launched an offensive along the Somme River to try to divert German troops from Verdun

• On the first day, 60,000 British soldiers were killed, wounded, or captured.

• When the attack halted in November, the Allies and the Germans had each suffered more than 600,000 casualties.

German casualties at the Battle of the Somme

Attempts to Break the Stalemate: Hutier Tactics

• Short, violent artillery prep as storm troops advanced to assault positions

• Storm troops infiltrated through main defenses to objectives in the rear

• Artillery shifted to fix enemy

• Follow on forces reduced bypassed pockets of resistance

Attempts to Break the Stalemate: Tanks

• The British began developing tanks in 1914 and used them in small numbers at the Somme on Sept 15, 1916– Achieved little in

this initial employment

• The Battle of Cambrai on Nov 20, 1917 marked the first large scale use of tanks with 474

British Mark I tank of the type used during the Battle of the Somme

Attempts to Break the Stalemate: Tanks

• At Cambrai, the British gained initial surprise and advanced three miles by the end of the first day– Deepest penetration into

German lines on the Western Front since the beginning of trench warfare

• On the second day, the British continued to advance but the Germans brought up four more divisions

• On the third day, the British began losing what ground they had gained

Breaking the Stalemate: American Entry

• In 1914, the American public was firmly opposed to intervening in the war

• The mood began to change in 1915, when the Germans sunk the British passenger liner Lusitania, killing 1,198, including 128 US citizens

• Still in 1916, Woodrow Wilson was reelected President with the slogan, “He Kept Us Out of War”

Between Feb 14 and Sept 18, 1915, the Germans practiced

“unrestricted submarine warfare.” Any Allied ship in the

seas around the British Isles would be sunk without warning.

German Miscalculation

• Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917– Notified US of decision Jan 31– Sunk several US ships in Feb

and Mar• US declared war on April 6, 1917

– At the same time Russia was withdrawing from the war (we’ll talk more about this in Part 2), the US was entering

• Germany failed to end war before the US entered it

Surrender

• Eventually, the Allies overwhelmed the Germans with men and equipment – “Americans and tanks”

• Bulgaria surrendered Sept 30, 1918• The Ottomans Oct 30• Austria-Hungary Nov 4• Germany Nov 11

– “Armistice Day” was replaced by “Veterans’ Day” by Act of Congress on May 24, 1954

Technological Advances from World War I

• The industrialization of society we studied in Lesson 6 would generate many military applications of new technology

• In 1915 British Admiral Jacky Fisher wrote, “The war is going to be won by inventions.”

• Machine gun• Rapid fire artillery• Airplanes• Internal combustion

engine• Tanks• Zeppelins• Gas• Flamethrowers

Paris Peace Conference

• The victorious powers met in Paris in 1919 to determine the postwar settlement

• Representatives from the Central Powers were not invited to attend

• The Russians were not invited to attend

• The French, British, and Americans dominated the conference

Georges Clemenceau (France), Lloyd George (Britain), and Woodrow Wilson (US) at

Versailles

Fourteen Points

• Wilson had announced his “Fourteen Points” as a proposed basis for the armistice a year before the Paris Peace Conference opened. He envisioned:– Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at,– Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas in peace

and in war,– The removal of all economic barriers and the

establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all nations,

– Adequate guarantees for a reduction in national armaments,

– Adjustments of colonial disputes to give equal weight to the interests of the controlling government and the colonial population, and

– A call for “a general association of nations”

Fourteen Points

• Many perceived Wilson’s Fourteen Points as excessively idealistic

• For the Allies, they conflicted with the secret wartime agreements they had made to distribute among themselves territories and possessions of the defeated nations

• For the defeated powers, the harsh treaties that would be later imposed upon them certainly seemed to violate the spirit of the Fourteen Points

Treaty of Versailles (1919)

• In contrast to Wilson’s Fourteen Points, the French especially wanted harsh terms imposed on the Germans– Wanted to destroy or permanently weaken Germany as

a threat

• The Treaty of Versailles denied the Germans a navy and air force and limited the size of their army to 100,000 troops

• Prevented Germany and Austria from entering any sort of political union

• Required the payment of war reparations

League of Nations

• Wilson’s call for “a general association of nations” resulted in the Covenant of the League of Nations with 42 original members

• This new world organization would be rendered ineffective by two flaws:– Though designed to solve international disputes

through arbitration, it had no power to enforce its decisions

– Its basic premise of collective security never materialized because at any given time one or more of the great powers did not belong to the League

League of Nations

• The US never joined the League because the Senate rejected it

• By 1940 the League had dismantled

• Nonetheless it established the pattern for and served as a model for the United Nations

1919 British cartoon criticizing the failure of the United States to join the League of Nations

Europe Before and After World War I

Africa Before and After World War I

Part 2: Russian Revolution and Communism

Theme: Alternatives to democracy and capitalism, and the role of terror and

oppression to seize and maintain governmental power

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German Miscalculation (Review)

• Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917– Notified US of decision Jan 31– Sunk several US ships in Feb

and Mar• US declares war on April 6, 1917

– At the same time Russia was withdrawing from the war (we’ll talk more about this in Part 2), the US was entering

• Germany failed to end war before the US entered it

Nicholas II

• The Romanov dynasty began its rule of Russia in 1613

• The last member of the Romanov dynasty was Nicholas II who ruled from 1894-1917 using oppression and police control

• Under Nicholas II, Russia suffered military defeats in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) which brought to a head simmering political and social discontent

Nicholas II

• In Jan 1905, soldiers killed 130 workers who were marching in protest to Nicholas’ rule– Sparked countrywide protests and forced some

concessions• Nicholas was further weakened by Russian

setbacks in World War I in 1916 and 1917– Disintegrating armies, mutinies, and food shortages

provoked a series of demonstrations and strikes in Petrograd

– Eventually troops mutinied– In 1917, Nicholas abdicated the throne, ending the

Romanov dynasty

Russian Revolution: the Soviets• “Soviets,” elected councils

that had first originated as strike committees in 1905, surfaced all over Russia and wielded considerable power through control of factories and segments of the military

• The Petrograd soviet demanded Russia pursue an immediate peace in World War I

• To reinforce this movement, the Germans transported Vladimir Lenin and other revolutionaries back to Russia

1921 poster declares, “Long live the Communist Councils!”

Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924)

• Lenin’s older brother had been arrested and hanged for plotting to assassinate the tsar

• Lenin was in exile in Switzerland were he studied Marxism and wrote political pamphlets

Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924)

• In contrast to Marx, Lenin viewed the industrial working class as incapable of developing the proper revolutionary consciousness that would lead to effective political action

• The industrial proletariat would require the leadership of a well-organized and highly disciplined party to serve as the catalyst for revolution and the realization of a socialist society

• Lenin advocated transfer of legal authority to the soviets and uncompromising opposition to the war

Bolsheviks

• Lenin headed the Bolsheviks, the radical wing of the Russian Social Democratic Party

• The Bolsheviks capitalized on the government’s insistence on continuing the war, its inability to feed the population, and its refusal to undertake land reform

• Eventually the Bolsheviks gained control of the Petrograd soviet 1922 poster declaring

“Starvation is strangling Russia”

Bolsheviks

• On Oct 24-25, 1917, the Bolsheviks stormed the Winter Palace and seized control in a virtually bloodless insurrection

• The Bolsheviks ended Russia’s involvement in World War I by signing the treaty of Brest-Litorsk with Germany on March 3, 1918

Picture purportedly original, but actually a reenactment,of the Bolshevik storming of the Winter Palace

Civil War

• The Bolsheviks and their opponents fought a civil war from 1918 to 1920

• Lenin established Moscow as his capital and initiated the “Red Terror” against the “Whites”– Secret police killed 200,000 of

Lenin’s opponents– In July 1918, the Bolsheviks

executed Nicholas II and his family to prevent them from being manipulated by the Whites

The Romanov Family

Civil War

• Britain, France, Japan, and the US all sent troops and supplies to aid the Whites but the Whites were defeated in 1920– 10 million are

estimated to have died in Russia’s civil war

1919 Bolshevik poster showing the three White generals as vicious dogs under the control of the US, France and Britain.  

War Communism

• During the civil war, the Bolsheviks adopted a hasty and unplanned course of nationalization called “war communism”– The Bolshevik government assumed control

or ownership of banks, industry, and privately held commercial property

– Landed estates and the property of monasteries and churches became national property

– Private trade was abolished

War Communism

• By 1920, industrial production had fallen to 1/10 its prewar level and agricultural output was down 50%– Workers went on

strike, demobilized soldiers flooded the workforce, peasants rebelled

– Lenin had to do something

1920 Bolshevik poster entitled “The Last Battle” shows a Red Army

soldier knocking a capitalist businessman off the world.

New Economic Policy

• Lenin realized he needed to win back the workers so he radically reversed war communism, implementing the “New Economic Policy” in 1921

• Temporarily restored the market economy and some private enterprise– However, Lenin died in 1924

before the plan could get a decent chance to work

• A struggle for power ensued and Joseph Stalin emerged in control in 1928

Lenin’s body on display in Moscow

Five Year Plan

• Stalin replaced Lenin’s New Economic Plan with his first Five-Year Plan in 1929– Designed to transform the Soviet Union from a predominantly

agricultural country to a leading industrial power– Set targets for increased productivity in all spheres of the

economy, especially heavy industry, at the expense of consumer goods

– Expropriated privately owned land to create collective or cooperate farm units whose profits were shared by farmers

• Even though consumer goods were almost non-existent, full employment in the midst of Global Depression made a centrally planned economy appear a viable alternative

The Great Purge

• Stalin consolidated power by inciting a civil war within his own party to remove opposition

• Between 1935 and 1938 he removed all people suspected of opposition from their positions of authority– By 1939, 8 million Soviet

citizens were in labor camps and 3 million were dead

Joseph Stalin(1879-1953)

Soviet Labor Camp in Siberia

Next

• Mid term