Immediate Causes of World War I
Treaty of Frankfurt, 1871
The Treaty of Frankfurt was the treaty concluded between France and Germany at the conclusion of the Franco-Prussian War. The terms of this treaty were very harsh: France lost Alsace-Lorraine to Germany, had to pay Germany $200,000,000.00, and the German army was to occupy France until the sum was paid. This treaty made the French very angry and resentful, and caused them to want revenge on the Germans.
Congress of Berlin, 1878
In 1877, one of the Balkan countries revolted against the Turks. This country was Bulgaria; she did very well against them. This might have been the end of it, but Russia saw her chance to get Constantinople and the Straits by helping Bulgaria, which is right next door to those places, win. Russia claimed to be entering the war to save the Christians living in Muslim lands-this was her excuse for intervention. Bulgarians and Russians were almost to Constantinople when the British got upset over the whole thing-remember, they don't want any single European country to have the Balkans and they don't want Russia to have Constantinople since it would give Russia access to the Mediterranean Sea. Russia might put warships in the Mediterranean Sea and that would be a distinct problem for Britain and France because of the Suez Canal that they both want to use for trade. Britain decided to send a little fleet of ships to Constantinople. These ships were not going to do anything, but the Russians didn't know that! When they got within sight of Constantinople, they saw the British navy and they decided they'd better split the scene (leave) so they did. Britain's bluff had worked perfectly.
Russia had done well enough , however, that she forced Turkey to sign the Treaty of San Stefano. Among other things, the treaty created a country called "Big Bulgaria" which just happened to have a small coastline on the Aegean Sea. When the other nations found out about this, they were furious. Russia couldn't be allowed to get by with this. (It would give her her access to the Mediterranean). Bismarck suggested a conference to be held in Berlin. He felt he could do a service by playing "referee"! The other nations accepted and the Congress of Berlin opened in 1878. The British sent their prime minister, Benjamin Disraeli. When Bismarck met Disraeli, he felt he had met his match. "That Disraeli," he said, "He's the man!" Disraeli and Bismarck dominated this conference. Disraeli tried a little behind the scenes arm-twisting; he didn't want any wars right now. This was not such a smart decision as some of the things he promised he couldn't deliver! This is what he promised: first, he told Austria-Hungary she would get Bosnia; then he got Russia to agree to "shrink" Big Bulgaria , and he got the Turks to let Russia keep some of what she had won in return for an offer to help Turkey in case of war. The treaty which emerged from this conference didn't satisfy any of the three nations who were the most concerned. Austria-Hungary went home mad because she didn't get Bosnia; Russia went home mad because she didn't get to keep "Big Bulgaria"-she'd had to agree to its being "shrunk" and she lost that little bit of coastline; and Turkey went home mad because her so-called "friend" Britain had forced her to give up land to Russia. This conference left things more unstable in the Balkans than they'd been before.
Willy becomes Kaiser, 1889
We have already discussed Willy and the type of person he was. If you don't remember, review the pages about him. He did nothing to add to the stability of the European scene; if anything, Willy made everyone much more nervous. This was because no one ever knew what Willy might take it into his mind to do or to say. His ministers called him "Willy the Sudden" behind his back and were always having to clean up after the messes Willy made with his impulsive acts and statements. We have already seen how Willy could not deal with Bismarck and how he fired him. Willy never found anyone to replace Bismarck that was anywhere near as good as Bismarck had been-if Bismarck made any mistake it was in creating a job for himself that no one else would be able to fill. Also, none of Bismarck's successors were willing to stand up to Willy. It wasn't worth it-they didn't care that much. Willy fired Bismarck in 1890.
The Kruger Telegram, 1898
We have seen how Willy interfered in Britain's war with the Boers in South Africa. He also sent a telegram to President Kruger of the Transvaal congratulating him on beating up Mr. Jameson. This little deed made the British very mad at Willy, especially as it was along about this time they also found out about all the money and military help Willy had been sending all along. Remember, Willy's grandmother Queen Victoria wanted an apology from him, which she never got.
The German Navy Law, 1900
This created Willy's famous navy, which we have already discussed to some extent. Willy's navy brought about an arms race between Germany and the British. The British, in order to challenge the German navy, or to protect themselves from it, depending on how you wished to think about it, created a new and better battleship-at least they thought it was pretty cool and awesome and that it ought to frighten those Germans out of their sleep. It was called the "Dreadnought"- the name- if you look at it and think-suggests that the ship could not be beaten-it fears nothing(hah). It was bigger and heavier than any boat the British had ever built, and it was more heavily armed. This made the Germans figure they better come up with something better. They built some dreadnoughts, too, but the new big thing with the Germans was going to be the submarine! The British didn't think of making these! As you probably already know, the submarine can operate under water so it is invisible to those who aren't underwater with it. We have ways today to detect subs from above water, but they didn't have these ways when Germany first made the subs-so they were a tremendous advantage to the Germans. The Germans called them U-boats and were very proud of them. Now the minute the sub was put into use, boats like the dreadnoughts were out of date. The sub was so much faster, and you could manipulate the thing so much more easily. The dreadnought was a "sitting duck" - easy to see and to torpedo. It couldn't move away fast enough. When the British found out about the sub, they said that it was unfair, and that using it broke international law regarding warfare because you couldn't see the thing. They demanded that the Germans surface the sub, warn the victim, and then resubmerge and torpedo the boat. (The U.S. demanded this, too, a little later, when World War I starting hurting our trade!) Of course, you can imagine the Germans didn't comply with this demand too well when the time came. If they did comply, they would, of course, lose the advantage the sub gave them! Arms races do nothing to calm an atmosphere and this one only made the Europeans more nervous-suppose somebody started a war just so they could try all their new "toys" out to see if they worked? Willy's being the kind of person he was, this was not beyond the realm of possibility............
Entente Cordiale, 1904
The German navy caused Britain to feel very threatened and she gave up her old policy of "Splendid Isolation". She made an alliance with Japan in 1902, made up with the United States (even though no treaties were signed) and in 1904, she made a treaty with France, her old number one enemy. This treaty was called the Entente Cordiale. This was somewhat of a surprise to the rest of Europe, who never would have predicted this. The problem with the Entente Cordiale was that it did not say definitely if Britain would show up at any wars that might happen. No one knew exactly what it did say. For this reason, the treaty made everyone more nervous. The French liked to think that Britain would show up at the war if they provoked the Germans and the Germans liked to believe that the British didn't mean it-they wouldn't really come when it came down to really making a decision. This led the French to be less cautious than they might have been otherwise, and the Germans carried on as if the treaty didn't exist. (Except for Willy, who now complained that he was being "encircled" by enemies, which wasn't "fair")
The Young Turks ' Rebellion, 1908
In 1908, a group of reformers in Turkey who called themselves the ‘Young Turks’ revolted against the Sultan. They were sick and tired of their country being called the "sick man of Europe". They wanted to modernize and strengthen Turkey. They were successful for awhile in their revolt-long enough to frighten the Austrians thoroughly-for two reasons. One, any successful revolt was a bad example! Her subject nationalities might decide to do likewise. The other reason was that Austria-Hungary had taken Turkish land, and the Young Turks might take it back! This made Austria-Hungary very nervous-so nervous she decided to do a little land hunting in the Balkans before it was too late.
The Bosnian Crisis, 1908
In 1908, Austria-Hungary decided to take Bosnia, which she did, and she created a small furor by doing it. She wanted Bosnia because she wanted to get closer to Serbia, whom she considered to be a threat to her peace of mind. When Austria-Hungary did this, Tsar Nicholas of Russia wanted to call a conference of the great powers, but nobody wanted to; it wasn't worth a war to most of them to make Austria-Hungary behave. This was too bad because getting by with taking Bosnia encouraged Austria-Hungary to think she might do this little number again. The Serbs were very upset and looked to Russia for help, but Russia wasn't ready to take on Austria-Hungary alone. She advised the Serbs to accept the takeover. Russia then decided to strengthen her army so that the next time Austria-Hungary did this, she could stand up to her.
Algeciras
The Entente Cordiale made Willy very nervous; he was dying to know what it said and how committed Britain was to it. So he dreamed up a plan that he thought would tell him how committed Britain was. Willy sailed his brand new warship, the Panther, down to the French colony of Morocco and parked it there. He wanted to see how the French would react. He thought he could tell from how hostile the French acted whether Britain was really committed or not. His little plan backfired, however; the nations had a conference at Algeciras and basically told Willy to go home! so he did. He found out nothing and only looked ridiculous; unfortunately for Willy, this little incident only drew the French and the British closer together.
The First Balkan War, 1912
The Young Turks set out to modernize and strengthen their country. This meant getting a handle on their possessions in the Balkans as well as other places. They made some new rules which most of the inhabitants of the Balkan areas they held found offensive. The first rule was that they must speak the Turkish language. Another was that they had to obey Turkish law. This was offensive because the Turks were Muslims, which meant that the rules of the religion and the laws of the state were one and the same thing; no Christian wished to obey Muslim law. Lastly, the Turks were going to call up all the young men for military service in the Turkish army. This was too much for the Balkan people under Turkish rule. For the first time, several groups of them united into an alliance to drive the Turks out; it was called the Balkan League. The groups that belonged to this were the Bulgarians, the Montenegrins, the Serbs and the Greeks. They revolted against Turkey, and they proceeded to drive the Turks out of the Balkans. The Turks asked for an armistice in December of 1912.
This whole scenario upset and alarmed the European powers. Austria-Hungary was particularly panicked-remember, this was the one thing she feared most-that the ethnic groups would unite; if they did it to Turkey, they could do it to her. However, Britain and France didn't want the status quo to change in the Balkans either. A conference was called and the Balkan League was forced to sign the Treaty of London. All the Balkan parties were unhappy with what they got out of the treaty.
The Second Balkan War, 1913
A month after the treaty was signed, Bulgaria attacked her former allies because she had not received the port of Salonika. Serbia was not ready and the Bulgarians defeated her, but in the meantime, the Rumanians, who hadn't been in the first war, decided to join this one, against Bulgaria. They attacked her and threatened Sofia, her capital city. The Turks decided this was a perfect time to get Bulgaria back, so they joined the war, too. Bulgaria was defeated and the Balkan countries were forced to sign the Treaty of Bucharest. However, nobody was very happy about this and the situation was as unstable as ever.
Austria-Hungary's fears
Austria-Hungary was not as happy as she thought she might be at the outcome of the Balkan Wars. Serbia was still there and as long as she was, Austria-Hungary could never rest easy. Not only was Serbia an example to restless Serbs in Austrian-occupied lands, she harbored nationalist groups who wanted to unite all the Slavs in the Balkans into one big country and whose number one enemy was Austria. These groups spread anti-Austrian propaganda, and some of the groups were smuggling arms in across the border into Austrian Bosnia. Nikola Pasic, who was the prime minister of Serbia, knew these people hung out in Serbia but he could not catch them. They moved too much. They had a tightly knit organization that made it so they could communicate with each other no matter where they were. They operated in secret-or underground, as we say. (A group that would compare to these types of people in our history would be the Sons of Liberty-the British couldn't catch them either, no matter how hard they tried!) Conrad Hotzendorf, the general of the Austro-Hungarian armies, was all for taking Serbia out with no delay. He told Franz Joseph every day to attack Serbia. However, Franz Joseph did not do so. One reason he did not was that he knew he could not mess with Serbia and not bring Russia into it.
The Assassination of Franz Ferdinand
In June, 1914, Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, went on a state visit to Bosnia. He was to view army maneuvers there. He also made a good will visit to Sarajevo, the capital. Serbia warned the Austrian government that it might not be too safe for the archduke to come so close to Serbia right now, but Franz Ferdinand went anyway. On June 28, 1914, he arrived in Sarajevo and rode in state through the streets.
Unbeknownst to him, there was a terrorist group who operated in both Serbia and Bosnia known as the "Black Hand". They were a group who wanted to form a country of all the Southern Slavs, and they saw Austria-Hungary as a prime obstacle to be removed. They had decided that they would assassinate Franz Ferdinand. They knew about his trip to Sarajevo. How? Terrorists have ways-they had spies and they infiltrated the right places and they found out. Two men were commissioned to kill the Franz Ferdinand. One was Nikola Cabrinovic and the other was Gavrilo Princip. They knew the route Franz Ferdinand would take and they stationed themselves among the crowds lining the street.
As the procession got close to City Hall, something flew through the air and only the chauffeur's quick reaction kept the thing from hitting the archduke. It was a bomb. It had missed, so the two assassins had to try again. It was decided that the car would go by a different route on the way out of the city. However, the driver forgot the new plans, and on the way out of the city, Princip shot and killed the archduke and his wife Sophie, who was traveling with him. Then the two assassins tried to take poison, but it didn't work, and they were caught by the Austrian police and were beaten.
It turned out that the arms and ammunition that the assassins had used had come from Serbia. The Serbian government had not been involved, but that did not matter to the Austrians. Serbia had to be punished! Conrad Hotzendorf was jumping up and down with glee!! Now he had his excuse! He was just itching to take out Serbia. However, again the problem was Russia. She would surely back the Serbs; the thing was, would she go to war for them? If she did, then Austria-Hungary would need help. It was decided that Austria-Hungary had better check out Germany and see if she would really show up at the war if Russia fought.
Willy now had his chance to stop the war before it started or to encourage it. If he told Austria-Hungary he would not help, she could not have gone on alone. However, Willy could not resist the ultimate opportunity to show off! He would be the knight in shining armor come to save the helpless maiden ! He said, "Sure. Anything you want." Willy did not even know exactly what Austria-Hungary planned to do. This blanket promise of help to Austria-Hungary by Willy is known as the "blank check"- the figure of speech suggests that Austria-Hungary could have done anything and Willy would have helped. He seems to have thought that Russia would not fight in the face of Germany and Austria-Hungary combined against her.
Austria-Hungary was thrilled with the German reply and proceeded to write an ultimatum-a note which contains a threat-you do this or else-to Serbia. The Germans and the Austrians now pretended furiously to everyone else that nothing was going on-weren't all the important people on vacation? When the ultimatum was finished, the Austrians sent the other countries a copy of it-a FYI sort of thing, and they sent one to Serbia. The Entente powers urged Serbia to be conciliatory. However, the demands were outrageous-the kind of thing a victor hands a defeated country. To cooperate, the Serbs accepted all but one. This one demanded that she let Austrian army officials inside Serbia to supervise-Serbia well knew that the Austrians would never leave. Even then, she offered to submit this demand to a conference of great powers for mediation or to submit it to the International Court at the Hague in Belgium. The Austrians, however, weren't interested in conciliation; they considered the ultimatum to have been rejected. On July 29, a month almost to the day from the assassination, Austria-Hungary invaded Serbia.
The ball now was in Russia's court. Russia was very unhappy about the whole thing. She did not necessarily want to go to war, but she had promised Serbia when Austria took Bosnia that she would not let her down again. When she heard of the Austrian declaration of war, Russia telegraphed Willy to do something to restrain his ally, but Willy saw this as an admission of weakness and did nothing. Nicky then mobilized his army. Willy began to get cold feet. He telegraphed Nicky that he would be a mediator in a conference between Austria and Russia. The German generals then said that this would not do. They had to be able to use the Schlieffen Plan, their only plan for war. The plan called for the war to begin in France, not Russia. Russia must be manipulated into the position of being the aggressor. So Willy sent another telegram, an ultimatum this time. It said that Russia must demobilize within 12 hours or else! Russia could not do this. The country was too big, and communication there too slow. The order to demobilize could not be sent soon enough to catch everyone. It was too late. The Germans sort of knew that when they sent the ultimatum. Russia could not comply with the ultimatum so Germany declared war. This called the alliances into action. Since Russia was "attacked" by Germany that called for France to join the war against Russia, which was just what the Germans wanted. To understand why they wanted this, we need to learn about the war plans the nations had made.
The War Plans
When the nations began to think they might someday go to war, they made plans for what they would do in that eventuality. The Germans had made what they called the Schlieffen Plan. The idea behind this was to handle a 2-front war successfully for the Germans. France would be knocked out of the war first, and then the Germans would go after Russia. To knock France out first, the Germans had developed a plan which would put them in Paris within 6 weeks. Then the armies would split, go around Paris and take the rest of France, which would just be a "mopping up" operation, or so they thought. The problem was, the plan called for an invasion of Belgium so as to get to France more quickly; also, to throw the French off guard, because they would expect the Germans to come the way they had last time, through Alsace and Lorraine. The only thing was that Belgium was a neutral country. She had been guaranteed her neutrality by all the great powers some time ago. Prussia had signed the treaty along with everyone else. Yet, since Willy had not signed it himself, he did not feel bound by it. However, invading a neutral country is a violation of international law, and the other nations that Willy was dealing with expected him to obey it. We will see that Willy, in his haste to get to France first, will break the treaty and international law. This was extremely short-sighted of him. Also, the Germans only had this one plan; it did not have anything in it to deal with a war that involved Britain, should that happen, for example. It had nothing in it in case the plan did not work, and they did not get to Paris in six weeks. This was short-sighted, to say the least.
The French had a plan, too. It was called Plan 17. The idea was to concentrate French forces in the Alsace-Lorraine area and attack Germany in the industrial area that lay just beyond Alsace-Lorraine. At the last minute, however, the French decided to move some of the soldiers back toward the west part of France. But, like the Germans, they had no alternative plan should the first one not work.
The others didn't really have much of a plan. Russia thought she would try to attack Germany on the east, but she hadn't really planned to do anything but help Austria-Hungary. Austria-Hungary, of course, hadn't thought beyond punishing Serbia.
World War I
The war begins
The war, of course, officially began when Austria-Hungary invaded Serbia. However, it continued to escalate for several days after that. We have seen how Germany and Russia got involved. France was involved as soon as Germany declared war on Russia for not meeting the ultimatum deadline. Germany invaded Belgium in order to go to France, and this got the British involved because of their concern that Germany had broken a treaty and international law. The British were even more infuriated when Willy said that he just couldn't understand why the British were so upset over a "scrap of paper", which was how he referred to the treaty he had broken. Britain declared war within the first week of August, making it so that Germany had enemies all around her!, and as you know, Germany had no plan for dealing with Britain..........
Using the Schlieffen Plan
It is important at this point to remember that the schedule, or timetable, was essential to the success of the Schlieffen Plan. Paris must be reached in 6 weeks or it was all over, and Germany would have to deal with war on two fronts simultaneously. Anything that slowed down the plan was a major disaster. Within the first week or so of the war, as far as the Germans were concerned, disasters happened. First, the Belgians, instead of passively letting the Germans cross their country, as the Germans had expected they would do, fought fiercely against them. They proved better than the Germans had thought, and even though they did lose, they slowed the Germans down by several days. Then, the British sent 125,000 soldiers to beef up the Western side of France's defense. This also slowed the Germans down-they had expected little or no resistance. Third, the Russians mobilized a lot faster than the Germans had expected and a German army had to be sent to defend the east while they mopped up France. The result of these disasters was that Germany did not make it to Paris in six weeks. She did not make it to Paris in the entire war! She was stopped at the Marne River, and there she stayed. The Western Front, as they called it, did not move but about 25 miles the entire war. This was because the nature of warfare had changed, and nobody knew quite what to do about it.
The Nature of Modern War
In Europe, World War I was the first major war fought after the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution affected warfare in many ways. One way was that it became more important to have the means to replace what you lost than to have real skill with weapons. To replace what you lost took having lots of industry, lots of population and lots of money-war was a test of how long you could hang in there. Those who lost were the ones that ran out of things and couldn't replace them.
The objective of war is, of course, to win. You win by killing more of their men than they kill of yours while, at the same time, gaining territory toward your goal. You want to do this without losing so many men that you will have difficulty recuperating.
War had become much more deadly. The guns they used were more accurate; they now had machine guns, not as good as our modern ones, but machine guns none the less. Their artillery tore up the ground when they used it. Old-fashioned war did not work. Too many people died to gain only a little land. It was necessary to change the way armies fought . The Germans were the first to come up with the trench. The idea of the trench was to make yourself less of a sitting duck by hiding in the ground. Holes were dug in the ground deep enough to hide the men, and there they lived for the duration of the war. Then the objective became how to get the men out of the trench so you could kill them. The Germans also thought up a way to do this with the use of mustard gas. This gas works because when you encounter it, it causes your eyes to water, and if you inhale it you will begin to feel like you're choking; if you get too much of it , it can damage your lungs.
The area where the Western Front was low and boggy. There was mud. A vehicle was needed that would not get stuck in the mud, and which would go over rough terrain. Again, the Germans came up with a solution-the tank.
Airplanes were also used for the first time in warfare in World War I. They were mainly used for reconnaissance. This is sort of like spying. The plane was used for watching the enemy and what he was doing. There were some fights in the sky-dogfights they were called-between the Allies and the Germans. A couple of Germans really made names for themselves fighting in the sky-Baron von Richthofen, who became known as the Red Baron (if you like Peanuts, you'll know that Snoopy likes to pretend his doghouse is a Sopwith Camel, and that he is out fighting the Red Baron) and Hermann Goering, who later became a top Nazi under Hitler, and who ran the Luftwaffe, the German airforce in World War II.
The Germans also used an invention called a dirigible, or as they called it, a "zeppelin". It is also sometimes called a "blimp". It looks like a big silver cigar; you may have seen one at a beach where they are sometimes still used for advertising. They operate on the basis of using helium gas to make them lighter than air. The Germans used them for reconnaissance and fighting. (For those of you who are rock music fans like me, yes, this is where Led Zeppelin got its name. Some friends of the members of the band once told them jokingly that they'd "go over like a lead zeppelin"; the band liked "Led Zeppelin" for a name, and as we know, they went over a lot better than a lead zeppelin!)
The Western Front
We left the war with the Germans attacking the French through Belgium. As I said, the Schlieffen Plan had to stick to the timetable to work, and once it got slowed down, it did not work. The German advance was stopped at the Marne River in what was called the First Battle of the Marne. Neither side made much progress after that in spite of thousands of casualties. There were battles on the Western front, but basically all of them took place within a twenty-five mile radius. The war became in the West what we call a stalemate. In a stalemate, no one is winning or losing. It was very frustrating, and the losses were unbelievable on both sides. This went on basically for four years. Just so you will know the names of the battles on the Western front and when they happened, here they are:
First Battle of the Marne: September, 1914
First Battle of Ypres: October-November, 1914
Second Battle of Ypres April -May ,1915
Battle of Neuve Chappelle March, 1915
Battle of Verdun February-December, 1916
Battle of the Somme July -November, 1916
Battle of Passchendaele July, 1917
The Eastern Front
The Eastern Front was not as well organized as the Western because of the distances. By Western standards, the Russians were ill-equipped to fight. They did not have many factories, their transportation was pitiful, and so was their communication. The government was not up to this war; they forgot to ration anything so there were terrible shortages of food and supplies. At one point, a Russian soldier got 3 bullets a day to fight with! However, they did have some things on their side: they had almost limitless numbers of men, the enormous distances were in their favor, as was their fearsome climate, which didn't bother them but had a way of killing their enemies who weren't used to it. The Russians used this against their enemies by retreating further inside Russia and letting their enemies pursue them! The enemies died and the Russians laughed. However, their lack of 20th century technology did them in this time.
In 1914, the Germans beat them up at Tannenburg and Masurian Lakes. In 1915, Tsar Nicholas went to the front, supposedly to lift the soldiers' morale. He left his government in the hands of his wife Alix (what a disaster). In 1916, the Germans mounted an offensive and invaded Russia, but they didn't get very far. In 1916, the Russians mounted an offensive into Austria-Hungary and did quite well until supplies ran out. In 1917, revolution broke out in Russia and Russia dropped out of the war, so there was no more Eastern Front. The Germans had something to do with Russia's revolution as we'll see later-they transported Lenin back to Russia in a sealed boxcar.
Gallipoli
With the Western Front bogged down, the British looked around for another way they might be able to get at Germany instead of through France. Winston Churchill, who at the time was First Lord of the Admiralty, suggested that they attack through what he called the "soft underbelly of Europe"-that is, go through the Balkans. It seemed to make sense. There they would encounter the Austrians, who weren't as strong or as good as the Germans. The idea was to attack the Balkans from the Aegean Sea side, close to Constantinople. Then the soldiers would head for Germany. The only problem was, there were also Turks there and the British weren't that sure of the geography. When they tried the idea, it did not work. The Turks were waiting and they massacred the British. When the failure made the news at home, Mr. Churchill lost his job. However, he was not completely forgotten, and in World War II, in her darkest hour, the British remembered him, and made him Prime Minister.
Peoples' attitudes toward the war
When the war began, everyone was very enthusiastic. They expected a short war; they talked about being home for Christmas! The British had a volunteer army and were able to get enough men easily. People sang patriotic songs, and people signed up for volunteer work in the hospitals and in the Red Cross. However, when the war stretched on and on, and there did not seem to be anything definitive happening, the enthusiasm palled quickly. By the end of the war, the British had instituted the draft, and the Germans were drafting fifteen year olds. People were very tired of war by the time it was over; they were shocked at the numbers of people killed, and they were determined that they did not want any more wars. This is important for you to understand when we study the West's reaction to Hitler later.
The United States and World War I
The United States did not want to be involved in any European messes, which was what we considered World War I to be. However, we did like making money off trade, and that is eventually what dragged us into involvement in the war. When the war started, we announced that we were going to remain neutral, and that we would sell goods to both sides. However, what sounded good as an idea did not work out in practice. The British put a blockade around the German coastline so it was near to impossible for the Germans to get our goods where the British, because they weren't blockaded, could get them easily. The Germans didn't think that was being very neutral, so they decided they'd sink our ships as they approached the British Isles. They, of course, used their new submarines, the U-boats, to do this with. The U-boat was underwater, of course, when it did the dirty deed, and couldn't tell too well whether what it sank was a cargo ship or some other kind. When the Germans sank our ships, that made us very mad! Like the British, we thought the idea of a boat that could attack you without warning was unfair. The President, Woodrow Wilson, sent Willy a letter telling him that the Americans were very upset about the whole thing, and requesting that the ship to be torpedoed be warned first! The Germans even complied for awhile, until they became more desperate, and then they went back to "unrestricted" submarine warfare. They did say that in the area around Britain a ship was much more likely to be torpedoed, but this is as far as they would go. In May, 1915, a British cruise ship, the Lusitania, was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland. There were a number of American civilians on this ship, and many of them died. This incident increased the Americans' anger at the Germans about the submarines. However, we did not go to war over it. Not yet. Something else had to happen. How this happened is an interesting story.
Early in the war, the British sank a German boat, and before it went under, they managed to get the German code book off a dead German. This was quite a find! If they could break the code, they'd be able to monitor all the messages the Germans sent by wire anywhere in the world. British cryptographers went to work on it; it was very complicated, because it was code inside cipher. They were eventually able to break it, and thereafter they knew all the German plans. One night, in 1917, the British picked up a message that was being sent to Mexico. It offered Mexico Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and other lands that had once been part of her, and which the United States had taken from her in 1848. The Germans knew that the Mexicans didn't like the U.S. all that much, that's why they thought this might work. The Mexicans had to attack the U.S. to get this little present. The British made sure that we received a copy of this message. Nothing came of this as far as Mexico was concerned, but this little incident added to Americans' anger with the Germans. In April of 1917, we declared war on the Germans.
The Americans were a shot in the arm for the Allies. We had money, men and factories to give them a badly needed boost. For the Germans, it was a disaster. They had been very pleased when the Russians dropped out, because that meant the end of a two front war. It did not make them happy to have a new fresh enemy.
In 1918, the Germans made one last attempt to mount an offensive and break through Allied lines. It did not work. Meanwhile, at home, the British blockade was making life pretty miserable for German civilians. They did not have enough to eat or fuel to keep their houses warm. Woodrow Wilson thought it might be a good idea to get the German citizens to say they wanted the war to end. He had leaflets printed up telling the Germans that if they booted Willy out, they'd get a fair peace. It worked. Willy was forced to abdicate, and he went to Holland where he lived until 1942. The Germans then asked for an armistice. An armistice is a cease fire. It did not mean that the Germans admitted defeat. This is a point you will want to remember. A cease fire only means that we agree to stop fighting for the time being. Historians have argued ever since this time whether it mightn't have been a better idea for the Allies to have continued to fight until they defeated the Germans completely. It might have made it easier to impose the kind of peace terms they wanted to impose if they had, and they'd have taken a little wind out of Hitler's sails. He used to claim, of course, that the Germans didn't lose World War I! and that the peace treaty was unfair. It is also arguable that Wilson should have made any promises about "fair peace"; "fair peace" to Germans meant no punishment, of course, and this was not a promise President Wilson could keep. However, at the time everyone was tired of war, and the fighting officially ended November 11, 1918. The armistice was signed in a railway car in a place called Compiegne, France. You will want to remember this place.
The Versailles Peace Conference and Treaty
The Peace Treaty
The peace conference opened in January, 1919, at Versailles, the famous palace of the French kings. Here, forty eight years earlier, Wilhelm I had been crowned Kaiser of the new German Empire. Versailles had been chosen as the place for the conference on purpose. The French were finally going to have their day; they expected to enjoy every minute of this, because finally the tables were turned. This time the Germans were the ones to be humiliated; and the first thing that would be humiliating to them would be to come to Versailles. The French couldn't get enough of this.
Everyone who had been any part of the war at all on the Allied side was invited to send delegates, so this was a pretty big conference. The real work of the conference was done by the four main Allied powers, Britain, France, the U.S. and Italy. Russia had dropped out, remember, and Italy joined the Allies in 1915 for the goodies they promised her. Each country came to the conference with an "agenda"-something on her mind that she wanted accomplished-complete self-interest. The French wanted revenge, and they wanted their stolen land back (they considered it stolen) and money to repair the damage the war had done to her country. The British also wanted money-to repay what they had invested in the war. The United States wanted no land or money, but Mr. Wilson wanted to set up an organization called the League of Nations that would hopefully prevent war in the future. The idea would be that rather than fight over problems, you would bring them to the League and get them mediated. The United Nations today is similar to the type of thing Wilson had in mind. Mr. Wilson felt very strongly about his League; enough so that he was willing to give in on other issues to get it. Unfortunately, Mr. Wilson had not explained his enthusiasm for all this to his Congress back home. Also, he had brought no Congress members to the conference which was a grave political blunder. Mr. Wilson worked for his League in vain-because when he brought back the treaty with provisions for the League in it, the Senate rejected it. (For a treaty to be in effect in America, the Senate has to approve it).
The Allies had two tasks to do: they had to make up the peace terms for Germany , and they had to re-make the map of Europe. This is because the war had destroyed all the old boundaries. The Hapsburg Empire had fallen apart, and all the nationalities were busy setting up countries.
Making up the peace treaty was actually the easier of the two tasks to do. The peace terms were not the "fair peace" that Wilson had promised, however. Here they are:
When the Germans saw the treaty, they were shocked at how mean it was. Wilson , remember, had led them to believe they'd get a "fair" peace. This was not their idea of "fair". The Germans particularly resented the land they had lost, especially that land that was lost to create Slavic countries to their east, and the loss of Alsace and Lorraine because of the natural resources those places had. And they HATED the war guilt clause. They said they did not cause the war all by themselves. The Germans who had come to sign were representatives of Germany's new government, and they were realistic men. They knew that Germany could not resume the war, so they signed. This was unfortunate in view of the future, because now the new government was saddled with the humiliation of accepting the treaty, when it should have been Willy and friends instead. The generals were soon claiming that Germany did not "really lose the war." The men who signed the treaty were later referred to by Hitler as the "November criminals", and one of them was assassinated.
Because of the way things turned out, Germany never complied with the Versailles Treaty too well. The Germans got around it. They formed young men's organizations known as "sports and outing" clubs-the long hikes and vigorous exercise kept the young men in shape. Germany made a treaty with Russia in which Germany gave the Russians her old air force under the pretext of teaching Russians to fly. This allowed German pilots to keep up their flight practice. We have already seen what happened with the reparations. After Hitler took over in 1933, no more were paid. Britain, France and the U.S. did not want to go to war to make the Germans comply, so they got by with it.
Redrawing the map was a far more complicated task. The Allies decided to use the principle of self-determination as a guide. This says that each little nationality has a right to have its own country. This sounds good, but in practice, it did not work out. You had countries the size of postage stamps, too small, with no defensible frontiers, with no way to trade, and sometimes with no resources. Such countries were not viable, no matter how much they wanted to be on their own. (viable? able to survive) This meant the Allies had to put them together with someone else and hope for the best. The Allies used religion and language as a guide as to where to draw boundaries- put all people who speak Polish and are Catholic (because most Poles are) into something called Poland. They did the best they could, but they created some messes which are still haunting us today. They created some countries that had sizable minorities in them; Czechoslovakia had many Germans in it, for example, as did Poland. The Germans did not want to be there-they hate Slavs of any kind. In the Balkans, they created something called Yugoslavia to put together Serbs, Croats, Montenegrins, Slovenes and Bosnians. The Allies saw little difference between all these people; why not put them together? There weren't enough of any of the groups to create viable countries to the Allies' way of thinking. The groups, though, thought differently! They don't like each other at all, and they're still fighting, and Yugoslavia is no more.
Once the Allies had done this, the conference ended and everyone went home. As a concession to Wilson, the rest of the Allies agreed to set up the League of Nations he wanted. It met in Geneva, Switzerland, since Switzerland was a neutral country. Britain and France were kind of cynical about the whole idea, they didn't much expect it to work, and they thought Wilson was kind of naive to think it would; but they owed the United States big money and they knew they couldn't make enemies of us, so they agreed. The irony, of course, was that the United States never joined. As you learned earlier, the U.S. Senate rejected the treaty. Most Americans would have agreed with the Senate. They didn't want American money to go into the League and they didn't want us involved in any more foreign messes. The League was never very successful; it pointedly ignored or left out important nations-Germany and Russia-so it could not speak to them, and they were soon conniving behind the League's back. Also, its mentor deserted it, and Britain and France never believed in it anyway-soon, everybody believed it was sort of stupid, and paid no attention to it. No one was particularly satisfied with the treaty; Wilson said that he hoped the League would work out any remaining problems. All the Allies were tired of war and hoped this would be the end of it.
Questions
People have written books about World War I, and we could spend a year studying it, but we have other things to do. If you are interested in it , or in earning some extra credit, here are some suggestions.
UNIT NINE-The Russian Revolution