World War I: Total or “ Pure War ”

1. World War I: Total or “Pure War” • Background: • 1815: Congress of Vienna to end the Napoleonic Wars (1989-1815) and reintegrate revolutionary France into the European system • Clausewitz recognized that the Napoleonic Wars had “democratized” war -- forever

2. Explaining Why No Global Wars between 1815-1914? • The principal European powers -- Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, France, and the United Kingdom -- developed a system of consultations and conferences to preclude general war • Exceptions: The Crimean War, 1854-56 The Prussian-Danish War, 1854 The Prussian-Austrian War, 1866 The Prussian-French War, 1870 and the creation of Germany Balkan Wars before WWI

3. Key Factors in the Changed Conditions of Big Power Relations to Explain Why WWI? • Industrial Revolution — Increased economic wealth supplies resources for war — Large standing armies and navies can be supported and the population mobilized for war in the event of hostilities — Development of civil technology also produced a revolution in military technology on land and sea: artillery, the machine gun, rapid firing and reliable rifles, metal ocean-going warships, advanced communications, submarines, etc. 2) Firepower and mass armies increased the lethality of war, approaching Clausewitz “pure war”

4. Additional Factors Leading to Pure War • The Continued Rise of Nationalism and the Democratization of European State Security and the Security of Europe’s Empires • The erosion of the Concert System of conferences and consultations among governmental elites — The creation of the Italian and German states, driven by national sentiment and mass mobilization — The collapse of the Bismarkian system of flexible alliances and continuation of the Congress system, 1870-1890

5. Immediate Factors Leading to World War • The rise of German power and the challenge to the balance of power on the Continent • The rise of German power and the British-German naval armaments race • The end of flexible alliances and their replacement by two rigid alliances • The Triple Entente of the United Kingdom, France and Russia • The Central Powers: Germany and Austria-Hungary

6. Immediate Factors Leading to World War • The rise of German power and the challenge to the balance of power on the Continent • The rise of German power and the British-German naval armaments race • The end of flexible alliances and their replacement by two rigid alliances • The spread of nationalism to the Balkans the Serbian assassination of the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand and his wife in 1914

7. Warfare and War Planning Replaces Political and Moral Limits on Pure War • The German Schlieffen Plan • The French Plan 17

8. Schlieffen Plan: 1895-1914

9. Schlieffen Plan Defeated: 1914

10. 15 million casualties European empires fundamentally undermined by the loss of human and material resources The German and Austrian empires are destroyed The Russian empire loses control over its eastern provinces, notably Poland The Russian Revolution introduces a revolutionary power into the European system The Costs of War