The Immediate Origins of World War I: The Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand

1. Chapter 33 The Great War: The World in Upheaval 1917 Canadian Recruitment Poster

2. Immediate Origins of World War I • June 28, 1914: Assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand (1863-1914) • Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina • Former Ottoman province was occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire 1878, and was formally annexed in 1908 • Ferdinand was in favor of greater Serbian autonomy in the province • Not enough for Serbian extremists, who wanted to annex it to the Kingdom of Serbia

3. Immediate Origins of World War I

4. Gavrilo Princip • Bosnian Serb (1894-1918) • One of six assassins stationed along the route of the Archduke’s motorcade • First two assassins fail to act; third succeeds in throwing the a bomb, but it bounces of the back of the Archduke’s car and explodes on the street, injuring twenty people but not the targets; the assassin swallows a faulty cyanide capsule and jumps off a bridge, but is captured alive. • Next three assassins—including Princip—fail to act because the motorcade drives by at a high speed. • All six assassins were trained by Serbian military intelligence; some had been members of the nearly defunct “Black Hand”

5. The Assassination The Archduke gives a speech at the Town Hall with the Mayor of Sarajevo and is visibly shaken. Franz Ferdinand and the expectant Sophie decide to go as a couple to the hospital to visit victims of the bomb. Princip sees Ferdinand’s car backing up after making a wrong turn; it stalls, and he sees his opportunity. Shoots Ferdinand and Sophie from a distance of five feet. Princip swallows an ineffective cyanide capsule; he is captured by mob and beaten senseless. Prncip was too young to be executed, and is sentenced to twenty years in prison; dies of tuberculosis in jail in 1918.

6. The Assassination Automobile in which Franz Ferdinand and Sophie were assassinated

7. Outcome of Princip’s Bullet First global “total” war; nearly every inhabited corner of the earth is affected Conservative estimates of 15 million dead (5 million non-combatants), 20 million injured End of four empires (Germany, Russia, Austro-Hungary, and Ottoman), and rise of nine new countries Massive global human and economic dislocations Beginning of the end of Europe’s domination of globe

8. Larger Causes of World War I • Culmination of competing nationalisms • Especially in Central and Southeastern Europe • Rivalry among empires • Especially between Britain and Germany • Triggered by inflexible diplomatic alliances • Germany, France, England, Russia

9. Competing Nationalisms • Outcome of French revolution, which spread nationalist ideologies across the continent and then the world. • Self-determination and independence movements • Belgium: Achieved independence form Spain in 1830. • Greece: Independence recognized by Ottomans in 1832. • Unification of Italy: Achieved under Kingdom of Piedmont in 1861, known by Italians as il Risorgimento (“the Resurgence”). • Unification of Germany: accomplished under King Wilhelm of Prussia and Otto von Bismarck after Franco-Prussian War in 1871. • Complete Serbian Independence: Acknowledged by Ottomans in 1878 after violent revolution (1804-1815) and gradual consolidation of autonomy.

10. Nationalism in Multi-National Empires • Austro-Hungarian Empire • Germans • South Slavs: Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats, ethnic Macedonians, Slovenes, Bosniaks, Montenegrins (growing “Yugoslav movement”— meaning “South Slav”—among intelligentsia) • Other Slavs: Czechs, Hungarians, Poles, Slovaks, Romanians, Ukranians, etc. • Russian Empire • Russians, Poles, Ukrainians, Jews (Yiddish speakers), Uzbeks, Tatars, Germans, Baltic peoples (Estonians, Latvians & Lithuanians), etc. • Ottoman Empire • Turks, Arabs, Persians, Jews, Greeks, Serbians, Armenians, Romanians, Bulgarians, Kurds, etc.

11. Nationalism in Multi-National Empires

12. Rivalry Among Empires • Economic Dominance of British Empire declining • 1870: 32% of world’s industrial output is from Great Britain, and only 13% from pre-unification Germany • 1914: 14% from Great Britain, roughly same as Germany • Imperial Competition • German Empire is a latecomer, but aggressive: it grabbed colonies and concessions in Africa, China, and the South Pacific • Small-scale disputes around the globe, especially intense in the Balkans between Ottomans, Austrians, and national ethnic groups

13. Naval Competition H.M.S. Benbowin 1914 Arms race between United Kingdom and Germany to control seas; Britain holds upper hand Decisive for control of trade routes in case of war Construction of dreadnoughts: large battleships Germans build their own dreadnoughts and develop U-Boats to counter British superiority

14. Role of Public Opinion • Effects of mass media age becoming widespread • Availability of cheap newspapers, pamphlets, and colorful lithographic posters • Newspaper editors have little public accountability: tend toward sensationalism and national chauvinism • Awkward pressure on politicians and diplomats • Sacrifice diplomatic expediency for public support; long-term goals displaced by short-term ones that make big headlines

15. Inflexible Diplomatic Alliances • Both sides are party to agreements for mutual defense • Chain reaction leads to a global war • Triple Alliance (later known as “Central Powers”) • Mutual defense pact between Germany and Austro-Hungarians made in 1879; joined by Italians 1882 • Triple Entente (later known as “Allies”) • Russia and France enter into the Franco-Russian Alliance in 1892 • United Kingdom and France enter into the “Entente Cordiale” in 1904 • Russia and the U.K. enter into Anglo-Russian Convention in 1907, ending their rivalry in Central Asia (“The Great Game”)

16. Inflexible Diplomatic Alliances

17. Bonds between Triple Alliance Powers Bonds between Germany and Austro-Hungary: linguistic, cultural, and political Worries over two-front war: Eastern and Western Worries over British domination of the sea and control of global trade Worries over possibility of French attack in revenge for Franco-Prussian defeat; also concerned about Russian interference with Austrian Balkan policies Italians concerned about French colonial expansion in North Africa: Italians want colonies there as well. Italians actually end up witching sides in 1915 since they hope to gain territory from Austria-Hungary.

18. Concerns of the Triple Entente Powers • Russia worried about strong German-Austro-Hungarian alliance • United Kingdom concerned with maintaining balance of power on the Continent • France worried about hostilities with Germany • Secret naval and army pacts signed betwene the powers in the summer 1914 • Each power had reciprocal treaty obligations: must come to the aid of each other in time of war

19. Mutually Threatening War Plans • French “Plan XVII” • Heavy emphasis on rapid offensives, with big concentration of forces on Alsace-Lorraine • German Schlieffen Plan • Fear of encirclement from France and Russia • France to be defeated swiftly by northern route through Belgium, then attention turned to Russia • Plans triggered by mobilization of enemy forces

20. Mutually Threatening War Plans The Schlieffen Plan vs. Plan XVII

21. The Chain Reaction 23 July: Austrians issue ultimatum to Serbs, but get no response 28 July: Austrians declare war on Serbia 29 July: Russia mobilizes to defend Serbia 31 July: Germany issues ultimatum to Russia to stop mobilizing, and issues one to France not to do so. 1 August: Germany declares war on Russia; France starts its mobilization 3 August: Germans declare war on France and invade Belgium 4 August: Britain comes to defense of Belgium

22. War of Attrition • West: three years of stalemate • Trenches from English channel to Switzerland • East: More movement and earlier end to fighting • Much longer front (from St. Petersburg to Black Sea) made troop densities too thin for trenches to develop • Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918: Withdraws Bolshevik Russia from fighting and allows Central Powers to occupy Poland, the Ukraine, and the Baltic countries.

23. War of Attrition German soldiers relaxing in trenches during a lull in fighting

24. New Military Technology • Barbed Wire: Developed in American West to contain cattle in 1870s; used militarily in Spanish-American and Boer Wars, but most extensively in World War I • Machine Gun: Gatling guns used in American Civil War, but first modern machine gun was the Maxim gun; the first used in colonial wars in the 1880s and 1890s. World War I was the first war where both sides made extensive use of machine guns. • Poison Gas: Top chemists in Europe work to create nasty weapons. • Chlorine Gas: First used on a mass scale by Germans as canisters fired as artillery shells into enemy trenches in late January 1915. British first use first it in September 1915, yet it becomes ineffective as gasmasks are introduced. Also blew back on Allied troops as wind shifted. • Phosgene: Deadliest gas in the war introduced by French in 1915, often mixed with chlorine. Caused 85% of the 100,000 chemical warfare deaths during the war. Symptoms could take 24 hours to manifest. • Mustard Gas: Most famous but least deadly. First used in 1917. Designed to incapacitate rather than kill. Blistered skin, burned eyes, and mucous membranes of the respiratory system.

25. New Military Technology

26. New Military Technology • Tanks • Introduced by British in 1916 to break through trench stalemate • Initially effective, but infantry could not hold ground gained; quickly lost to counterattacks • Aircraft • Early planes did some limited bombing and strafing, but used primarily for reconnaissance • Dirigibles: German zeppelins conducted nighttime raids over England, at altitudes beyond range of aircraft until the end of the war. Bombs were highly inaccurate. • Submarines: Germans developed them in 1890s and early 1900s. Had a fleet of 48 “U-boats” by the start of WWI.

27. New Military Technology British Mark V Tank introduced in 1918 British Sopwith Camel fighter plane introduced in 1917 German Zeppelin used on bombing run of England in 1915

28. Brutality of New Warfare • Unprecedented casualties: industrialized warfare • Battle of Verdun (February-December 1916) • 362,000 French casualties • 336,000 German casualties • Less than 160,000 bodies recovered • The Somme Offensive: British gain few thousand yards (July-November 1916) • 420,000 casualties • No significant strategic advantage gained

29. The Great War in Europe and Southwest Asia, 1914-1918

30. Total War: The Home Front • Implications of modern industrial war: concept of a “home front”: strength of whole nation tested • Government takes command of economies • Wage controls • Price controls • Planning boards control raw materials and manufacturing • Women in the workforce • Women take traditionally “male” jobs with men at war • TNT poisoning among workers at armament factories: yellow skin, orange hair • Bombing of civilian areas by zeppelins

31. War Propaganda Maintenance of Public Support for War: Rallying men to enlist, demonizing the enemy, and appealing to national honor. Media: Recruitment posters, newspaper stories, pamphlets and books, silent films Untruths: British authorities greatly exaggerate the extent of German atrocities in so-called “atrocity propaganda”: 1915 Report on Alleged German Outrages, a widely disseminated pamphlet that relayed accounts of systematic killing and raping of Belgian civilians by German soldiers. Doubts about its validity still persist. Irony: By the end of the war no one believes the “official truth.” Skepticism of WWI propaganda makes belief in the WWII atrocities more difficult.

32. War Propaganda British Recruitment Posters

33. War Propaganda German Propaganda Posters

34. War Propaganda American Recruitment Posters

35. Global Involvement TirailleursSenegalaisin World War I France • Importation of troops from colonies • United Kingdom: Troops from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, and Africa involved • France: Troops from Algeria, Senegal, Tunisia involved

36. Global Involvement • Japanese pushes its designs on China while European powers are distracted • On August 15, 1914, Japan issues an ultimatum to Germany to withdraw from its concession in Jiaozhou, China, and to remove its warships from Far East waters. The Germans refuse. • Japanese take German concession port at Qingdao and seize German-held islands in the South Pacific • Twenty-One Demands: Japan secretly presented the Chinese government with demands in January 1915 that would essentially make China a Japanese protectorate. Chinese leaked the demands to British diplomats, who prevented China’s capitulation.

37. Global Involvement • Battles in Africa and Southwest Asia • German Colonies in Africa: The Allies sought to capture the German colonies of Togoland, the Cameroons, German Southwest Africa, and German East Africa. Togoland fell relatively easily, but the rest required sustained campaigns. • Gallipoli: Savage campaign from April 1915 to January 1916 by British and French against the Ottomans to open up the entrance to the Black Sea. “Anzac” troops—from Australia and New Zealand—were used to storm well-defended Ottoman positions on higher ground and took devastating losses: roughly 250,000 on each side. Gallipoli was the Turks’ greatest victory. This campaign triggered cries for more independence in both Australia and New Zealand. The Turkish hero of the campaign, Mustafa Kemal, would play a key role in founding the modern Turkish state.

38. Global Involvement • Ottoman Empire • Armenian Massacres: The war provided the cover for Ottoman authorities to attempt to purge the last non-Muslim ethnic group within the empire’s boundaries: two million Armenian Christians. New policies of Turkish nationalism went against older traditions of toleration. Forced evacuations killed tens of thousands of Armenians, while massacres organized by the government between 1915 and 1917 also claimed many lives. Roughly a million died, although the Turkish state still will not use the term “genocide.” • Gallipoli: Savage campaign from April 1915 to January 1916 by British and French against the Ottomans to open up the entrance to the Black Sea. “Anzac” troops—from Australia and New Zealand—were used to storm well-defended Ottoman positions on higher ground and took devastating losses: roughly 250,000 on each side. Gallipoli was the Turks’ greatest victory. This campaign triggered cries for more independence in both Australia and New Zealand. The Turkish hero of the campaign, Mustafa Kemal, would play a key role in founding the modern Turkish state.

39. Collapse of the Russian Empire The March Revolution of 1917: Revolutionaries forces the Romanov family to abdicate and brings in a liberal democratic government of the Mensheviks under Alexander Kerensky, who looks to western liberal countries as models. Bolsheviks: Germans smuggle Bolshevik leader Lenin from Switzerland into Russia in a sealed train car since they know he will stop the fighting if he gains power. “Peace, Land, and Bread” is the effective Bolshevik slogan. November Revolution of 1917: “Ten Days that Shook the World”—Lenin and the Bolsheviks create the world’s first Communist state, the Soviet Union. Bolsheviks execute the Tsar and his family in July 1918. Treaty of Brest-Litovsk: Signed on March 3, 1918. Soviets end the Russian war effort and allows the Central Powers to occupy Poland, the Baltic countries, and the Ukraine. Soon a civil war breaks out in Russia.

40. U.S. Enters the War • U.S. Economy Boosted by the War • Sells huge quantities of goods and supplies to the Allies • Europeans incur huge debts to U.S. banks: world financial capital moves from London to New York City • U.S. neutrality a mirage: does not offer same help to Central Powers • German blockade of British overseas trade • U-boat patrols in the North Atlantic and attack cargo vessels • Sinking of Lusitania, May 7, 1915 • 1,198 lives lost (128 U.S.); ship was carrying munitions • Germans call off submarine attacks on U.S. shipping to prevent U.S. entry into the war • U.S. declares war April 1917 after Germans resume U-Boat attacks out of desperation; Germans would sink 14.5 million tons of Allied shipping during the war using U-boats.

41. U.S. Enters the War

42. Defeat of the Central Powers • U.S. Troops: Influx of fresh U.S. troops by May 1917 energizes Allies. By June 1917, there were 14,000 U.S. troops, and by May 1918 there were over one million. Called “Doughboys,” they began to fight on the front by Fall 1917. • African American Troops: Roughly 350,000 served on the Western Front in segregated units; only 20 percent of these fought in combat. • Spring 1918: Germans attempt one last massive offensive in France that initially succeeds, but ultimately collapses due to strained supply lines and worn out troops. • Summer and Fall 1918: Central Powers troops are at the point of exhaustion and have little manpower left. Allies mount the “100 Days Offensive” starting in August that pushes Germans back across their line of defense established in France and almost back to the German frontier.

43. Defeat of the Central Powers African American in World War I Typical U.S. “Doughboy”

44. Defeat of the Central Powers Separate Peaces: Some of the other Central Powers begin to sign peace agreements over the fall: Bulgaria (Sept. 29), Ottoman Empire (Oct. 30), and Austria-Hungary (Nov. 3). Hungary separates from Austria. Germany: Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates and Germany declared a republic on November 9. Power struggle between Communists and Social Democrats begins in Berlin. Armistice: Western Front forces agree to cease fighting on November 11, 1918 at 11:00 am. Germans allow western portions of Germany to be occupied by British and U.S. forces.

45. The Paris Peace Conference • Dominated by France, Great Britain, and the United States • George Clemenceau and Lloyd George are more vehement in demanding that Germans pay; Woodrow Wilson wants to temper terms to create a stabile system of world peace. • No Central Powers Are Represented: The terms of the peace are dictated to the Germans and Austrians. Italians are given little. • Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points • No secret treaties; idea of self-determination for nations within former empires; freedom of navigation on the seas; Belgium and Poland restored; Alsace-Lorraine given back to France; creation of a general association of nations to guarantee independence of small and large nation-states alike • Peace Treaties Harsh on Central Powers: Heavy reparations

46. Territorial Changes in Europe after the Great War

47. The End of the Ottoman Empire Treaty of Sèvres (1920): Removes Balkan and Arab provinces, and allows for European occupation of south and east Anatolia. Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk): Leads uprising against sultanate, and ends Ottoman dynasty in November 1922. Allies recognize new republic in Treaty of Lausanne (1923). The Republic is intensely secular government and recognizes many women’s rights

48. The League of Nations League of Nations created by diplomats in Paris Forty-two original member-states, twenty-six non-European Application of Wilson’s concept of “self-determination” League of Nations mandate system created to control formerly colonized areas: Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Mesopotamia, British Togoland, French Togoland, British Cameroons, French Cameroun, Ruanda-Urundi, Tanganyika, and South-West Africa

49. Territorial Changes in Southwest Asia after the Great War The “Mandate System” in the Middle East