Unit 6: WWI

1. Unit 6: WWI Cause, Course, and Results

2. European Industrial Revolution: A Global Perspective • Europe surpasses the world in Science and Technology • Displaced traditional methods of production • India • Hurt India’s industries • Impoverished many people • Economic dislocation • Resentment for British among the masses and elite • “divide and rule” religious policies: designed to turn Hindus and Muslims against each other • 1911 darbar: royal convocation in Delhi that asserted Britain’s supremacy over India p.655-p.656

3. The Ottoman Empire • Not as developed as the West • Ottoman Empire becomes “the Sick Man of Europe” • 1805: loss of territory • Vulnerable to be taken over by the British • Young Turks: (1908) a group of army officers and liberal professionals who seized control of and dismembered the government • 2nd Balkan War • Austria (wanted Albania independent) vs. Serbia and Russia (wanted to control Albania for access to the sea) • Issues of Nationalism • 1914: Ottoman Empire could no longer keep the peace (p.661-672)

4. World War I, 1914-18 Cause & Beginnings of the War • Cause: June 28th,1914 Serbian nationalist assassinated Archduke Ferdinand and his wife • Archduke Ferdinand: heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne • Cause: Austro-Hungarian Empire seized heavily Serbian populated Balkan territories • Result: Austria declares war on Serbia triggering the “domino effect” of the system of alliances (originally to prevent war) • Allied Powers: Serbia, Russia, France, Britain, Japan, Italy • Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottomans, Turkey, Bulgaria • Britain declares war on Germany on August 4th when Germany violates international treaty guaranteeing Belgium neutrality (p.661-672)

5. Course of World War I, 1914-18 • The Battle of the Marne River (Sept. 5th-12th): trenches, machine guns, barbwire - foreshadows war • Attack at Verdun: February 1916 many casualties, Germans give up attack • Russia • Duma: Parliament • Bolshevik Communist Revolutionary replaces Romanov dynasty: Lenin withdraws Russia from the war • British Navy: most powerful, confiscated cargo going to Germany • The U.S. declares war against Germany and the Central Powers in April 1917 • America was slow to enter the war, preferred neutrality • Germany sunk the Lusitania • January 1917 Arthur Zimmerman telegram is intercepted • Germany agrees to help Mexico regain lost territory in the U.S. if Mexico formed an alliance with Germany • US entry sealed the Allies victory • $10 billion in military and civilian assistance, food supply, and troops (p.661-672)

6. Post-war Expectations and Results • Estimated 10 million killed, 20 million wounded • Defeat put an end to 3 historic Empires: • Ottoman Empire • Austro-Hungarian Empire • Russian Empire • Promises made during the war that raised aspirations • Wilson’s Fourteen Points served as a basis for a peace program • Expectations of political rewards after the war • Balfour Declaration: British promised the Jews the establishment of Palestine as a national home for Jews • Conflicts between the Arabs and the Jews • India was promised increased involvement in the gov’t • Grateful for women’s contributions to the war, grant women’s suffrage • 1918: Britain • 1920: United States (p.661-672)

7. Post-war Expectations and Results • Estimated 10 million killed, 20 million wounded • Defeat put an end to 3 historic Empires: • Ottoman Empire • Austro-Hungarian Empire • Russian Empire • Promises made during the war that raised aspirations • Wilson’s Fourteen Points served as a basis for a peace program • Expectations of political rewards after the war • Balfour Declaration: British promised the Jews the establishment of Palestine as a national home for Jews • Conflicts between the Arabs and the Jews • India was promised increased involvement in the gov’t • Grateful for women’s contributions to the war, grant women’s suffrage • 1918: Britain • 1920: United States (p.661-672)

8. The Paris Peace Settlements, 1919 • Redrawing of post-war national borders and settling of financial accounts • Self-determination: Wilson’s doctrine encouraged colonies and sub-national ethnic groups to seek representation, independence and sovereignty • W.E.B. DuBois: African-American scholar and activist who led the Pan-African Movement • Results: (punish states that lost or withdrew) • Austro-Hungarian divided into 2 states; Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia • Ottoman Empire’s core region became Turkey • Greece and Romania expanded • Middle-Eastern regions: 4 new nations mandated as colonies of European powers • Territories of Russia were created into Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, & Lithuania • Germany: • Ordered to pay heavy reparations for the cost of the war • Forced to officially accept total responsibility for causing the loses and damage of the war • Singed the Treaty of Versailles: ended the war officially and left Paris humiliated (p.661-672)

9. The League of Nations • Created in 1920 in attempts to: • Provide for international cooperation • Adjudicate disputes among nations • Prevent future warfare • Flaws • Principle sponsor (U.S.) refused to join because of congressional opposition • Failure to resolve issues of national identities and increasing anti-colonialism • No armed forces • League ends after it fails to counter invasions in multiple regions throughout the world (p.661-672)

10. Treaties, Pacts, and Parties • Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916: France and Britain divided the Arab regions of the Middle East among themselves (after promising independence to the Arabs after the war) • Treaty of Lausanne 1923: grants full sovereignty to Turkey • May 4th Movement (1919): student and others protest the Paris Peace treaties after German holdings in the Shandong Peninsula go to Japan • Led to the formation of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921 and relations with the USSR • Rowlatt Acts: restricted freedoms of the press and assembly in India • Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi: leader of the Indian national movement • Non-cooperation campaigns • Wafd Party: party that began demonstrations and riots in Egypt that persuaded the British to grant Egypt nominal independence • Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928: agreement among the great powers to settle disputes without warfare [meaningless pact]

11. Summary of WWI • War caused by European rivalries over political and economic superiority • System of alliances collapsed • Resulted in the collapse of the Turkish, Russian, and Austrian Empires • 20 million people died • An embarrassment for Germany (p.661-672)