The End of WWI
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Transcript of The End of WWI
The End of WWI
When/Where are we?
When/Where are we?
A truly Global War• While the war took
place mostly in Europe, there was action elsewhere (Africa, the Middle East, Asia)
• More importantly, thousands of Indians, Canadians, Australians, and Africans fought for their respective “mother” countries
Fall of Germany
• At the beginning of the war, Britain & the other Allies established a naval blockade of Germany; this blockade really effected the German war effort after 1916
• Germany knocked Russia out of the war in 1917, which seemed like a huge blow to the Triple Entente
• However, the U.S. Entered the war in 1916, & the Austrian & Ottoman Empires were increasingly weak & unhelpful to Germany
• German forces retreated back to Germany, & the government signed an armistice on 11/11/1918
Casualty List
• Britain: 947,000 dead, over 2 million wounded• France: 1.3 million dead, 3 million wounded• Russia: 1.7 million dead, 5 million wounded• Italy: 460,000 dead, 1 million wounded• U.S.A.: 115,000 dead, 206,000 wounded• Germany: 1.8 million dead, 4.2 million wounded• Austria: 1.2 million dead, 3.6 million wounded• Ottoman: 325,000 dead, 400,000 wounded• TOTAL: ~10 million dead, ~20 million wounded
Russia & the U.S.
• Russia does poorly in the war, leading to revolution• The Bolshevik Revolution takes place in 1917, making
Russia communist• The Bolsheviks eventually kill the Tsar & his family, and
form the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)• The USA enters the war in 1916 due to Germany
sinking so many US ships with their U-boats• The USA is able to tip the balance in the Allies’ favor, &
takes a greater role on the world stage
V.I. Lenin leads the communist revolution in Russia in 1917
Other Results
• Empires disintegrate: Austro-Hungarian Empire, Ottoman Empire, & Russian Empire end after WWI
• Balfour Declaration of 1917: an official endorsement from the British government to find a “home” for Jews (would lead to the founding of Israel in 1948)
• League of Nations founded in 1919• Japan rose in power, Germany was disgraced• Triple Entente gained more colonies in the M.E. &
Africa (took them from Triple Alliance countries)
Treaty of Versailles
• Signed June 28, 1919• Germany: forced to accept blame for war (is this
strange?), stripped of colonies & some European territories, not allowed to have much of a military, & forced to pay war reparations
• Treaty formed the League of Nations in hopes nations could avoid war
• U.S. President Woodrow Wilson proposed his “Fourteen Points” hoping for “peace without victory” but the Allies refused
The Big 3
Arab Delegates at Treaty of Versailles meeting
The Roaring ‘20s
Optimism
• Though there was great disillusionment following WWI, there was also a feeling of optimism in the West in the 1920s
• Women had worked in factories while the men were fighting & felt more empowered once the war ended; Britain, Germany & the U.S. gave women suffrage in the ‘20s
• Western economies boomed as soldiers returned to peacetime jobs, factories began mass-producing consumer goods, & wartime taxes were decreased
New Inventions/Products• Henry Ford’s Model T
automobile sold millions in the 1920s; cars transformed everything from rural isolation to teenage dating habits
• Radios became much more widespread
• Consumer items like shaving cream, ice boxes, stoves, etc. were more readily available & in use
• Mass production led to mass consumption of new products
1920s Art• Music: Jazz began in African-
American communities in the southern US & spread throughout the US & Europe
• The “Lost Generation”: group of writers & artists who were very cynical & pessimistic due to the loss of innocence in WWI (Ernest Hemingway)
• Picasso’s cubist paintings become popular
• “Talkies” became very popular; “Jazz Singer” was the first
Other events
• Prohibition in the US: alcohol is banned, leading to a boom in illegal bars (the “speakeasy) and organized crime
• Charles Lindberg (an American) makes the first solo flight across the Atlantic
• Small signs of trouble: Benito Mussolini seizes power in Italy in 1922
• End of the 1920s: NY Stock Exchange crashes in October 1929, ending the “boom” & ushering in the Great Depression