Grants Pass High School

World Cultures

World War IHandouts and Primary Documents

Name: ____________________________________________________ Period: __________

1

Table of ContentsWorld War I Unit Overview 4Informational Text and Secondary Sources 5

Slaughter: World War I, 1914-1918 6Trench Scene 18Summary of the Treaty of Versailles 23

Primary Sources and Literature 29In Flanders Fields 30Dolce et Decorum Est 31Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand 32All Quiet of the Western Front Excerpt 34Christmas in the Trenches 37Battle of the Somme 40

Notes and Activities 43WWI Fill-in Notes 44The Century: Shell Shocked Film Questions 49Treaty of Versailles Simulation 51

Maps and ChartsIndex

2

Key Terms and People Key Locations Key Concepts1. Alliances2. Militarism3. Nationalism4. Industrialization5. Franz Ferdinand6. Triple

Entente/Alliance7. Trench Warfare8. League of Nations9. Treaty of Versailles10. Woodrow Wilson11. Reparations12. In Flander’s Field13. Dulce et Decorum

1. France2. Italy3. Austria4. Germany5. Great Britain6. Hungary7. Poland8. Serbia9. Russia10. Warsaw11. Belgium12. Paris13. London14. Berlin15. Versailles16. Western Front

1. Identify and explain the four main causes of WWI? Which do you think is most responsible for the war and why?

2. How does industrialization change war/ what new war tactics were used in WWI?

3. What were the terms of the Treaty of Versailles? How do they lead to WWII?

4. Explain the role that pop culture played in shaping public opinion about war

World War I Unit Overview

Prior to the day of the test, you need to define all of the key terms/people. You also need to thoroughly answer all of the key concepts. Do this on a separate sheet of pape

3

Secondary Sources

and Informational

Text

4

Slaughter: World War I, 1914-1918

France, 1917

Dear Madeleine,

Yesterday we went "over the top" again. The artillery pounds the enemy, then shudders to a stop leaving an eerie silence – a silence which only serves to let the Germans know they can crawl out of their bunkers in time to kill us when we charge. I know this because I have sat surrounded by sandbags in deep, muddy holes where great rats make their home with us, and I have felt the earth jump and rumble as the Boche bombard us. I know when it stops that I must crawl out past the two or three who are invariably lying flat to the ground, untouched but shivering, wide eyed and frozen mad with fear, then run to the firing step in time to shoot at the Germans charging us.

When the whistle blows and Lieutenant Mons shouts the order to charge, I, as sergeant, repeat it to my squad. We scramble out of the safety of our trench and stagger toward the enemy. Machine guns chatter and I see comrades fall, some sliced in two separate halves at the waist. I have learned not to make friends, because as soon as I do their heads are separated from their necks by artillery blasts, or they bleed to death before my eyes after a machine gun tears them open.

It is all too painful.This time, we were lucky. Apparently the artillery had actually knocked out

the two German machine gun posts toward which we ran (which is rare). Still, five of my squad were killed and another six wounded by the Germans before we reached their trench. Then it was knives, rifle butts, and fists. Private Seurette actually bit a German before Corporal Neufeld stabbed the enemy with his bayonet. And for all this carnage just to win a hundred yards of ground, even if only temporarily, my squad of thirty was reduced to eighteen men.

To our left, a regiment of Senegalese (black men from our African colonies) fought ferociously. They suffer mightily in the cold, coming from tropical climes, and I often wonder how they feel fighting for the empire that conquered their land. Nevertheless, they are brave men, especially in hand-to-hand combat, yelling strange war cries as they engage the enemy.

I do not know if this will all pass the censors, but I must tell you, it is senseless up here. Our leaders send us in assault after assault to try to gain a mile and the next month we are driven back across that same mile. The land is torn and rent, treeless and grassless, barren, brown and endless, like the moon must be. The smell of urine and mud and death constantly make me ill. Of the thirty men in my company that entered the trenches with me six months ago, only six are left.

We have gone through four commanders. They all come to the line in fresh uniforms, full of élan and patriotism. If they survive the first battle, they become depressed. If they survive the second, they become old men, even though they are only in their twenties. If they survive the third, they get promoted, but most do not last that long: not one of our lieutenants has as yet survived to a captaincy, but this Mons is the first to have actually fought before; rumor has it he was a

5

Historical Fiction

sergeant at Verdun and was promoted from the ranks. Maybe he will bring common sense with him.

We fight to defend France, but I don’t know much else. Why are our nations fighting at all? Why does the Briton fight? Why does the German invade us? Surely not because some fool of a prince got himself shot a couple years ago in the Balkans. For that we live in water and mud and blood? I do not understand.

All I know is that when this is over, I want to return to you and have children and never leave our farm again. I have seen the world, my love, and it is collapsing. It has nothing to offer but death.

Jacques

The Guns of August: The Road to War

It is difficult to imagine the consuming devastation caused by the First World War. Certainly the physical destruction itself – the ravishing of the land by artillery and trenching, the annihilation of the youth of Europe in senseless frontal assaults, and the deprivations suffered by civilians starving in blockaded nations – was enough to dishearten and disillusion almost anyone. But much of the western world suffered a staggering psychological shock after World War I, because Europe had entered the 20th Century confident that its civilization was moving inexorably toward perfection. The post-industrialization belief in technology and science as the eventual provider for an almost utopian world was rudely and abruptly destroyed for all intents and purposes by a war that survivors deemed almost entirely senseless and barbaric.

Technology had not fulfilled the promise of a brave new world; it had only made killing more efficient. Mass industry and mass culture had yielded mass warfare and massive destruction for both winners and losers alike. And the diplomatic aftershocks as well seemed to signal that the powers of Europe themselves were on the verge of collapse. As the British foreign minister moaned on the eve of hostilities, "The lights are going out all over Europe."

Europe still has not fully recovered from WW I, and perhaps never will.

Gathering Clouds: The Path to War1. Entangling AlliancesA series of tangled alliances and agreements between major powers in

Europe and the Middle East created tensions that needed only one small incident to drag them all into a conflict that, contractually, required their participation, though common sense and cooler, less prideful heads might have helped avoid the entire fiasco.

After the Franco-Prussian War ended in 1871, France began plotting revenge on Germany, a scheme which included recapturing the Alsace-Lorraine. Under Bismarck, Germany had worked to keep France isolated, and at one point secured alliances with Russia, Austria, and Italy to do so, while Britain remained neutral in "splendid isolation." But Wilhelm II [r.1888-1918] fired Bismarck in 1890, and although he did maintain his allegiance to the Triple Alliance (which had been formed in 1882 between Germany, Austria, and Italy), the new Kaiser let the Russo-German treaty expire. Russia subsequently became nervous about German ambitions and allied with France in 1894. Then, as Wilhelm became more belligerent toward England, Britain abandoned neutrality and joined France and Russia in a Triple Entente (alliance) in 1904.

Germany also allied with Turkey, whose leaders were desperately trying to modernize and defend the remnants of the Ottoman Empire. Meanwhile, Britain,

6

French poilu (private), WWI

realizing that Japan was a threat to its Asian possessions, allied with the Japanese. In the Balkans, the Orthodox Christian and Slavic Serbs, fearing Austria to the north and the Turks to the south, allied with Russia, also Orthodox and Slavic, while the Italians secretly promised France they would switch to the French side in the event of a war. So a chain of alliances linking powers throughout Europe had been created, and if two nations went to war, the rest would be drawn in as well.

2. The Belligerence of Wilhelm IIKaiser Wilhelm II was young and impetuous, and unfortunately his character

became Germany’s foreign policy. Deluded and inspired by a strong sense of superiority and nationalism, many Germans echoed Wilhelm’s claim that Germany deserved a "place in the sun." In various colonial crises Germany consistently opposed Britain, France, and even the United States. They encouraged the Boers in South Africa to fight Britain; they publicly proclaimed their desire to build a bigger navy than the British; and they began to construct a railway from Berlin to Baghdad that could have delivered German soldiers to the borders of India, a threat that the British took quite seriously. Oddly, as a result of old-guard, politically-arranged marriages, King George V (r.1910-1937) of England, Czar Nicholas II of Russia (r.1894-1917), and Wilhelm II were all grandsons of Queen Victoria.

3. The Race for ColoniesGermany seized colonies of questionable value simply because they wanted

to be part of the "imperial club." But furthermore, they imperiled areas claimed by others, actions which irritated and threatened various imperial powers: In the 1880’s, the German navy faced off against an American fleet over the Samoan isles; German land forces blocked a proposed British railway through east Africa; and in 1905 and 1911, Germany tried to pry Morocco from France's control but was thwarted by a combined diplomatic action of most other nations.

4. Arms RaceUnder Admiral Tirpitz, the Germans had aggressively

built up their navy. In response to the German threat, the British developed the Dreadnought, the first modern, all steel battleship. Germany countered that move and pioneered submarine technology with their Unterzeeboot (U-boat). In addition, all the major powers accelerated their development of land weapons and the training of their armies. The increased military preparation, combined with a sense of nationalistic competition, seemed only to make inevitable a time when the generals and admirals would actually use their war toys.

5. NationalismIt must also be noted and emphasized that all of these developments took

place in an atmosphere of extreme nationalism. Each country was convinced not only that Europe was a superior world civilization, but also that its particular nation occupied the pinnacle of European supremacy. Each country nurtured these beliefs and ideals by feeding Romantic, Social Darwinist, and racist writings and teachings to students in their schools. Each country also believed that any war fought, for whatever reason, would be a short, glorious affair which its nation would win. When war finally did come, it was welcomed, ironically but not surprisingly, with popular joy.

Assassination in Sarajevo: Crisis in the Balkans and the Beginning of WarAfter Italy was unified in the 1860s, the Austrians shifted their focus to

achieving control of the Balkans, and as the Turks retreated from the region, the local people established small independent kingdoms because they had no desire to exchange Turkish rule for Austrian dominance. The Austrians eventually found

7

themselves opposed by the small but determined kingdom of Serbia, especially after 1903 when the old, pro-Austrian Serbian royal family was replaced by a pro-Russian monarch, starting the Karageorgeovich dynasty. When Russia and Serbia established an alliance, Austria became concerned and relied heavily on her German allies to the north to keep the Czar in check.

In 1908, after Austria seized Bosnia-Herczegovina, an area of mixed ethnicity claimed by the Serbs, the Russians backed Serbia, but the Germans’ support of Austria convinced the Russians to hold their fire. The Serbs were bitter about the Bosnian issue, and Serbian terrorists waged a low-scale campaign against Austrian occupation. A few years later, the First and Second Balkan Wars (1912-14) heightened tensions in the region, and Catholic Austria again intervened to help the new Muslim nation of Albania against the attacking Orthodox Serbs, who once again lost land they wanted.

When the next heir to the Hapsburg throne, Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand (1863-1914) announced he would travel to the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo in June 1914 to visit soldiers wounded in action against the Serbs, a Serbian guerrilla group, the Black Hand, decided to assassinate the Archduke. The Black Hand, which included many Serbian government officials, was led by Dragutin Dmitrijevic, a top Serbian intelligence officer who dispatched several assassins to lay in wait for the Austrian prince.

Fearing war, Serbian foreign minister Panic (yes, an ironic name) warned Austria, but he was ignored. As the Archduke traveled through Sarajevo, a Black Hand agent threw a bomb at the parade of open roofed cars. A car full of bodyguards was killed, but the Archduke's driver swerved onto another street to escape. However, this only brought the archduke’s car directly in front of Gavrilo Princip, another Black Hand agent who fired two shots, killing the Archduke and his wife.

With Germany's promised support, the Austrians issued an ultimatum to Serbia. The Serbs apologized profusely and actually agreed to almost every Austrian demand, but on July 28, 1914, Austria declared war anyway, despite a warning from a worried Russia not to go to war with the Serbs. Two days later the Austrians mobilized their forces on the Russian border. In turn, Russia mobilized its army and began moving forces toward the frontiers with Austria and Germany. Germany, meanwhile, began putting its battle plans in motion, moving its forces toward both its French and Russian borders.

At this point, Wilhelm II and Nicholas II of Russia exchanged telegrams asking each other to back down, but neither did. Events had been set in motion that were, it seemed, beyond the control of governments. Germany declared war on Russia on August 1; on the same day the French moved their forces toward the German border. On August 3, Germany invaded Belgium in an attempt to circumvent French defenses. Belgium, whose neutrality was guaranteed by Britain, resisted, and the British entered the war. In all nations people rejoiced in the streets, confident of victory before Christmas, and young men flocked to the recruiting offices in a wave of nationalistic fervor.

The Allies (as the Triple Entente and other allied nations were called), consisted primarily of Britain, France, Russia and Serbia. Several other minor states joined the Allies, including Japan who quickly seized Germany’s few and far-flung Asian possessions. In early 1915, Italy revealed its duplicity and declared war on Austria. The Turks and Bulgarians joined the Central Powers, as Germany and Austria were called. The United States, under Woodrow Wilson (Dem. pres. 1913-21), remained steadfastly neutral. Very soon it became apparent that this

8

would not be a short war; instead it turned into a long, costly struggle the likes of which the world had never seen before.

The bloodiest war in human history had begun.

In Flanders Fields: The Conduct of War

The Germans had prepared for this moment. They knew they could not fight a war on two fronts, against France to the west and Russia to the east, so they planned to defeat France quickly then transport their troops east by rail to vanquish Russia. They were depending on the Russians taking 8 weeks to mobilize, so they needed to win the war on the western front in six or seven weeks. They had won the Franco-Prussian War in 7 weeks, so the German strategists, led by General Count Alfred Von Schlieffen (1833-1913) believed they could repeat the feat. But the French were also prepared; they had fortified the Franco-German border. Von Schlieffen planned to circumvent the French defenses by making an end run through neutral Belgium, sweeping west then south around the French defenses to take Paris quickly.

Von Schlieffen died before the war, so his plan was handed to General Helmuth von Moltke who encountered several problems when he tried to carry out the plan. First, he used too many troops in the attack on France's border defenses because, surprisingly, the French retreated toward Paris where, unfortunately for them, they met Von Moltke’ s northern force marching down from Belgium. Secondly, the German’s assault through Belgium was slowed down by unexpectedly tough Belgian resistance coupled with the arrival of British troops, neither of which the Germans had actually expected. Still, the Germans

nearly seized the French capital. At the last moment, French General Joffre rallied his troops along the Marne River and stopped the oncoming Germans. Even worse for Germany, the Russians mobilized faster than anticipated and invaded eastern Germany, so von Moltke had to weaken his western force to send reinforcements east. Germany was now mired in the dreaded two front war that Bismarck had tried so hard to avoid.

Both sides tried to sweep around the other's end (or flank), but they had learned to defend their lines with trenches and other, more elaborate fortifications. The British stopped a German flanking attack at Ypres, and eventually a line of trenches stretched from the English Channel to the Swiss border. The western front bogged down in a stalemate. In the east, the Germans drove the Russians back. Even though the Czar's forces enjoyed numerical superiority, they lacked sufficient supplies and after suffering crushing defeats at the Mausurian Lakes and Tannenburg, they retreated back into mother Russia.

It is said that generals learn well the lessons of the last war. In the First World War, the leaders did not comprehend the technological advances of the industrial revolution, so that devastatingly costly lessons were learned too late. World War I was a military tragedy because the generals in World War I continued to order massive frontal assaults, pitting waves of humanity against modern weapons that slaughtered the oncoming troops like so many cattle caught in a box canyon. While such combat and battles had been glimpsed as early as America’s Civil War, the world had never seen such wholesale annihilation. The repeating rifle, the machine gun, and advanced artillery could not be overcome by mere courage. Over the next three and a half years, the lines of the western front changed very little. Thousands died to gain only a few yards. Generals, discouraged and despairing, eventually hoped they would win through a war of attrition; that is, that they could earn victory simply by killing so many enemy

9

soldiers that their opponent would have to give in and surrender. Attrition even included attacks on civilians and factories in an attempt to "bleed the enemy white."

Total WarProduction in a technological age became one of the keys to victory, because

modern war required a great amount of materiel (war supplies). Since devastatingly deadly assaults, requiring large drafts of manpower, drained many military workers away from the munitions and armament plants, huge numbers of civilians were needed to work in the factories that produced the machinery of war. This was total war: it required the involvement and effort not solely of the government and the military, but of every man, woman, and child. Men fought; women worked in war factories; children collected scrap metal to turn into bullets. Eventually, the governments on both sides took control of business and economic affairs in a sort of temporary war socialism as factory output and economic policy were strictly regulated in order to win the war.

This meant that civilians also became legitimate targets. German Zeppelins bombed London, though not very effectively, but the British navy's blockade of the Central Powers caused severe food shortages in Germany by 1918. To replace blocked items like coffee and gunpowder, German chemists developed synthetics

(or ersatz), but they could not fabricate substitutes for everything held back by the British fleet.

Scientists developed new weapons for the war. Open cockpit airplanes were used primarily for observation, until pilots who considered themselves "knights of the air" started shooting at each other with pistols. Then Anthony Fokker (a Dutchman who had moved to Germany) pioneered a machine gun with a timing device that fired bullets between the blades of propellers, a technology quickly copied by the

Allies, and the battlefield expanded to the skies where planes regularly engaged in dogfights overhead or dropped bombs on the enemy below.

The Germans also pioneered chemical weapons in 1916, another technology copied by the Allies. While mustard gas burned the lungs and caused massive hemorrhaging which blinded people or caused them to drown in their own bodily fluids, nerve gas caused twitching spasms of agony as it simply shut down

the victim's heart. Gas masks were invented fairly quickly, but they were clumsy and only somewhat effective. In 1916, the British introduced an armored vehicle, code named "tank" (the name stuck), but early models were slow, cumbersome and ineffective. Still, their initial appearance did cause the Germans to flee in fear.

In order to counteract the German U-boats, the British developed fast moving destroyers, light ships which dropped explosives with pressure fuses called depth charges to damage, debilitate, or destroy the “sea wolves.” Destroyers, like sheep dogs, herded and escorted vulnerable merchant ships in convoys, or groups, to protect them. This tactic was not effective until late in the war, but even then German sub commanders attacked and sank many ships, sending thousands of tons of materials to the

bottom of the sea, and of course hundreds of people to a watery grave.

10

The Red Baron, Manfred von

Propaganda became an important tactic. Civilians were urged to conserve resources, buy war bonds, work in factories, watch for spies, and join the army. Posters, plays, and the newly invented motion picture demonized the enemy and exhorted citizens to support the war. However all nations were eventually forced to resort to a massive draft, especially after initial enthusiasm for fighting waned and it became apparent that the war was going to be long and bloody.

Hoping to entice the US into the war, the British funneled anti-German propaganda to the United States, accusing the Kaiser’s forces (among other things) of raping women and roasting Belgian babies to eat. And because the trans-Atlantic cables ran through London, the Germans could not effectively counter the British claims. Regardless, the United States remained steadfastly neutral. After all, many German, Austrian, and Irish Americans had no reason to support the Allies. On the other hand, the British blockade meant that U.S. businesses could trade with only the Allies, and as a result, 98 percent of American exports went to friends of Allied nations, an imbalance that worked effectively against the Central Powers. In desperation, German submarines surrounded Britain and effectively fenced the coasts of France, occasionally sinking ships sailing under the American flag. Slowly U.S. popular sympathy swung to the side of the Allies. However, when President Wilson won reelection in 1916, his slogan was "He Kept Us Out Of War." America still wanted no part of Europe’s squabbles.

End Runs (1915-16)While the war in the west bogged down, the combatants probed other areas

trying to break something loose. Winston Churchill (1874-1965), Britain’s naval secretary, hoped to capture the Dardanelles, the narrow strait near Constantinople that controls access to the Black Sea. That would open a supply route to Russia and perhaps divert Central Powers forces from the west. In 1915, combined forces from France and Britain (many of these from Australia and New Zealand) landed at Gallipoli, but after initial victories, the Allies were trapped, pinned down, and slaughtered on a beach by the Turks under Mustafa Kemal. Finally, the Allies withdrew.

The Turks dreamt of establishing an empire in Russian Central Asia, where the czars controlled Turkic speaking peoples. But their assault ground to a halt in the Caucasus Mountains. Turkish dictator Enver Pasha (r. 1913-1919 as part of a three-man ruling committee) used the war as an excuse to

slaughter the Orthodox Christian Armenians who lived along the Russian border. Over a million Armenians were systematically killed despite protests from the American ambassador and a few German observers. Armenian males were executed, and Armenian women and children force-marched into the Syrian Desert where they were robbed, raped, and starved. Hitler later pointed to this global indifference to the Armenian genocide as a reason to justify his own murderous plans.

Meanwhile, by 1915, Austrian and Bulgarian forces overran Serbia as Italian forces bogged down in a bloody struggle on their northeastern border against the Austrians. The Germans, continually hammering away at the Eastern Front, killed 1.6 million Russian soldiers in 1915 and 2 million more in 1916. One quarter of the Russian army went into battle without weapons, ordered to pick up rifles of killed comrades or dead enemies and charge in massive waves against German machine guns. The tactic proved less than effective. Still, in 1916, the Czar’ s army did deal temporary defeats to the

11

Armenian child, 1916

Austrians; once bolstered by German reinforcements, though, the Central Powers counterattacked and drove deep into the Russian homeland. The Czar himself went to the front to command his troops, but continued losses eroded popular support and while the Russian people grew increasingly angry at the mounting dead, soldiers deserted by the thousands.

In 1916, the German naval fleet finally left the safety of its base and fought the British at Jutland off the coast of Denmark. The British suffered heavy casualties but drove the Germans back to port where Germany's surface fleet sat out the war in dock while their submarines stealthily stalked Allied shipping.

Also in 1916, the Germans attacked the French at Verdun, where in a massive bloodletting, almost a million men died in a 7 month battle. French commander Henri Petain ordered his men to hold the line and the Germans gained only a few miles before they were stopped. A British counterattack along the Somme proved equally unsuccessful, and even costlier: a million more died in only four months; at one point, 60,000 perished in one single day. Soldiers on both sides began to lose faith in their commanders, asking themselves why they were climbing "over the top" of trenches only to be butchered for minimal gains and advancements.

In the Middle East, the Allies finally began to make some substantial progress. Colonel T.E. Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia,” 1888-1935), a British intelligence officer, won an alliance with the Arab Prince of Mecca, Husseyn ibn-Ali (1856-1931), and the Arab Revolt began. The Arabs had long resented Turkish rule of many Muslim holy sites, including Mecca, and in 1916, led by Husseyn’s son Prince Faisal and Lawrence, they seized the fortress of Aqaba, opening up a supply line to the Middle East from British Egypt. Meanwhile, despite a disastrous 1914 campaign, British forces again attacked Baghdad, seizing Iraq in 1917. As a British-Arab force advanced northward under General Allenby, seizing Jerusalem and Damascus by 1918, the last outposts of the Turkish empire fell.

Allied troops seized Germany’s African colonies, most of which later became part of the British Empire. Colonial soldiers and laborers also contributed to the war effort. Senegalese and Algerians fought in the French trenches; Sikhs and Gurkhas from India fought in the British army; 100,000 Vietnamese laborers, including a teenager named Ho Chi Minh, went to Paris. These soldiers, who later returned to their homelands emboldened with both confidence from their service and the knowledge that Europeans were not invincible, often became the leaders of colonial independence movements.

Mutinies (1917) By 1917 both sides were desperate for a way to break the

stalemate. At the same time, popular support for the war was in great danger of withering away completely as more and more young men died in apparently senseless assaults. Within the ranks of soldiers, desertion and mutiny were a real threat. Wilfred Owen (1893-1918), a brilliant British soldier-poet, bitterly described the soldiers' anger in his "Anthem For Doomed Youth" (1917):1

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?- Only the monstrous anger of the guns.Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle

1 Owen was killed by artillery fire one week before the war ended.12

Can patter out their hasty orisons* (* ringing of church bells)No mockeries now for them; no prayers or bells;Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs - The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;And bugles calling for them from sad shires* (* rural counties of England)

Many soldiers went insane or simply could not function after exposure to fighting at the front. Sometimes, Freud's new ideas of psychoanalysis were used to treat these victims of "shell shock."

The first rebellion came in Russia.2 Angered by centuries of autocracy compounded by the incompetence of both czar and generals, the Russian forces and people revolted in St. Petersburg (renamed Petrograd). Liberals, Socialists, and staunch Marxists spearheaded a popular uprising in March 1917. Czar Nicholas raced home from the front but was arrested by his own officers and the monarchy collapsed. A Provisional Government under moderate socialist Alexander Kerensky kept Russia in the war, but in November of 1917, Kerensky’ s government fell in a communist coup to a small but clever group of hard-core Marxists called the Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Ulyanov, or Lenin as he called himself. Under Lenin, Russia immediately withdrew from the war and surrendered to Germany thousands of miles of European Russia in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918).

In Germany, the war was exacting a heavy toll on civilians. The draft called up men as young as 16 and as old as 60. Bread riots and socialist demonstrations frightened German leaders. In 1917, the heroes of the Eastern Front, General Paul von Hindenburg (1847-1934) and General Erich von Ludendorff (1865-1937) took control of the government from the civilian ministers and cracked down on dissent. In the west, German troops began to retreat under a heavy British assault, and when they reestablished new lines of defense, French commander Nivelle prepared for yet another assault. But the French soldiers mutinied: they would defend their lines, but they refused to attack. After being forced to resign, Nivelle was replaced by Henri Petain, the hero of Verdun. Then, rather than mount another offensive, the Allies decided to wait, because in April 1917 the United States entered the war.

The Yanks were coming.

Yanks (1918)

2 The Russian Revolution will be explained in the next chapter in greater detail.13

Voices of War...“The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.”

- Sir Edward Grey, British cabinet, July 1914

"Why four great powers should fight over Serbia no fellow can understand."

- John Burns, Liberal MP (UK) , July 27, 1914

"My centre is giving way, my right is retreating, situation excellent, I am attacking."

- French General Ferdinand Foch, Sep 1914

"The machine gun is a much over rated weapon.."

- British Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1915

"Our life here is truly hellish. Fortunately, my soldiers are very brave and tougher than the enemy. What is more, their ... beliefs make it easier to carry out orders which send them to their death. They see only two supernatural outcomes: victory for Islam or martyrdom. Do you know what the second means? It is to go straight to heaven. There, the houris, God's most beautiful women, will meet them and will satisfy their desires for all eternity. What great

After three years of war in Europe, a series of events occurred that influenced the decision by the United States to abandon its watchful neutrality and enter fully into the warfare. In 1915, after publicly declaring its potential action, the Germans sank the British passenger liner Lusitania off the coast of Ireland as it sailed from New York to England. The German embassy in the United States had printed advertisements telling people not to sail on the vessel, and Germany had warned the Allies of the possibility beforehand because, despite British denials, the Central Powers had suspected the Lusitania of carrying Allied war supplies. (Divers later found British munitions in the hold of the sunken wreckage, so she was a legitimate target.) However, more than a hundred U.S. citizens were among the 1100 dead and the American public was outraged.

Then, in 1916, American officials captured several German saboteurs in the USA itself with plans to destroy American factories that were selling war goods to Britain. In January, 1917, the Germans, who began the war by warning neutral ships to surrender before sinking them, announced a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare, including their right to sink American cargo vessels anywhere in the Atlantic.3

In February, 1917, British intelligence released the Zimmerman Note. The Germans had telegraphed their ambassador in Mexico and ordered him to ask Mexico to attack the United States if the U.S. entered the war on the Allied side. The German offer included the promise that Mexico would receive in exchange all the land it lost during the Mexican-American War in 1848. Though Mexico was in the middle of its own revolution and wisely declined, British intelligence

intercepted the note and leaked it to American papers, causing American public opinion of Germany to sink even lower.

As a result, President Wilson [Dem., p. 1913-21] felt he had no choice but to consider war. Popular outcry in favor of war increased, and when several American ships, including U.S. naval vessels, were fired upon in the spring of 1917, Wilson asked for a declaration of war in April, arguing in a high moral tone that it was to be a war to "make the world safe for democracy" (which was easier to promise once czarist Russia was out of the war) and that it was a "war to end all wars." He issued a list of equally high

moral goals, the 14 Points, which, among other things, promised ethnic groups the right to "self-determination," or in other words, their own nation. He also proposed a post-war alliance of all nations to ensure peace.

With an army of only 200,000, the U.S. was totally unprepared for war, so like other nations, the United States mobilized its civilians. Four million troops were drafted, but they would not be trained and shipped to Europe until 1918. The government took control of industry to ratchet up war production to full-scale capacity. Propaganda urged Americans to contribute to the war effort. Civilians were urged to plant gardens and conserve resources, and occasionally, perhaps partly as a result, German-Americans faced discrimination in the heat of war fever. Sauerkraut was actually renamed liberty cabbage, and high schools stopped teaching German during the war.

Blacks (or "Negroes" as they were officially called) were recruited and conscripted as well, placed in labor regiments for the most part because the U.S. army remained segregated. Similar to the long-term results of colonial soldiers serving for other Allied forces, army service instilled in American blacks a confidence and discipline that would make them less likely to quietly accept segregation after they returned home. Many blacks moved from the rural south to

3 Though this gave the crew a chance to abandon ship, neutral crews often fired on German subs which had surfaced to give fair warning.

14

the industrial north, a trend that accelerated between the wars and continued through World War II. For both whites and blacks, the war introduced thousands of young men to a wider world and new ways of thinking. As one song put it, "How you going to keep the boy on the farm after he’s seen the lights of ol’ Paree?"

In the spring of 1918, hoping for a quick victory before the bulk of U.S. troops arrived, the Germans staged a last, desperate, ferocious assault. Another million soldiers died, and the Allied line almost shattered, but despite giving up more land than they had at any other point in the war, the Allies held their ground at Rheims and at a second Battle of the Marne.

By summer, a million U.S. troops under General John Pershing entered the front. Allied commander Marshal Ferdinand Foch of France organized the huge Meuse-Argonne offensive for the summer of 1918. The German army fell back before the massive Allied assault. Turkey and Bulgaria quit fighting in September, and the Italians defeated the Austrians at Vittorio Ventio in October. The Austrian empire collapsed in a wave of ethnic and political revolts. In Germany, civilian riots, army mutinies, and socialist rebellions, including a communist coup in Berlin, erupted throughout the country. The German naval forces, still moored at their headquarters in Kiel, mutinied after Wilhelm II ordered them to make a suicide assault on Britain. The Kaiser abdicated and fled to neutral Holland, and the German army staff resigned. At 11 a.m. on November 11, 1918, a day recorded as "All quiet on the Western Front," the guns fell silent when all sides agreed to a cease-fire, or armistice.

The bloodletting had ended.

Losing the Peace: The Versailles Treaty

Ten million soldiers and at least fifteen million civilians were dead. Twenty million more people were wounded, many of them maimed and scarred beyond real

repair both physically and emotionally, and millions of refugees were left homeless. The Russian, Austrian and German monarchies had ended, and the Turkish sultanate soon suffered the same fate as well. The war had cost $338 billion at 1918 rates, and the resulting economic disruption impoverished millions and eventually contributed to the Great Depression. Echoing the post-Napoleonic Wars congress of 1815, the victorious powers met to redraw the map

of Europe and create a new world order. The delegates convened at Versailles in early 1919, and while dozens of countries and would-be nations attended, only three leaders truly mattered: President Wilson of the United States, David Lloyd-George (1863-1945 [left picture]) of Britain, and George Clemenceau (1841-1929) of France.

Wilson the Hero, Wilson the FailureWilson, the first sitting U.S. president to visit Europe, arrived on the

continent to a hero's welcome because U.S. troops, while they played only a small part in the actual fighting, had boosted Allied morale to the final victory.4 The European people admired him because the Central Powers had surrendered, in part, due to his assurances of a fair and humane peace, and they waited hopefully and anxiously for the diplomatic reparations because he brought with him his 14

4 Only a million U.S. troops actually went to Europe – the rest were still training in the USA when the war ended – and only 40,000-50,000 were killed in battle, compared to more than 1 million British subjects, 2 million Frenchmen, and 4-6 million Russian soldiers.

15

Points containing those promises of open treaties, arms control, a homeland for each ethnic group, and a permanent peace ensured by an international alliance of all nations. Wilson was a high-minded optimist, but he was also naive. A Democrat, he ignored the Republican Party in the States, despite the fact that any treaty he signed in Europe had to pass through the Senate, which was controlled by Republicans, a blunder he later regretted. More importantly, his idealism ran headlong into the hard pragmatism of both Lloyd-George and "The Tiger" Clemenceau. The Allies wanted a revenge that would punish Germany, because their nations had been bled dangerously dry by the war in almost every imaginable aspect of life. In addition, Wilson’s ideal of self-determination threatened the British Empire, and the British surely were not going to relinquish their colonies to independence because of Wilson’s ideals! Other national leaders, too, opposed Wilson's points so revered by the people of Europe: Italy, France, Serbia, and Britain all wanted to annex pieces of Austria, Germany, and Turkey for themselves as the rightful spoils of war.

Added to the mix was the Allies' fear of Bolshevism. As a result, though technically an ally, Russia lost more land than anyone, was excluded from the conference, and was punished for her Marxism after becoming the Soviet Union. In Hungary, the Allies helped crush a communist takeover by Bela Kun. In the United States, the government seized and deported hundreds of immigrants for socialist and communist connections, and the presidential candidate of the American Socialist party (which had opposed the war) was jailed.5

Wilson’s promises of arms control did not bring a positive response either. The only nation whose weapons would be limited was Germany, whom the Allies hoped to strip of all defenses. In the end, Wilson was no match for the Allies. Far from home, plagued with illness, and isolated in his idealism, he was gradually forced to concede on almost every one of his 14 points. All that truly remained of Wilson’s idea was the League of Nations (actually originally a British proposal), which was designed to provide a peaceful place to resolve conflicts, but without any means of coercion, it could work only if the nations voluntarily cooperated. And not all nations would even be included in the membership. Germany and the new Soviet Union were excluded, and in the ultimate irony, the United States never joined the League because the Republican Senate refused to vote for it. Despite a national tour by Wilson to win support for enrollment in the League, Americans, disillusioned by the failure of his promises about democracy and world peace, feared that membership might drag the nation into another prolonged foreign war. Shocked by the bloodshed of the "war to end all wars," Americans were not ready to be international leaders, and the nation retreated into isolation. Eventually the United States signed a separate treaty with the Central Powers.

Germany was forced to admit to being the instigator of the war and was ordered to pay $33 billion in reparations. She lost her colonies, territory in east Europe, and slivers of land in the west. She was prohibited from maintaining a navy and an air force, and her army was limited to a mere 100,000 men. Her proud naval fleet was towed to Scotland and scuttled by the British. And she was forced to make substantial concessions to France: her western provinces (the Rhineland) were demilitarized in the interests of French security, which meant the French could invade at any time; and she relinquished to the French control of her lucrative mining areas in Saarland in western Germany.

Germany itself was in chaos. A republic dominated by the Social Democrats and the Catholic party was founded at Weimar. Its delegates took no part in the discussions at Versailles but were simply ordered to sign the treaty, and because

5 His name was Eugene Debs and he polled over a million votes in 1920 even though he was still in prison.16

Germany remained under blockade and was literally starving, the delegates had no choice but to acquiesce. In Berlin, the Spartacus movement of communists was fighting in the streets against gangs of ex-soldiers, the Freikorps. The fledgling German democracy was instantly branded with the stigma of dishonor and defeat.

Austria and Russia’s western provinces were divided into a handful of new lands. Poland reappeared, made up of German, Austrian and Russian areas populated by Poles, and immediately attacked the Soviets to gain more territory. Czechoslovakia and Hungary were formed out of the remnants of the Hapsburg realm, and what remained of Austria became a republic. Serbia doubled in size and became Yugoslavia, a nation of several ethnic groups dominated by the Serbian monarchy.6 Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia appeared in what had been the Baltic provinces of the Russian empire. Greece, Romania, and Italy (which was disappointed with its meager gains) all picked up small slices of land from various Central Powers.

In the Middle East, both Jews and Arabs found themselves disappointed when the British and French divided up the spoils according to the Sykes-Picot Treaty. British diplomat Lord Balfour had promised the Jews a homeland in exchange for financial support, while Col. T.E. Lawrence had promised the Arabs their own nation. But in the end, the French ruled Lebanon and Syria, while the British held Palestine, Jordan, and Iraq.7

Things Fall Apart: ConclusionsAs the negotiations in Versailles concluded, the world gazed in horror at the

Influenza epidemic of 1918-19. Thirty million people died – even more than the four years of war had killed.8 Once again, all the promise and optimism of Victorian science, industry, and technology seemed powerless in the face of man-made and natural Malthusian disasters. The twin scourges of war and disease had torn the heart out of Europe, and pessimism seemed to reign.

The colonial world concluded that Europe was not morally or materially superior, and inspired by the Russian Revolution, colonized peoples began to attack the foundations of European empire with increasing skill and fervor. While there were a few beneficial side effects, most notably the advances of women’s rights and the developments in synthetics, the First World War inflicted a mortal blow to the confidence and vitality of European civilization.

In his book The Economic Consequences of Peace (1920), British economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that Europe’s political and economic troubles would only be worsened by the Versailles Treaty. The harsh peace imposed by the three major allied players created an atmosphere of resentment in Europe that left the continent exposed to economic disaster, ripe for exploitation by radicals on both the far right and the far left, and primed for another conflict of global proportions.

6 Meaning “Land of the South Slavs”, Yugoslavia was a hodgepodge of Catholic Slovenes, Croats and Hungarians, Orthodox Serbs, Macedonians, and Montenegrins and Muslim Albanians and Bosnians.7 Technically these were League of Nations “mandates” but for all intents and purposes they were colonies.8 Half of the US soldiers that “died in World War I” actually died of the flu; 20 million of the dead were in India.

17

18

THE TRENCH SCENE

In the following essay, historian Paul Fussell discusses the Great War as experienced by millions of soldiers who served time in the trenches of the Western Front. In these ditches some 7,000 British soldiers were killed or wounded daily between 1914 and 1918. Though the democracies were victorious, Western civilization emerged from the war pessimistic, cynical, and discouraged.

From the winter of 1914 until the spring of 1918 the trench system was fixed, moving here and there a few hundred yards, moving on great occasions as much as a few miles. London stationers purveying maps felt secure in stocking "sheets of 'The Western Front' with a thick wavy black line drawn from North to South alongside which was printed 'British Line.' "If one could have gotten high enough to look down at the whole line at once, one would have seen a series of multiple parallel excavations running for 400 miles down through Belgium and France, roughly in the shape of an S flattened at the sides and tipped to the left. From the North Sea coast of Belgium the line wandered southward, bulging out to contain Ypres, then dropping down to protect Bethune, Arras, and Albert. It continued

south in front of Montidier, Compiegne, Soissons, Reims, Verdun, St. Mihiel, and Nancy, and finally attached its southernmost end to the Swiss border at Beurnevisin, in Alsace. The top forty miles-the part north of Ypres-was held by the Belgians; the next ninety miles, down to the river Ancre, were British; the French held the rest, to the south.

Henri Barbusse estimates that the French front alone contained about 6250 miles of trenches. Since the French occupied a little more than half the line, the total length of the numerous trenches occupied by the British must come to about 6000

miles. We thus find over 12,000 miles of trenches on the Allied side alone. When we add the trenches of the Central Powers, we arrive at a figure of about 25,000 miles, equal to a trench sufficient to circle the earth. Theoretically it would have been possible to walk from Belgium to Switzerland entirely below ground, but although the lines were "continuous," they were not entirely seamless: occasionally mere shell holes or fortified strong-points would serve as a connecting link…

"When all is said and done," (British officer and author after the war, Siegfried) Sassoon notes, "the war was mainly a matter of holes and ditches." And in these holes and ditches extending for ninety miles, continually, even in the quietest times, some 7000 British men and officers were killed and wounded daily, just as a matter of course. "Wastage," the Staff called it.

There were normally three lines of trenches. The front-line trench was anywhere from fifty yards or so to a mile from its enemy counterpart. Several hundred yards behind it was the support trench line. And several hundred yards behind that was the reserve line. There were three kinds of trenches: firing trenches, like these; communication trenches, running roughly perpendicular to the line and connecting the three lines; and "saps," shallower ditches thrust out into No Man's Land,

providing access to forward observation posts, listening posts, grenade-throwing posts, and machine gun positions. The end

19

Get Technical: Enfilade – shooting at a row of enemy from the side so as to have several of them in a line of fire; duckboards – boards over mud or water; sumps – holes to drain off water.

of a sap was usually not manned all the time: night was the favorite time for going out. Coming up from the rear, one reached the trenches by following a communication trench sometimes a mile or more long. It often began in a town and gradually deepened. By the time pedestrians reached the reserve line, they were well below ground level.

A firing trench was supposed to be six to eight feet deep and four or five feet wide. On the enemy side a parapet of earth or sandbags rose about two or three feet above the ground. A corresponding "parados" a foot or so high was often found on top of the friendly side. Into the sides of trenches were dug one- or two-man holes ("funk-holes"), and there were deeper dugouts, reached by dirt stairs, for use as command posts and officers' quarters. On the enemy side of a trench was a fire-step two feet high on which the defenders were supposed to stand, firing and throwing grenades, when repelling attack. A well-built trench did not run straight for any distance: that would have been to invite enfilade fire. Every few yards a good trench zigzagged. It had frequent traverses designed to contain damage within a limited space. Moving along a trench thus involved a great deal of weaving and turning. The floor of a proper trench was covered with wooden duckboards, beneath which were sumps a few feet deep designed to collect water. The walls, perpetually crumbling, were supported by sandbags, corrugated iron, or bundles of sticks or rushes. Except at night and in half-light, there was of course no looking over the top except through periscopes, which could be purchased in the "Trench Requisites" section of the main London department stores. The few snipers on duty during the day observed No Man's Land through loopholes cut in sheets of armor plate.

The entanglements of barbed wire had to be positioned far enough out in front of the trench to keep the enemy from sneaking up to grenade-throwing distance. Interestingly, the two novelties that contributed most to the personal menace of the war could be said to be American inventions. Barbed wire had first appeared on the American frontier in the late nineteenth century for use in restraining animals. And the machine gun was the brainchild of Hiram Stevens Maxim (1840-1916), an American who, disillusioned with native patent law, established his Maxim Gun Company in England and began manufacturing his guns in 1889. He was finally knighted for his efforts. At first the British regard for barbed wire was on a par with Sir Douglas Haig's understanding of the machine gun. In the autumn of 1914, the first wire Private Frank Richards saw emplaced before the British positions was a single strand of agricultural wire found in the vicinity. Only later did the manufactured article begin to arrive from England in sufficient quantity to create the thickets of mock-organic rusty brown that helped give a look of eternal autumn to the front.

The whole British line was numbered by sections, neatly, from right to left. A section, normally occupied by a company, was roughly 300 yards wide. One might be occupying frontline trench section 51; or support trench S 51, behind it; or reserve trench SS 51, behind both. But a less formal way of identifying sections of trench was by place or street names with a distinctly London flavor. Piccadilly was a favorite; popular also were Regent Street and Strand; junctions were Hyde Park Corner and Marble Arch. Greater wit-and deeper homesickness sometimes surfaced in the naming of the German trenches opposite. Sassoon remembers "Durley's" account of the attack at Delville Wood in September, 1916: "Our objective was Pint Trench, taking Bitter and Beer and clearing Ale and Vat, and also Pilsen Lane." Directional and traffic control signs were everywhere in the

20

Get Technical: Enfilade – shooting at a row of enemy from the side so as to have several of them in a line of fire; duckboards – boards over mud or water; sumps – holes to drain off water.

trenches, giving the whole system the air of a parody modern city, although one literally "underground."

…The British trenches were wet, cold, smelly, and thoroughly squalid. Compared with the precise and thorough German works, they were decidedly amateur, reflecting a complacency about the British genius for improvisation. Since defense offered little opportunity for the display of pluck or swank, it was by implication derogated in the officers' Field Service Pocket Book. One reason the British trench system was so haphazard and ramshackle was that it had originally taken form in accord with the official injunction: "The choice of a [defensive] position and its preparation must be made with a view to economizing the power expended on defense in order that the power of offense may be increased." And it was considered really useless to build solid fortifications anyway: "An occasional shell may strike and penetrate the parapet, but in the case of shrapnel the damage to the parapet will be trifling, while in the case of a shell filled with high explosive, the effect will be no worse on a thin parapet than on a thick one. It is, therefore, useless to spend time and labor on making a thick parapet simply to keep out shell." The repeatedly revived hopes for a general breakout and pursuit were another reason why the British trenches were so shabby. A typical soldier's view is George Coppard's:

The whole conduct of our trench warfare seemed to be based on the concept that we, the British, were not stopping in the trenches for long, but were tarrying awhile on the way to Berlin and that very soon we would be chasing Jerry across country. The result, in the long term, meant that we lived a mean and impoverished sort of existence in lousy scratch holes.

In contrast, the German trenches, as the British discovered during the attack on the Somme, were deep, clean, elaborate, and sometimes even comfortable. As Coppard found on the Somme, "Some of the [German] dugouts were thirty feet deep, with as many as sixteen bunk-beds, as well as door bells, water tanks with taps, and cupboards and mirrors." They also had boarded walls, floors, and ceilings; finished wooden staircases; electric light; real kitchens; and wallpaper and overstuffed furniture, the whole protected by steel outer doors. Foreign to the British style was a German dugout of the sort recalled by Ernst Junger:

At Monchy ... I was master of an underground dwelling approached by forty steps hewn in the solid chalk, so that even the heaviest shells at this depth made no more than a pleasant rumble when we sat there over an interminable game of cards. In one wall I had a bed hewn out.... At its head hung an electric light so that I could read in comfort till I was sleepy.... The whole was shut off from the outer world by a dark-red curtain with rod and rings....

As these examples suggest, there were "national styles" in trenches as in other things. The French trenches were nasty, cynical, efficient, and temporary. Kipling remembered the smell of delicious cooking emanating from some in Alsace. The English were amateur, vague, ad hoc, and temporary. The German were efficient, clean, pedantic, and permanent. Their occupants proposed to stay where they were.

Normally the British troops rotated trench duty. After a week of "rest" behind the lines, a unit would move up-at night-to relieve a unit in the front-line trench. After three days to a week or

21

Get Technical: squalid – dirty and nasty.

more in that position, the unit would move back for a similar length of time to the support trench, and finally back to the reserve. Then it was time for a week of rest again. In the three lines of trenches the main business of the soldier was to exercise self-control while being shelled. As the poet Louis Simpson has accurately remembered:

Being shelled is the main work of an infantry soldier, which no one talks about. Everyone has his own way of going about it. In general, it means lying face down and contracting your body into as small a space as possible. In novels [The Naked and the Dead is an example] you read about soldiers, at such moments, fouling themselves. The opposite is true. As all your parts are contracting, you are more likely to be constipated.

Simpson is recalling the Second War, but he might be recalling the First. While being shelled, the soldier either harbored in a dugout and hoped for something other then a direct hit or made himself as small as possible in a foxhole. An unlucky sentry or two was supposed to be out in the open trench in all but the worst bombardments, watching through a periscope or loophole for signs of an attack. When only light shelling was in progress, people moved about the trenches freely, and we can get an idea of what life there was like if we posit a typical twenty-four hours in a front-line trench.

The day began about an hour before first light, which often meant at about 4:30. This was the moment for the invariable ritual of morning stand-to (short for the archaic formal command for repelling attack, "Stand to Arms"). Since dawn was the favorite time for launching attacks, at the order to stand-to everyone, officers, men, forward artillery observers, visitors, mounted the fire7step, weapon ready, and peered toward the German line. When it was almost full light and clear that the Germans were not going to attack that morning, everyone "stood down" and began preparing breakfast in small groups. The rations of tea, bread, and bacon, brought up in sandbags during the night, were broken out. The bacon was fried in mess-tin lids over small, and if possible smokeless, fires. If the men were lucky enough to be in a division whose commanding general permitted the issue of the dark and strong government rum, it was doled out from a jar with the traditions iron spoon, each man receiving about two tablespoonsful. Some put it into their tea, but most swallowed it straight. It was a precious thing, and serving it out was almost like a religious ceremonial, as David Jones recalls in I Parenthesis, where a corporal is performing the rite: “O have a care-don't spill the precious / O don't jog his hand-ministering; do take care. / O please-give the poor bugger elbow room.” Larger quantifies might be issued to stimulate troops for an assault, and one soldier remembers what the air smelled like during a British attack:

"Pervading the air was the smell of rum and blood." In 1922 one medical officer depose before a parliamentary committee investigating the phenomenon of "shell shock": "Had it not been for the rum ration I do not think we should have won the war.

During the day the men cleaned weapon and repaired those parts of the trench dam aged during the night. Or they wrote letters deloused themselves, or slept. The officers inspected, encouraged, and strolled about looking nonchalant to inspirit the men. They censored the men's letters and dealt with the quantities of official inquiries brought them daily by runner. How many pipe-fitters had they in their company? Reply immediately. How many hairdressers, chiropodists, bicycle

22

British “Tommies” at the

repairmen? Daily "returns" of the amount of ammunition and the quantity of trench stores had to be made. Reports of the nightly casualties had to be sent back. And letters of condolence, which as the war went on became form letters of condolence, had to be written to the relatives of the killed and wounded. Men went to and fro on sentry duty or working parties, but no one showed himself above the trench. After evening stand-to, the real work began.

Most of it was above ground. Wiring parties repaired the wire in front of the position. Digging parties extended saps toward the enemy. Carrying parties brought up not jus rations and mail but the heavy engineering materials needed for the constant repair an improvement of the trenches: timbers, A frames, duckboards, stakes and wire, corrugated iron, sandbags, tarpaulins, pumping equipment. Bombs and ammunition and flares were carried forward. All this ant-work was illuminated brightly from time to time by German flares and interrupted very frequently by machine gun or artillery fire. Meanwhile night patrols and raiding parties were busy in No Man's Land. As morning approached, there was a nervous bustle to get the jobs done in time, to finish fitting the timers, filling the sandbags, pounding in the stakes, and then returning mauls and picks and shovels to the Quartermaster Sergeant. By the time of stand to, nothing human was visible above ground anywhere, but every day each side scrutinized the look of the other's line for significant changes wrought by night.

Flanders and Picardy (The northern provinces of France) have always been notorious for dampness. It is not the least of the ironies of the war for the British that their trenches should have been dug where the water-table was the highest and the annual rainfall the most copious. Their trenches were always wet and often flooded several feet deep. Thigh-boots or waders were issued as standard articles of uniform. Wilfred Owen writes his mother from the Somme at the beginning of 1917: "The waders are of course indispensable. In 2 1/2 miles of trench which I waded yesterday there was not one inch of dry ground. There is a mean depth of two feet of water." Pumps worked day and night but to little effect. Rumor held that the Germans not only could make it rain when they wanted it to-that is, all the time-but had contrived some shrewd technical method for conducting the water in their lines into the British positions-perhaps piping it underground. Ultimately there was no defense against the water but humor. "Water knee deep and up to the waist in places," one soldier notes in his diary. "Rumors of being relieved by the Grand Fleet." One doesn't want to dwell excessively on such discomforts, but here it will do no harm to try to imagine what, in these conditions, going to the latrine was like.

The men were not the only live things in the line. They were accompanied everywhere by their lice, which the professional delousers in rest positions behind the lines, with their steam vats for clothes and hot baths for troops, could do little to eliminate. (The phrase) “Lousy with,” meaningful of, was "originally military" and entered the colloquial word-hoard around 1915: "That ridge is lousy with Fritz."

The famous rats also gave constant trouble. They were big and black, with wet, muddy hair. They fed largely on the flesh of cadavers and on dead horses. One shot them with revolvers or beat them to death with pickhandles. Their hunger, vigor,

intelligence, and courage are recalled in numerous anecdotes. One officer notes from the Ypres Salient: "We are fairly plagued with rats. They have eaten nearly everything in the

23

Get Technical: salient – a fortified place extending toward the enemy..

mess, including the table-cloth and the operations orders! We borrowed a large cat and shut it up at night to exterminate them, and found the place empty next morning. The rats must have eaten it up, bones, fur, and all, and dragged it to their holes."

One can understand rats eating heartily there. It is harder to understand men doing so. The stench of rotten flesh was over everything, hardly repressed by the chloride of lime sprinkled on particularly offensive sites. Dead horses and dead men-and parts of both-were sometimes not buried for months and often simply became an element of parapets and trench walls. You could smell the front line miles before you could see it. Lingering pockets of gas added to the unappetizing atmosphere. Yet men ate three times a day, although what they ate reflected the usual gulf between the ideal and the actual. The propagandist George Adam announced with satisfaction that "the food of the army is based upon the conclusions of a committee, upon which sat several eminent scientists." The result, he asserted, is that the troops are "better fed than they are at home." Officially, each man got daily: 1 1/4 pounds fresh meat (or 1 pound preserved meat), 1 1/4 pounds bread, 4 ounces bacon, 3 ounces cheese, 1/2 pound fresh vegetables (or 2 ounces dried), together with small amounts of tea, sugar and jam. But in the trenches there was very seldom fresh meat, not for eating, anyway; instead there was "Bully" (tinned corned-beef) or "Maconochie" (ma-coh-o-chie), a tinned meat-and-vegetable stew named after its manufacturer. If they did tend to grow tedious in the long run, both products were surprisingly good. The troops seemed to like the Maconochie best, but the Germans favored the British corned beef, seldom returning from a raid on the British lines without taking back as much as they could carry. On trench duty the British had as little fresh bread as fresh meat. "Pearl Biscuits" were the substitute. They reminded the men of dog biscuits, although, together with the Bully beef, they were popular with the French and Belgian urchins, who ran (or more often strolled) alongside the railway trains bringing troops up to the front, soliciting gifts by shouting, "Tommee! Bull-ee! Bee-skee!" When a company was out of the line, it fed better. It was then serviced by its company cookers-stoves on wheels-and often got something approaching the official ration, as it might also in a particularly somnolent part of the line, when hot food might come up at night in the large covered containers known as Dixies.

Clothing and equipment improved as the war went on, although at the outset there was a terrible dearth and improvisation. During the retreat from Mons, as Frank Richards testifies, "A lot of us had no caps: I was wearing a handkerchief knotted at the four corners-the only headgear I was to wear for some time." Crucial supplies had been omitted: "We had plenty of small-arm ammunition but no rifle-oil or rifle-rag to clean our rifles with. We used to cut pieces off our shirts ... and some of us who had bought small tins of Vaseline ... for use on sore heels or chafed legs, used to grease our rifles with that." At the beginning line officers dressed very differently from the men. They wore riding-boots or leather puttees; melodramatically cut riding breeches; and flare-skirted tunics with Sam Browne belts. Discovering that this costume made them special targets in attacks (German gunners were instructed to fire first at the people with the thin knees), by the end they were dressing like the troops, wearing wrap puttees; straight trousers bloused below the knee; Other Ranks' tunics with inconspicuous insignia, no longer on the cuffs but on the shoulders; and Other Ranks' web belts and haversacks. In 1914 both officers and men wore peaked caps, and it was rakish for officers to remove the grommet for a "Gorblimey" effect. Steel helmets were introduced at the end of 1915, giving the troops, as Sassoon observed, "a Chinese look." Herbert

24

Read found the helmets "the only poetic thing in the British Army, for they are primeval in design and effect, like iron mushrooms." A perceptive observer could date corpses and skeletons lying on disused battlefields by their evolving dress. A month before the end of the war, Major P. H. Pilditch recalls, he

“spent some time in the old No Man's Land of four years' duration.... It was a morbid but intensely interesting occupation tracing the various battles amongst the hundreds of skulls, bones and remains scattered thickly about. The progress of our successive attacks could be clearly seen from the types of equipment on the skeletons, soft cloth caps denoting the 1914 and early 1915 fighting, then respirators, then steel helmets marking attack in 1916; also Australian slouch hats, used in the costly and abortive attack [at Gallipoli] in 1916.”

To be in the trenches was to experience an unreal, unforgettable enclosure and constraint, as well as a sense of being disoriented and lost. One saw two things only: the walls of an unlocalized, undifferentiated earth and the sky above. Fourteen years after the war J. R. Ackerley was wandering through an unfrequented part of a town in India. "The streets became narrower and narrower as I turned and turned," he writes, "until I felt I was back in the trenches, the houses upon either side being so much of the same color and substance as the rough ground between." That lost feeling is what struck Major Frank Isherwood, who writes his wife in December, 1914: "The trenches are a labyrinth. I have already lost myself repeatedly.... You can't get out of them and walk about the country or see anything at all but two muddy walls on each side of you." What a survivor of the Salient remembers fifty years later are the walls of dirt and the ceiling of sky, and his eloquent … cry rises as if he were still imprisoned there: "To be out of this present, ever present, eternally present misery, this stinking world of sticky, trickling earth ceilinged by a strip of threatening sky." As the only visible theater of variety, the sky becomes all-important. It was the sight of the sky, almost alone, that had the power to persuade a man that he was not already lost in a common grave.

25

Summary of the Treaty of VersaillesThe Treaty of Versailles was the peace settlement signed after World War One had ended in 1918 and in the shadow of the Russian Revolution and other events in Russia. The treaty was signed at the vast Versailles Palace near Paris – hence its title – between Germany and the Allies. The three most important politicians there were David Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau and Woodrow Wilson.

The Versailles Palace was considered the most appropriate venue simply because of its size – many hundreds of people were involved in the process and the final signing ceremony in the Hall of Mirrors could accommodate hundreds of dignitaries. Many wanted Germany, now led by Friedrich Ebert, smashed; others, like Lloyd George, were privately more cautious.

Background

World War One had left Europe devastated. Those countries that had fought in it, had suffered casualties never experienced before:

Britain :  750,000 soldiers killed; 1,500,000 woundedFrance : 1,400,000 soldiers killed; 2,500,000 woundedBelgium : 50,000 soldiers killedItaly : 600,000 soldiers killedRussia : 1,700,000 soldiers killedAmerica : 116,000 soldiers killed

Those who had fought against the Allies suffered heavy casualties as well:Germany : 2,000,000 soldiers killedAustria-Hungary : 1,200,000 soldiers killedTurkey : 325,000 soldiers killedBulgaria : 100,000 soldiers killed

The total deaths of all nations who fought in the war is thought to have been 8.5 million with 21 million being wounded. Alongside these statistics, was the fact that vast areas of north-eastern Europe had been reduced to rubble. Flanders in Belgium had been all but destroyed with the ancient city of Ypres being devastated. The homes of 750,000 French people were destroyed and the infrastructure of this region had also been severely damaged. Roads, coal mines, telegraph poles had all been destroyed and such a loss greatly hindered the area’s ability to function normally.

The victors from World War One were in no mood to be charitable to the defeated nations and Germany in particular was held responsible for the war and its consequences.During mid-1918, Europe was hit by Spanish flu and an estimated 25 million people died. This added to the feeling of bitterness that ran through Europe and this anger was primarily directed at Germany.

The attitude towards Germany of the “Big Three”The treaty was signed on June 28th 1919 after months of argument and negotiation amongst the so-called “Big Three” as to what the treaty should contain. Who were the “Big Three” and where did they clash over Germany and her treatment after the war ? The “Big Three” were David Lloyd George of Britain, Clemenceau of France and Woodrow Wilson of America.

26

David Lloyd George of Great Britain had two views on how Germany should be treated.His public image was simple. He was a politician and politicians needed the support of the public to succeed in elections. If he had come across as being soft on Germany, he would have been speedily voted out of office. The British public was after revenge and Lloyd George’s public image reflected this mood. “Hang the Kaiser” and “Make Germany Pay” were two very common calls in the era immediately after the end of the war and Lloyd George, looking for public support, echoed these views.

However, in private Lloyd George was also very concerned with the rise of communism in Russia and he feared that it might spread to Western Europe. After the war had finished, Lloyd George believed that the spread of communism posed a far greater threat to the world than a defeated Germany. Privately, he felt that Germany should be treated in such a way that left her as a barrier to resist the expected spread of communism. He did not want the people of Germany to become so disillusioned with their government that they turned to communism. Lloyd George did not want Germany treated with lenience but he knew that Germany would be the only country in central Europe that could stop the spread of communism if it burst over the frontiers of Russia. Germany had to be punished but not to the extent that it left her destitute. However, it would have been political suicide to have gone public with these views.

Georges Clemenceau of France had one very simple belief – Germany should be brought to its knees so that she could never start a war again.This reflected the views of the French public but it was also what Clemenceau himself believed in. He had seen the north-east corner of France destroyed and he determined that Germany should never be allowed to do this again. “The Tiger” did not have to adapt his policies to suit the French public – the French leader and the French public both thought alike.

Woodrow Wilson of America had been genuinely stunned by the savagery of the Great War. He could not understand how an advanced civilization could have reduced itself so that it had created so much devastation. In America, there was a growing desire for the government to adopt a policy of isolation and leave Europe to its own devices. In failing health, Wilson wanted America to concentrate on itself and, despite developing the idea of a League of Nations, he wanted an American input into Europe to be kept to a minimum. He believed that Germany should be punished but in a way that would lead to European reconciliation as opposed to revenge.

He had already written about what he believed the world should be like in his “Fourteen Points“. The main points in this document were:

1) no more secret treaties2) countries must seek to reduce their weapons and their armed forces3) national self-determination should allow people of the same nationality to govern themselves and one nationality should not have the power to govern another4) all countries should belong to the League of Nations.

Linked to the “Big Three” was Italy led by Vittorio Orlando. He was frequently left on the sidelines when the important negotiations took place despite Italy fighting on the side of the Allies. Why was Italy treated in this manner?

At the start of the war in 1914, Italy should have fought with Germany and Austria as she had signed the Triple Alliance which dictated that if one of the three was attacked, the other two would go to that country’s aid. Italy did not join in on Germany’s side but waited until 1915 and

27

joined the side of Britain and France. This association with Germany was enough to taint Italy in the eyes of the “Big Three”. Also Italy had not played an overwhelming part in the war. Her army had been beaten at the battles of Caporetto. Her strategic importance to central Europe was minimal whilst Britain dominated the Mediterranean with naval bases in Malta and Gibraltar. Italy’s potential military clout in 1919, should the need arise to put pressure on Germany and Austria, was limited.

Therefore, the three main nations in the lead up to the treaty were far from united on how Germany should be treated. The eventual treaty seemed to satisfy everyone on the sides of the Allies. For France, it appeared as if Germany had been smashed; for Britain, Lloyd George was satisfied that enough of Germany’s power had been left to act as a buffer to communist expansion from Russia; Wilson was simply happy that the proceedings had finished so that he could return home.So what exactly did the treaty do to Germany?

The terms of the Treaty of Versailles The treaty can be divided into a number of sections; territorial, military, financial and general.

TerritorialThe following land was taken away from Germany :Alsace-Lorraine (given to France)Eupen and Malmedy (given to Belgium)Northern Schleswig (given to Denmark)Hultschin (given to Czechoslovakia)West Prussia, Posen and Upper Silesia (given to Poland)The Saar, Danzig and Memel were put under the control of the League of Nations and the people of these regions would be allowed to vote to stay in Germany or not in a future referendum.The League of Nations also took control of Germany’s overseas colonies.Germany had to return to Russia land taken in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Some of this land was made into new states : Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. An enlarged Poland also received some of this land.

MilitaryGermany’s army was reduced to 100,000 men; the army was not allowed tanksShe was not allowed an airforce She was allowed only 6 capital naval ships and no submarines The west of the Rhineland and 50 kms east of the River Rhine was made into a demilitarised zone (DMZ). No German soldier or weapon was allowed into this zone. The Allies were to keep an army of occupation on the west bank of the Rhine for 15 years.

FinancialThe loss of vital industrial territory would be a severe blow to any attempts by Germany to rebuild her economy. Coal from the Saar and Upper Silesia in particular was a vital economic loss. Combined with the financial penalties linked to reparations, it seemed clear to Germany that the Allies wanted nothing else but to bankrupt her.Germany was also forbidden to unite with Austria to form one super state, in an attempt to keep her economic potential to a minimum.

28

GeneralThere are three vital clauses here:1. Germany had to admit full responsibility for starting the war. This was Clause 231 – the infamous “War Guilt Clause”. 2. Germany, as she was responsible for starting the war as stated in clause 231, was, therefore responsible for all the war damage caused by the First World War. Therefore, she had to pay reparations, the bulk of which would go to France and Belgium to pay for the damage done to the infrastructure of both countries by the war. Quite literally, reparations would be used to pay for the damage to be repaired. Payment could be in kind or cash. The figure was not set at Versailles – it was to be determined later. The Germans were told to write a blank cheque which the Allies would cash when it suited them. The figure was eventually put at £6,600 million – a huge sum of money well beyond Germany’s ability to pay.3. A League of Nations was set up to keep world peace.In fact, the first 26 clauses of the treaty dealt with the League’s organization.

The German reaction to the Treaty of VersaillesAfter agreeing to the Armistice in November 1918, the Germans had been convinced that they would be consulted by the Allies on the contents of the Treaty. This did not happen and the Germans were in no position to continue the war as her army had all but disintegrated. Though this lack of consultation angered them, there was nothing they could do about it. Therefore, the first time that the German representatives saw the terms of the Treaty was just weeks before they were due to sign it in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles on June 28th 1919.

There was anger throughout Germany when the terms were made public. The Treaty became known as a Diktat – as it was being forced on them and the Germans had no choice but to sign it. Many in Germany did not want the Treaty signed, but the representatives there knew that they had no choice as Germany was incapable of restarting the war again.In one last gesture of defiance, the captured German naval force held at Scapa Flow (north of Scotland) scuttled itself i.e. deliberately sank itself.

Germany was given two choices: 1) sign the Treaty or2) be invaded by the Allies. 

They signed the Treaty as in reality they had no choice. When the ceremony was over, Clemenceau went out into the gardens of Versailles and said “It is a beautiful day”.

The consequences of Versailles The Treaty seemed to satisfy the “Big Three” as in their eyes it was a just peace as it kept Germany weak yet strong enough to stop the spread of communism; kept the French border with Germany safe from another German attack and created the organisation, the League of Nations, that would end warfare throughout the world. However, it left a mood of anger throughout Germany as it was felt that as a nation Germany had been unfairly treated.Above all else, Germany hated the clause blaming her for the cause of the war and the resultant financial penalties the treaty was bound to impose on Germany. Those who signed it (though effectively they had no choice) became known as the “November Criminals”.Many German citizens felt that they were being punished for the mistakes of the German government in August 1914 as it was the government that had declared war, not the people.

29

Were the terms of the Treaty of Versailles actually carried out?The League of Nations was created. This did happen even if Germany was initially excluded from it.

Land had to be handed over the Poland, France, Belgium and Denmark. This did happen – all the land Germany was required to hand over, was handed over. Territory put under League of Nations control was handed over to the League.

All overseas colonies were to be handed over to the League. This did happen.

All land taken from Russia had to be handed back to Russia. This did happen though land in the western area became Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia in keeping with the belief in national self-determination.

Germany’s army had to be reduced to 100,000 men. On paper this happened. The fact that Germany side-stepped the rule did not mean that she literally broke it – though what she did was a deliberate attempt to break this term. German soldiers in the 1920’s were signed on for a short contract of service and then put in the reserves once their time had finished. Therefore, Germany never had more than 100,000 soldiers serving at any one time though she certainly had substantial reserve soldiers which boosted Hitler when he renounced the clauses of Versailles.

Germany’s navy was reduced to 6 battleships with no submarines. This happened. Germany could not afford battleships in the aftermath of the war and most navies were now moving to smaller (by degrees), faster ships that could also carry weapons that carried a punch – such as cruisers. Aircraft carriers were also being developed with greater commitment. Submariners were trained abroad – Versailles did not cover this, so it did not break the terms of Versailles – only the spirit.

No air force was allowed. This happened but as with submariners, potential pilots were trained abroad or using gliders in Germany to educate them in the theory of flying. This did not break Versailles.

Western Germany was to be demilitarised. This happened.

Germany was forbidden to unite with Austria. This happened.

Germany had to accept the “War Guilt Clause” and pay reparations. The former happened in the sense that Germany signed the Treaty which meant that she accepted this term on paper – if not in fact. Germany did try and pay reparations when she could do so. She did not refuse to pay in 1922. She simply could not produce what was needed that year and this led to the French invasion of the Ruhr. In the 1920’s it was the Allies who took the decision to reduce reparations and eased Germany’s plight in so doing. The first instance of refusal to pay reparations came in 1933 when Hitler announced that Germany would not pay – and the Allies did nothing.Therefore, throughout the 1920’s, in nearly all parts of the Treaty, the terms were carried out. It was after 1933 that there was a systematic breaking of the terms when the Nazis came to power.

The other peace settlements It is often forgotten that with the energy put into the punishment of Germany, other countries fought on her side and, equally, had to be dealt with. These countries were Austria-Hungary,

30

Bulgaria and Turkey.Austria-Hungary had to sign two peace settlements, indicative of the fact that this state was shortly to be divided into two.

Austria signed the Treaty of Saint Germain.

Hungary signed the Treaty of Trianon.

Austria and Hungary were treated as two completely new countries after these treaties were signed. Both lost land to neighbouring countries; the new state of Czechoslovakia was effectively created out of this carve-up of land; large blocks of land went to Poland, Roumania and Yugoslavia. Part of Austria went to Italy.

Both new countries had to reduce their military capability and both states had to pay reparations for war damage. However, the figures involved were nowhere near as high as the figure imposed on Germany.

Bulgaria had to sign the Treaty of Neuilly. Bulgaria lost land to the new state of Yugoslavia, had to reduce her military capability and had to pay reparations.

Turkey – or the Turkish Empire to be precise – had to sign the Treaty of Sevres.This was a very harsh treaty. Why was Turkey treated this way? Memories were still clear to many people on the Allied side of what had happened at Gallipoli when the ANZACS suffered appalling losses at the hands of the Turks in what was one of the the Allies greatest defeat of World War One. To an extent, there was an element of revenge on “Johnny Turk” who had had the audacity to inflict defeat on one of the major powers of the world – Great Britain.

Turkey lost:most of her land in Europe. Turkey was left with but a toe-hold on what is considered Europe. The Turkish Straits was put under the control of the League of Nations at a time when it was dominated by Britain and France. The land held by Turkey in Arabia was made into a mandate – the land was ruled by the British and French until the people of the areas were ready to govern themselves. Syria and Lebanon went to France while Iraq, Transjordan and Palestine went to Britain.

Armies from Britain, France, Greece and Italy occupied what was left of Turkey – the area known as Asia Minor.The treaty only served to anger the nationalist Turks who sought to overturn it. This they started to do in 1921.

31

Primary Documents

andLiterature

32

In Flanders Fields

by John McCrae, May 1915

In Flanders fields the poppies blowBetween the crosses, row on row,That mark our place; and in the skyThe larks, still bravely singing, flyScarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days agoWe lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,Loved and were loved, and now we lieIn Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:To you from failing hands we throwThe torch; be yours to hold it high.If ye break faith with us who dieWe shall not sleep, though poppies growIn Flanders fields.

Inspiration for “In Flanders Fields”

Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, 1st Brigade Canadian Field Artillery. (1)

During the early days of the Second Battle of Ypres a young Canadian artillery officer, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, was killed on 2nd May, 1915 in the gun positions near Ypres. An exploding German artillery shell landed near him. He was serving in the same Canadian artillery unit as a friend of his, the Canadian military doctor and artillery commander Major John McCrae.

As the brigade doctor, John McCrae was asked to conduct the burial service for Alexis because the chaplain had been called away somewhere else on duty that evening. It is believed that later that evening, after the burial, John began the draft for his now famous poem “In Flanders Fields”.

33

Dulce et decorum estWilfred Owen (1917)

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots  Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; But someone still was yelling out and stumbling, And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime . . . Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud  Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, My friend, you would not tell with such high zestTo children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est pro patria mori.

34

Latin: “It is sweet and proper to die for one’s country”

“Hoots of… Five-Nines…” Five-Nines are artillery shells ...making a whistling

Lime – an acidic chemical; used to speed decomposition of dead

Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, 1914Two bullets fired on a Sarajevo street on a sunny June morning in 1914 set in motion a series of events that shaped the world we live in today. World War One, World War Two, the Cold War and its conclusion all trace their origins to the gunshots that interrupted that summer day.

The victims, Archduke Franz Ferdinand - heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife Sophie, were in the Bosnian city in conjunction with Austrian troop exercises nearby. The couple was returning from an official visit to City Hall. The assassin, 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip burned with the fire of Slavic nationalism. He envisioned the death of the Archduke as the key that would unlock the shackles binding his people to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

A third party, Serbia, figured prominently in the plot. Independent Serbia provided the guns, ammunition and training that made the assassination possible.

The Balkan Region of Europe entered the twentieth century much as she left it: a caldron of seething political intrigue needing only the slightest increase of heat to boil over into open conflict. The shots that day in Sarajevo pushed the caldron to the boiling point and beyond.

A Royal Murder

Seven conspirators joined the crowd lining the Archduke's route to City Hall. Each took a different position, ready to attack the royal car if the opportunity presented itself. The six-car procession approached one conspirator, Gabrinovic (or Cabrinovic), who threw his bomb only to see it bounce off the Archduke's car and explode near the following car.

Unhurt, the Archduke and his wife sped to the reception at City Hall. The ceremonies finished, the Royal procession amazingly retraced its steps bringing the Archduke into the range of the leader of the conspiracy, Gavrilo Princip. More amazingly, the royal car stopped right in front of Princip providing him the opportunity to fire two shots. Both bullets hit home.

Borijove Jevtic, one of the conspirators gave this eyewitness account:

"When Francis Ferdinand and his retinue drove from the station they were allowed to pass the first two conspirators. The motor cars were driving too fast to make an attempt feasible and in the crowd were many Serbians; throwing a grenade would have killed many innocent people.

When the car passed Gabrinovic, the compositor, he threw his grenade. It hit the side of the car, but Francis Ferdinand with presence of mind threw himself back and was uninjured. Several officers riding in his attendance were injured.

The cars sped to the Town Hall and the rest of the conspirators did not interfere with them. After the reception in the Town Hall General Potiorek, the Austrian

35

Commander, pleaded with Francis Ferdinand to leave the city, as it was seething with rebellion. The Archduke was persuaded to drive the shortest way out of the city and to go quickly.

The road to the maneuvers was shaped like the letter V, making a sharp turn at the bridge over the River Nilgacka [Miljacka]. Francis Ferdinand's car could go fast enough until it reached this spot but here it was forced to slow down for the turn. Here Princip had taken his stand.

As the car came abreast he stepped forward from the curb, drew his automatic pistol from his coat and fired two shots. The first struck the wife of the Archduke, the Archduchess Sofia, in the abdomen. She was an expectant mother. She died instantly.

The second bullet struck the Archduke close to the heart.

He uttered only one word, 'Sofia' -- a call to his stricken wife. Then his head fell back and he collapsed. He died almost instantly.

The officers seized Princip. They beat him over the head with the flat of their swords. They knocked him down, they kicked him, scraped the skin from his neck with the edges of their swords, tortured him, all but killed him."

Another Perspective

Count Franz von Harrach rode on the running board of the royal car serving as a bodyguard for the Archduke. His account begins immediately after Princip fires his two shots:

"As the car quickly reversed, a thin stream of blood spurted from His Highness's mouth onto my right check. As I was pulling out my handkerchief to wipe the blood away from his mouth, the Duchess cried out to him, 'In Heaven's name, what has happened to you?' At that she slid off the seat and lay on the floor of the car, with her face between his knees.

I had no idea that she too was hit and thought she had simply fainted with fright. Then I heard His Imperial Highness say, 'Sopherl, Sopherl, don't die. Stay alive for the children!'

At that, I seized the Archduke by the collar of his uniform, to stop his head dropping forward and asked him if he was in great pain. He answered me quite distinctly, 'It's nothing!' His face began to twist somewhat but he went on repeating, six or seven times, ever more faintly as he gradually lost consciousness, 'It's nothing!' Then, after a short pause, there was a violent choking sound caused by the bleeding. It was stopped as we reached the Konak."

References:    Brook-Shepard, Gordon, Archduke of Sarajevo (1984); Dedijer, Vladimir, The

36

Road To Sarajevo (1966); Morton, Frederick, Thunder At Twilight (1989).

All Quiet on the Western Front

The following is taken from Erich Maria Remarque's novel All Quiet on the Western Front (1929). A veteran of the trenches, Remarque (1898-1970) graphically describes the slaughter that robbed Europe of its young men. His narrator is a young German soldier.

We wake up in the middle of the night. The earth booms. Heavy fire is falling on us. We crouch into corners. We distinguish shells of every calibre.

Each man lays hold of his things and looks again every minute to reassure himself that they are still there. The dugout heaves, the night roars and flashes. We look at each other in the momentary flashes of light, and with pale faces and pressed lips shake our heads.

Every man is aware of the heavy shells tearing down the parapet, rooting up the embankment and demolishing the upper layers of concrete. When a shell lands in the trench we note how the hollow, furious blast is like a blow from the paw of a raging beast of prey. Already by morning a few of the recruits are green and vomiting. They are too inexperienced….

The bombardment does not diminish. It is falling in the rear too. As far as one can see spout fountains of mud and iron. A wide belt is being raked.

The attack does not come, but the bombardment continues. We are gradually benumbed. Hardly a man speaks. We cannot make ourselves understood. Our trench is almost gone. At many places it is only eighteen inches high, it is broken by holes, and craters, and mountains of earth. A shell lands square in front of our post. At once it is dark. We are buried and must dig ourselves out….

Towards morning, while it is still dark, there is some excitement. Through the entrance rushes in a swarm of fleeing rats that try to storm the walls. Torches light up the confusion. Everyone yells and curses and slaughters. The madness and despair of many hours unloads itself in this outburst. Faces are distorted, arms strike out, the beasts scream; we just stop in time to avoid attacking oneanother….

Suddenly it howls and flashes terrifically, the dug-out cracks in all its joints under a direct hit, fortunately only a light one that the concrete blocks are able to withstand. It rings metallically; the walls reel, rifles, helmets, earth, mud, and dust fly everywhere. Sulphur fumes pour in.

If we were in one of those light dug-outs that they have been building lately instead of this deeper one, none of us would be alive.

But the effect is bad enough even so. The recruit starts to rave again and two others follow suit. One jumps up and rushes out, we have trouble with the other two. I start after the one who escapes and wonder whether to shoot him in the leg-then it shrieks again, I fling myself down and when I stand up the wall of the trench is plastered with smoking splinters, lumps of flesh, and bits of uniform. I scramble back.

37

The first recruit seems actually to have gone insane. He butts his head against the wall like a goat. We must try to-night to take him to the rear. Meanwhile we bind him, but in such a way that in case of attack he can be released at once….

Suddenly the nearer explosions cease. The shelling continues but it has lifted and falls behind us, our trench is free. We seize the hand-grenades, pitch them out in front of the dugout and jump after them. The bombardment has stopped and a heavy barrage now falls behind us. The attack has come.

No one would believe that in this howling waste there could still be men; but steel helmets now appear on all sides out of the trench, and fifty yards from us a machine-gun is already in position and barking.

The wire entanglements are torn to pieces. Yet they offer some obstacle. We see the storm-troops coming. Our artillery opens fire. Machine-guns rattle, rifles crack. The charge works its way across. Haie and Kropp begin with the handgrenades. They throw as fast as they can, others pass them, the handles with the strings already pulled. Haie throws seventy-five yards, Kropp sixty, it has been measured, the distance is important. The enemy as they run cannot do much before they are within forty yards.

We recognize the smooth distorted faces, the helmets: they are French. They have already suffered heavily when they reach the remnants of the barbed wire entanglements. A whole line has gone down before our machine-guns; then we have a lot of stoppages and they come nearer.

I see one of them, his face upturned, fall into a wire cradle. His body collapses, his hands remain suspended as though he were praying. Then his body drops clean away and only his hands with the stumps of his arms, shot off, now hang in the wire.

The moment we are about to retreat three faces rise up from the ground in front of us. Under one of the helmets a dark pointed beard and two eyes that are fastened on me. I raise my hand, but I cannot throw into those strange eyes; for one mad moment the whole slaughter whirls like a circus round me, and these two eyes alone are motionless; then the head rises up, a hand, a movement, and my hand-grenade flies through the air and into him.

We make for the rear, pull wire cradles into the trench and leave bombs behind us with the strings pulled, which ensures us a fiery retreat. The machine-guns are already firing fromthe next position.

We have become wild beasts. We do not fight, we defend ourselves against annihilation. It is not against men that we fling our bombs, what do we know of men in this moment when Death is hunting us down-now, for the first time in three days we can see his face, now for the first time in three days we can oppose him; we feel a mad anger. No longer do we lie helpless, waiting on the scaffold, we can destroy and kill, to save ourselves, to save ourselves and to be revenged.

We crouch behind every corner, behind every barrier of barbed wire, and hurl heaps of explosives at the feet of the advancing enemy before we run. The blast of the handgrenades impinges powerfully on our arms and legs; crouching like cats we run on, overwhelmed by this wav that bears us along, that fills us with ferocity, turns us into thugs, into murderers, into God only knows what devils; this wave that multiplies our strength with fear and madness and greed

38

of life, seeking and fighting for nothing but our deliverance. If your own father came over with them you would not hesitate to fling a bomb at him.

The forward trenches have been abandoned. Are they still trenches? They are blown to pieces, annihilated-there are only broken bits of trenches, holes linked by cracks, nests of craters that is all. But the enemy's casualties increase. They did not count on so much resistance.

_____________________________________It is nearly noon. The sun blazes hotly, the sweat stings in our eyes, we wipe it off on our sleeves and often blood with it. At last we reach a trench that is in a somewhat better condition. It is manned and ready for the counter-attack, it receives us. Our guns open in full blast and cut off the enemy attack.

The lines behind us stop. They can advance no farther. The attack is crushed by our artillery. We watch. The fire lifts a hundred yards and we break forward. Beside me a Lance Corporal has his head torn off. He runs a few steps more while the blood spouts from his neck like a fountain.It does not come quite to hand-to-hand fighting; they are driven back. We arrive once again at our shattered trench and pass on beyond it….

We have lost all feeling for one another. We can hardly control ourselves when our glance lights on the form of some other man. We are Insensible, dead men, who through some trick, some dreadful magic, are still able to run and to kill.

A young Frenchman lags behind, he is overtaken, he puts up his hands, in one he still holds his revolver-does he mean to shoot or to give himself up!-a blow from a spade cleaves through his face. A second sees it and tries to run farther; a bayonet jabs into his back. He leaps in the air, his arms thrown wide, his mouth wide open, yelling; he staggers, in his back the bayonet quivers. A third throws away his rifle, cowers down with his hands before his eyes. He is left behind with a few other prisoners to carry off the wounded.

Suddenly in the pursuit we reach the enemy line. We are so close on the heels of our retreating enemies that we reach it almost at the same time as they. In this way we suffer few casualties. A machine-gun barks, but is silenced with a bomb. Nevertheless, the couple of seconds has sufficed to give us five stomach wounds. With the butt of his rifle Kat smashes to pulp the face of one of the unwounded machine-gunners. We bayonet the others before they have time to get out their bombs. Then thirstily we drink the water they have for cooling the gun.

Everywhere wire-cutters are snapping, planks are thrown across the entanglements, we jump through the narrow entrances into the trenches. Haie strikes his spade into the neck of a gigantic Frenchman and throws the first handgrenade; we duck behind a breast-work for a few seconds, then the straight bit of trench ahead of us is empty. The next throw whizzes obliquely over the corner and clears a passage; as we run past we toss handfuls down into the dugouts, the earth shudders, it crashes, smokes and groans, we stumble over slippery lumps of flesh, over yielding bodies; I fall into an open belly on which lies a clean, new officer's cap.

The fight ceases. We lose touch with the enemy. We cannot stay here long but must retire under cover of our artillery to our own position. No sooner do we know this than we dive into the nearest dug-outs, and with the utmost haste seize on whatever provisions we can see, especially the tins of corned beef and butter, before we clear out.

39

We get back pretty well. There is no further attack by the enemy. We lie for an hour panting and resting before anyone speaks. We are so completely played out that in spite of our great hunger we do not think of the provisions. Then gradually we become something like men again.

Christmas in the Trenches, 1914By the end of November 1914 the crushing German advance that had swallowed the Low Countries and threatened France had been checked by the allies before it could reach Paris. The opposing armies stared at each other from a line of hastily built defensive trenches that began at the edge of the English Channel and continued to the border of Switzerland. Barbed wire and parapets defended the trenches and between them stretched a "No-Mans-Land" that in some areas was no more than 30 yards wide.

Life in the trenches was abominable. Continuous sniping, machinegun fire and artillery shelling took a deadly toll. The misery was heightened by the ravages of Mother Nature, including rain, snow and cold. Many of the trenches, especially those in the low-lying British sector to the west, were continually flooded, exposing the troops to frost bite and "trench foot."

The treacherous monotony of life in the trenches was briefly interrupted during an unofficial and spontaneous "Christmas Truce" that began on Christmas Eve. Both sides had received Christmas packages of food and presents. The clear skies that ended the rain further lifted the spirits on both sides of no-mans-land.

The Germans seem to have made the first move. During the evening of December 24 they delivered a chocolate cake to the British line accompanied by a note that proposed a cease fire so that the Germans could have a concert. The British accepted the proposal and offered some tobacco as their present to the Germans. The good will soon spread along the 27-mile length of the British line. Enemy soldiers shouted to one another from the trenches, joined in singing songs and soon met one another in the middle of no-mans-land to talk, exchange gifts and in some areas to take part in impromptu soccer matches.

The high command on both sides took a dim view of the activities and orders were issued to stop the fraternizing with varying results. In some areas the truce ended Christmas Day in others the following day and in others it extended into January. One thing is for sure - it never happened again.

"We and the Germans met in the middle of no-man's-land."

Frank Richards was a British soldier who experienced the "Christmas Truce". We join his story on Christmas morning 1914:

"On Christmas morning we stuck up a board with 'A Merry Christmas' on it. The enemy had stuck up a similar one. Platoons would sometimes go out for twenty-four hours' rest - it was a day at least out of the trench and relieved the monotony a bit - and my platoon had gone out in this way the night before, but a few of us stayed behind to see what would happen. Two of our men then threw their equipment off and jumped on the parapet with their hands above their heads. Two of the Germans

40

done the same and commenced to walk up the river bank, our two men going to meet them. They met and shook hands and then we all got out of the trench.

Buffalo Bill [the Company Commander] rushed into the trench and endeavoured to prevent it, but he was too late: the whole of the Company were now out, and so were the Germans. He had to accept the situation, so soon he and the other company officers climbed out too. We and the Germans met in the middle of no-man's-land. Their officers was also now out. Our officers exchanged greetings with them. One of the German officers said that he wished he had a camera to take a snapshot, but they were not allowed to carry cameras. Neither were our officers.

We mucked in all day with one another. They were Saxons and some of them could speak English. By the look of them their trenches were in as bad a state as our own. One of their men, speaking in English, mentioned that he had worked in Brighton for some years and that he was fed up to the neck with this damned war and would be glad when it was all over. We told him that he wasn't the only one that was fed up with it. We did not allow them in our trench and they did not allow us in theirs.

The German Company-Commander asked Buffalo Bill if he would accept a couple of barrels of beer and assured him that they would not make his men drunk. They had plenty of it in the brewery. He accepted the offer with thanks and a couple of their men rolled the barrels over and we took them into our trench. The German officer sent one of his men back to the trench, who appeared shortly after carrying a tray with bottles and glasses on it. Officers of both sides clinked glasses and drunk one another's health. Buffalo Bill had presented them with a plum pudding just before. The officers came to an understanding that the unofficial truce would end at midnight. At dusk we went back to our respective trenches.

...The two barrels of beer were drunk, and the German officer was right: if it was possible for a man to have drunk the two barrels himself he would have bursted before he had got drunk. French beer was rotten stuff.

Just before midnight we all made it up not to commence firing before they did. At night there was always plenty of firing by both sides if there were no working parties or patrols out. Mr Richardson, a young officer who had just joined the Battalion and was now a platoon officer in my company wrote a poem during the night about the Briton and the Bosche meeting in no-man's-land on Christmas Day, which he read out to us. A few days later it was published in The Times or Morning Post, I believe.

During the whole of Boxing Day [the day after Christmas] we never fired a shot, and they the same, each side seemed to be waiting for the other to set the ball a-rolling. One of their men shouted across in English and inquired how we had enjoyed the beer. We shouted back and told him it was very weak but that we were very grateful for it. We were conversing off and on during the whole of the day.

We were relieved that evening at dusk by a battalion of another brigade. We were mighty surprised as we had heard no whisper of any relief during the day. We told the men who relieved us how we had spent the last couple of days with the enemy,

41

and they told us that by what they had been told the whole of the British troops in the line, with one or two exceptions, had mucked in with the enemy. They had only been out of action themselves forty-eight hours after being twenty-eight days in the front-line trenches. They also told us that the French people had heard how we had spent Christmas Day and were saying all manner of nasty things about the British Army."

References:    This eyewitness account appears in Richards, Frank, Old Soldiers Never Die (1933); Keegan, John, The First World War (1999); Simkins, Peter, World War I, the Western Front (1991).

42

Reading Like a Historian: Battle of the Somme

Document A: The Daily ExpressThe Daily Express is an English newspaper founded in 1900. Like other English newspapers, it printed daily news and stories on the war. Here is an excerpt written by correspondent John D. Irvine describing the first day of the Battle of the Somme, which appeared in the paper on July 3, 1916.

The great day of battle broke in sunshine and mist. Not a cloud obscured the sky as the sun appeared above the horizon –in the direction where the German trenches lay.

. . . I witnessed the last phase of the bombardment, which preceded the advance. It was six o’clock (summer time) when we arrived there. The guns had been roaring furiously all through the night. Now they had, so to speak, gathered themselves together for one grand final effort before our British lions should be let loose on their prey. . .

A perceptible slackening of our fire soon after seven was the first indication given to us that our gallant soldiers were about to leap from their trenches and advance against the enemy. Non - combatants, of course, were not permitted to witness this spectacle, but I am informed that the vigor and eagerness of the first assault were worthy of the best traditions of the British Army.

I have myself heard within the past few days men declare that they were getting fed up with the life in the trenches, and would welcome a fight at close quarters. . . .

We had not to wait long for news, and it was wholly satisfactory and encouraging. The message received at ten o'clock ran something like this: "On a front of twenty miles north and south of the Somme we and our French allies have advanced and taken the German first line of trenches. We are attacking vigorously Fricourt, La Boiselle, and Mametz. German prisoners are surrendering freely, and a good many already fallen into our hands.”

Source: John D. Irvine, “Special Account of the Fighting in Our New Offensive,” The Daily Express, July 3, 1916.

Vocabularyundulating: a wavy surfaceslackening: loosen up, or taper off

43

Document B: British Soldier

George Coppard was a British soldier who fought during the entire First World War and was twice wounded. He fought at the Battle of the Somme as a machine gunner and wrote about his experiences in his book, With a Machine Gun to Cambrai. In this excerpt, Coppard recollects his experience on July 2, 1916.

The next morning we gunners surveyed the dreadful scene in front of our trench. There was a pair of binoculars in the kit, and, under the brazen light of a hot mid-summer's day, everything revealed itself stark and clear. . . .

Immediately in front, and spreading left and right until hidden from view, was clear evidence that the attack had been brutally repulsed. Hundreds of dead, many of the 37th Brigade, were strung out like wreckage washed up to a high-water mark. Quite as many died on the enemy wire as on the ground, like fish caught in the net. They hung there in grotesque postures. Some looked as though they were praying; they had died on their knees and the wire had prevented their fall. From the way the dead were equally spread out, whether on the wire or lying in front of it, it was clear that there were no gaps in the wire at the time of the attack.

Concentrated machine gunfire from sufficient guns to command every inch of the [barbed] wire, had done its terrible work. The Germans must have been reinforcing the wire for months. It was so dense that daylight could barely be seen through it. Through the glasses it looked a black mass. The German faith in massed wire had paid off. How did our planners imagine that Tommies [British soldiers], having survived all other hazards -and there were plenty in crossing No Man's Land -would get through the German [barbed]wire? Had they studied the black density of it through their powerful binoculars? Who told them that artillery fire would pound such [barbed] wire to pieces, making it possible to get through? Any Tommy could have told them that shell fire lifts [barbed] wire up and drops it down, often in a worse tangle than before.

Source: George Coppard, With a Machine Gun to Cambrai, 1969.

44

Document C: German Soldier

Otto Lais was a soldier in German Infantry Regiment 169. He was a machine gunner and fought at the battle of the Somme. Here is an excerpt from his memoir recounting his experience during the battle’s first day. The date of his memoir is unknown.It was originally published in 1935.

Wild firing slammed into the masses of the enemy. All around us was the rushing, whistling, and roaring of a storm: a hurricane, as the destructive British shell rushed towards our artillery which was firing courageously...

The machine gunners were earning their pay today. Belt after belt was fired, 250 rounds –1,000 –3,000. . . .

The British keep charging forward. Despite the fact that hundreds are already lying dead in the shell holes to our front, fresh waves keep emerging from the assault trenches...18,000 rounds! The other platoon weapon (machine gun)has a stoppage. Gunner Schwarz falls shot through the head over the belt he is feeding. The belt twists, feeds rounds into the gun crookedly and they jam! Next man forward. The dead man is removed. The gunner strips the feed mechanism, removes the rounds and reloads.

Fire; pause; barrel change; fetch ammunition; lay the dead on the floor of the crater. That is the hard unrelenting tempo of the morning of 1st July 1916. The sound of machine gun fire can be heard right across the divisional front. The youth of England bled to death in front of Serre [our position].

Source:Otto Lais, “A Machine-gunner in Iron Regiment 169,” date unknown, originally published 1935.

45

Notesand

Activities

46

World War I NotesBefore the War

Years of

War existed between

________________ from one country to another

Similar

A few (elite)

Great Britain, France, and Germany

Control

Very

Nationalism grows

Nationalism:

Tensions and suspicions

Cultures without their own land or the turf they wanted move

Especially

Agreement made that the borders in EUR were

Industrialization leads to

France and Britain

Informal agreement made to team up if

No formal

Alliance:

Europe divided into two solid alliances

Allied Powers

Central Power

47

The War Begins

June 28, 1914:

Austria makes demands of Serbia

Germany

_____________ readies to support Serbia, ______________ ready to support

Russia

Germany invades

Colonies of European Countries join sides as well

Allied Powers

Britain

France

Russia

Serbia

Central Powers

Germany

Austria-Hungary

By the end of the war:

Over

Modern War

Not kings/armies but

Most people

War dragged on for

Only way to end was to

48

War of

The first great Industrial War

Mass production of

No shortage

Inventions of the WWI Era

The Machine Gun changes warfare

Global War

Fighting carried out in

Fighting in

___________________________________ imported to help the fight in Europe

Enormous Casualties

Battle of Somme (July-Nov. 1916)

Allied

British lose

BR & FR =

Advanced their armies

GER =

Consequences of the War

Europe

Over

Over

Flu epidemic spreads after

Map of Europe radically changed

Peace of Paris Conference (1919)

Four Empires ended

49

Communist State of USSR created

___________ new countries created

European Colonies gained

Prewar tensions are not solved

Versailles Conference

Major Players’ (The BIG three) Motives

Great Britain:

France:

U.S.:

Terms of the Treaty

Germany had to accept total

This was called the

Germany had to pay ______________ to cover war damages and other Allied

losses.

Germany had to hand over some __________ square kilometres of land.

This accounted for about _______ of all of her land and ___________ of

her people who lived there.

The German army was to have no more than ____________ and the navy was

limited to __________________.

There was to be no

The German navy was only allowed _____________ and Germany was forbidden

to ________ any more weapons and other war material.

An Allied Army was to occupy the

No German troops were to be

The Treaty seemed to satisfy the "Big Three"

It made sure that Germany was too weak ______________________________,

yet strong enough to help ___________________________________________.

It kept the _______________________ with Germany safe from future German

attacks.

50

It created __________________________. This would help promote peace and

trade throughout the world.

Germans hated the Treaty

Especially the ________________________

Many Germans also thought the financial penalties that the treaty imposed upon

their country and her people to be ___________________________________

The German Government officials that had agreed to the treaty became known as

the "_____________________________________.”

Many German citizens felt that they were now being punished for the mistakes of

the __________________________________________________________

51

The Century: Shell Shocked HS.2. Analyze the complexity and investigate causes and effects of significant events in world history.

Please answer the following questions as you watch the movie. We will pause to discuss and record answers when appropriate, but jotting down notes in the margin may help.

1. What was the Lusitania? What happened to it? How did it affect WWI?

2. Why did many young men have a positive view of war and fighting before WWI?

3. What is propaganda? How was it used to generate opinions about the war?

4. Where is the Western Front? What happened there during WWI?

5. What new weapons helped make WWI a devastating war? Which countries had each weapon?

6. What happened at the Battle of Somme? Who was fighting? How many died?

NOTES:

52

7. Describe trench warfare.

8. What happened right before the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia?

9. Who is Vladimir Lenin? How did he come to power?

10. Before officially joining the war, how did the U.S. contribute? To which side?

11. Why did the U.S. finally declare war?

12. How did the U.S.’s involvement change the war?

13. What impact did the war have on the U.S.? France? Germany? Austria-Hungary?

53

Treaty of Versailles Simulation

On November 11th, 1918, after four years of war, an armistice based on President Wilson’s “Fourteen Points” was agreed to by Germany. By this time, several major powers had already bowed out of the war. Russia had withdrawn from the war in 1917. Famine, civil war, and high casualties made Russia sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany. On November 3rd, Austria-Hungary made a separate peace with the Allies for several reasons. They faced a series of huge losses and were dealing with regular mutinies in their army. Different groups within the empire began to make their own governments and Austria-Hungary broke-up. Similarly, the new Turkish government signed an armistice with the Allies after the Ottoman Empire broke-up.

Germany was the last main Central Power in the war. At the time of the armistice, Germany promised to change governments and the democratic Weimer Republic was created. Germany was in the grips of economic turmoil, had suffered high casualties, and was facing food riots and strikes. They needed to end the war. German leaders hoped that President Wilson’s “Fourteen Points” would also be the basis for the final peace settlement as they seemed more fair to Germany.

France suffered greatly from the war. France lost 25% of their male population in the fighting of WWI. A large portion of the fighting and destruction of agriculture and industry had taken place in France. The French blamed Germany for the war. The main goal of the French was to “cripple” German military so that it could never threaten France again. They also wanted reparations or war damages from Germany to help rebuild destroyed areas and wanted to take some territories from Germany to create a buffer between France and Germany.

Great Britain was in a different position than France. While their casualty rate was much lower, they had paid the most for the war. They owed the United States and other nations huge amounts of money that would have to be repaid after the war. Therefore, they wanted reparations or war damages to help pay these debts. Also, they wanted to hold onto the British Empire and not lose any territory.

The United States suffered the least. The United States only fought for 9 months of the war. It had less casualties and less damage than any other nation. President Wilson outlined his peace ideas in the “Fourteen Points.” He felt that the main goal of the peace settlement should be to stop the war and prevent future wars. He wanted an end to secret alliances to avoid the entanglements that had pulled nations into war. He wanted to allow different peoples to govern themselves, national self-determination, and choose their government. He also wanted to end barriers in trade and sought freedom of the seas.

In the end the leaders of the United States, Great Britain, France, and Italy all met at Versailles palace outside of Paris to create a final peace plan.

54

Maps and Charts

55

World War 1 Before and After

56

World War 1 Land Division

57

World War 1 Prewar Alliances

58

World War 1 Trenches

59

World War 1 Deaths by Country

60

World War I Key Terms Index

Key Term Page Number Alliances 7“Dulce et Decorum” 8Franz Ferdinand 8, 32-33 “In Flander’s Fields” 30League of Nations 16Militarism 8Nationalism 8Reparations 16Treaty of Versailles 15, 23-28Triple Alliance (Central Powers) 7, 9Triple Entente (Allies) 7, 9Western Front 9 -10Wilson, Woodrow 14

61