Western CivilizationChapter 25

World and Revolution,1914 - 1919

Background to World War I

• 28 June 1914 – Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophia, by Gavrilo Princip of the Black Hand in Sarajevo, Bosnia

• 23 July – Ultimatum sent from Austria-Hungary to Serbia (unreasonable demands and a time limit)

• 28 July – Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia after response was 1 hour late and only with German backing

• 30 July - Russia declared war on Austria-Hungary and Germany

Assassination of Franz Ferdinand and His Wife, Sophia

The Assassin

• By 4 August – Germany declared war on Russia and France (then walked through neutral Belgium to get to France)

- France declared war on Germany in response

- Britain declared war on Germany because it went through neutral Belgium to get to France

Liege, Belgium

Remember: 4 Main Causes

• Militarism – build-up of new weapons• Imperialism – taking over territory that is

already occupied and organized• Nationalism – belief that people of the same

ethnic background, same history, should have their own nation-state

• Alliances – Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente

Trigger: the assassination of Franz Ferdinand

Triple Alliance

• Italy• Germany• Austria-Hungary

Italy changed to the Triple Entente in 1915. The Ottoman Empire joined in on the German side

Triple Entente

• Britain• France • Russia

• Countries make alliances not because they like each other, but because they have a common enemy

• Germany declared war on both France and Russia because they had a plan for a two front war

• It was called the Schlieffen Plan– In a 2-front war you throw all you have against

one side– Then when one side has fallen, throw all you have

against the other sideGermany was counting on Russia taking a long time

to mobilize; it didn’t. Germany had a 2-front war.

• The war spread worldwide, eventually involving 33 nations and colonies

• In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson declared the United States neutral

• We had a history of not joining entangling alliances

• We did not wish to be dragged into any European wars

• It was hard for Americans to remain neutral– Ancestral ties– Trade– Some felt sympathy for France, our oldest friend– Some sympathized with Germany, Austria-

Hungary, and Italy, the Central Powers– Many Irish wished for neutrality because of their

hatred for Britain

– Russians and Polish Jews supported Germany because of their rough treatment by the Tsars of Russia

– Socialists also hated the Tsars’ cruel treatment by the secret police against rebels and so backed Germany

So in the U.S., there were conflicting loyalties, and Wilson’s wish for neutrality was idealistic

But U.S. wasn’t ready for war; we didn’t join alliances and we would only fight in self-defense

Stalemate in Europe

• Schlieffen Plan did not work– No quick, victorious take-over of France– Belgians resisted heroically– Russians advanced more quickly than expected

into German territory– So Germany had to split their forces thus

weakening their offensive in the West by sending troops to head off Russia

Technology of Killing

• New weapons were not used efficiently because they weren’t completely understood– Airplane: of little importance in battle at first;

used to count troops of the enemy until enemy started shooting at planes

– Poisonous Mustard Gas: not used effectively yet devastating because a slight shift in the wind could throw it back on the troops spraying it

– Machine Gun: very effective because it could mow down troops advancing in the old infantry style• Battle of the Somme, July 1916; 60,000 British troops

killed or wounded in the first ½ hour

At the end of the battle there were 400,000 British losses, 200,000 French losses, and 500,000 German losses

– Tanks• developed by the British• armored vehicles could drive right through

encampments• not used effectively• finally were used in conjunction with infantry soldiers

instead of sending tanks in first, followed by foot soldiers

War at Sea• Directly touched American interests• Naval war was an economic war because it

destroyed commerce• British set up a blockade of Germany with their

superior navy• During times of war, all enemy merchant ships

could be seized, attacked, and sunk• According to the old rules of the sea, crews and

passengers were to be rescued before ship was sunk

• Ships of neutral nations retained the right to trade with any nation as long as they weren’t carrying war materiel

• British blockade kept Americans from trading with Germany because the British had mined the waters

• American ships were also stopped and searched by the British

• British saw war materiel to be foodstuffs and virtually any trade good

• Americans had only minor objections because German trade was minor

• In retaliation, Germany tried to harm the British economy by using their submarine called the Unterseeboot or U-Boat– Modern sub developed by 2 Americans, John Holland

and Simon Lake– Plans offered to U.S. first but rejected by U.S. Navy– Took plans to Europe and sold them to highest bidder,

Germany

• Submarine– Armed with 19 torpedoes each– Made the waters around the British Isles a war

zone– Any merchant ships in the area were in danger of

attack– No opportunity for escape– Any survivors most likely drowned– German U-boat tactics seemed immoral to many

U-boat Attack

Lusitania

• 7 May 1915, the English luxury liner, the Lusitania, was sunk off the coast of Ireland killing 1198 of the 1959 aboard including 128 Americans

• Before Americans and others boarded the ship in New York, the Germans took out a full-page ad in the New York papers warning of a possible attack

• Americans felt invulnerable because the U.S. was officially neutral

• When the ship was sunk and there was an outcry, the Germans said, “We warned you.”

• The Lusitania was carrying war materiel, 4200 cases of small arms bought in U.S., back to England

• There was a secondary explosion on the ship after it had been torpedoed

• The Germans felt justified in sinking the ship

Lusitania

• Americans became anti-German as a result• Wilson was upset because of the loss of life

and because the right to the freedom of the seas had been violated

• A series of messages went back and forth between the U.S. and Germany

• The Germans then agreed to stop attacking passenger vessels

• Things calmed down a bit between the U.S. and Germany

• In 1916 the allies said they’d arm all merchant ships, hence the Germans resumed sinking ships without warning

• When the Sussex was sunk with 1 American on board, Wilson threatened to break diplomatic relations with Germany (this was usually the last step before declaring war)

• Germany said it would stop and search before attacking

Americans Enter War

• Because of the stalemate on the Western Front, each side tried to find new allies to join them– Ottoman Empire joined the German side in August

1914– Italians switched sides in 1915 and joined with

Britain and France– Colonies were drawn into the fight– In 1917, the U.S. entered the war on the British

and French side

Allies of World War I

• The U.S. had tried to stay neutral because we weren’t ready for war in 1914

• We did, however, start to supply Britain with needed goods

• We entered the war in April of 1917 because:– Freedom of the seas had been violated– Innocent lives had been lost– Commerce was interrupted – Shift in American sentiments– Zimmerman telegram

Zimmerman Telegram

• We aren’t sure if this was a true telegram or something dreamed up by the British to get U.S. into the war

• The telegram said that Germany would finance a Mexican attack on the U.S. in order to keep the U.S. occupied in the Western Hemisphere and away from Europe

• Then when Germany won the war, Germany would give back to Mexico all the territory the U.S. had taken from them

• The Zimmerman telegram was the last straw for the U.S., and so we joined in on the fight

• Wilson also had a plan for how world politics should be conducted after the war called his 14 Points

• He knew no one would listen to him if the U.S. did not get into the war and help

• Although U.S. troops in large numbers didn’t arrive until 1918, the U.S. entry gave the Allies a needed shot in the arm – raised morale

• Also in 1917 Russia withdrew from the war: The Russian Revolution had begun

Home Fronts

• War affected all citizens, whether soldiers or not– Increase in government powers– Increase in size of government use of propaganda to

manipulate public opinion– Women worked in factories, drove trucks, and did

men’s jobs while the men went off to war– This resulted in women getting the right to vote in the

U.S.– In Germany, Austria, and Britain women demanded

equal pay

– Military draft imposed– Factories produced war products– Food rationing in some areas, not in U.S.– Civil liberties removed or threatened, even in U.S.– Unemployment ended

In the last year of the war, the influx of American troops helped bring the war to an end

• On 29 September 1918, German leaders were informed that the war was lost for them and they should sue for peace

• Armistice Day was 11 November 1918• The war was over• Now came the Peace Conference and Peace

Treaty

Peace Settlement• January 1919 delegations of the 27 victorious allied

nations gathered in Paris to write up the final settlement of the war

• The conference was dominated by 3 leaders: France Great Britain U.S.

Georges David Lloyd WoodrowClemenceau George Wilson = =revenge just peace 14 Points Compromise

Clemenceau, Lloyd George, & Wilson

14 Points

• Some of the 14 Points:– No secret alliances

– Self-Determination

– General association of nations : the League of Nations

• Italy played a less important role at the conference than it thought it should have

• Germany wasn’t invited and was only expected to sign the treaty without question

• The compromise at the end: Wilson sacrificed most of his 14 points but got his League of Nations

• Overall, it was a vengeful peace

Treaty of Versailles

• The Treaty of Versailles was signed by the new government in Germany, the Weimar, because they felt they had no other choice; Germans were starving

• The Treaty of Versailles was signed on the 28 June 1919, the 5th anniversary of Franz

Ferdinand’s assassination

Terms of Treaty

• German army was limited to 100,000 men and they had to stay in army for a long time

• Germany could not have any submarines or an air force (Luftwaffe)

• Austria could not merge with Germany• Alsace and Lorraine went back to France and

sections of Prussia to the new Polish state• new nations formed from former Austria-

Hungary: Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia

• Germany had to pay reparations of 132 billion gold marks or $33 billion– U.S. loaned money to Germany to help it get back

on its feet– Germany used some of the money to pay Britain

and France– Britain and France used the money to pay U.S. for

the war goods they had bought*(Remember this when we get to 1920s)

• Rhineland was demilitarized• Germany was blamed entirely for the war• Germany was totally humiliated

• Every country but the United States approved the Treaty of Versailles– U.S. Congress did not because of the inclusion of the

League of Nations; said we did not join alliances– U.S. returned to isolationism and elected Warren G.

Harding

Results

• There was a weakened League of Nations because U.S. did not join

• Communist Russia• Shaky S.E. Asia: new nations that were unstable• U.S. isolationism• Britain refused to support France in future

conflicts• France was alone sharing a border with Germany

• Germany:– was humiliated and resentful– had trouble repaying reparations– had a shaky economy and inflation– Caused France to occupy the Ruhr Valley for 15

years to make sure Germany paid their debt

The Russian Revolution

• Russia finally entered the Industrial Revolution in the early 20th century

• The conditions for the workers were horrendous:– worked an 11 ½ hour day– lived in a shared hovel with 10 other people– strikes were illegal– unions were illegal– had no contact with employer

• So Marxism, which first made its appearance in the 1880s, began to take hold

• In the 1890s, Vladimir Ulyanov Lenin emerged as strong force in the movement

• He was influenced by the execution of his older brother for terrorism in 1886

• Lenin believed in revolution as a means of change

Vladimir Lenin

• He wanted to build up the party quickly and bring the peasants to revolt

• Others did not want to move in that direction• At a party conference in 1903 in Brussels and

in London, the majority of delegates supported his plan, and hence, were called the Bolsheviks or “majorityites”

• Lenin was sent into exile from Russia by the Tsar for his ideas

• Then, without him in Russia, the Russian Revolutionary movement was dominated by the “minorityites” or Mensheviks who opposed Lenin’s pursuit of violent revolution

• In Russia, conditions were poor for the peasants, 90% of the population– Russia had lost its war with Japan, 1904-1905

– Russians were starving and approached the Tsar’s palace to ask for bread and an 8-hour day in 1905; the military fired on them

– The result was Bloody Sunday or the First Russian Revolution (failed because there was no real plan)

– The country went on strike after Bloody Sunday– The only way Tsar Nicholas II could get the

country back under his control was to promise political reforms like a Duma (parliament)

Tsar Nicholas II

• The Duma was Russia’s first legislative assembly which would limit the Tsar’s supreme authority

• Things quieted for a time• Nicholas really gave the Duma little power• He was still in control• Conditions for peasants were still poor• Then Russia entered World War I hoping it would

unite the Russian people• It did not

• Russia had some early victories followed by many losses

• Soldiers were poorly armed and poorly led– food prices rose– not enough food for the people– long hours in factories– soldiers deserted– angry marches in the capital

– angry peasants and mutinous troops– Nicholas refused to share power– Nicholas’ troops joined the demonstrators, and

Nicholas knew it was over– Tsar Nicholas II abdicated the throne in late

February 1917– He and his family were placed under house arrest– The Duma formed a Provisional Government led

by Alexander Kerensky

• This Provisional Government had little experience governing

• There were no plans• Provisional Government kept Russia in World

War I• There were many problems and the new

government could not stop the chaos• Lenin believed this was the time for revolution

and returned from exile in April of 1917

• His followers weren’t able to seize control until October 1917 when Leon Trotsky, Lenin’s lieutenant, seized control of key installations in the capital

• Kerensky fled• The Bolsheviks and Lenin now had control • Power had passed from the moderates to the

extremists

• A civil war then broke out that lasted for 4 years : White Army (Tsar backers) vs. Red Army (Lenin backers)

• Bolsheviks were renamed Communists:– carried out the will of a determined minority of

revolutionaries in the “interests of the masses”– established a proletariat dictatorship that would

later become corrupted by power

• Foreign Policy:– The first thing Lenin did was to seek peace with

Germany, so he could concentrate on Russia– He signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March

1918• Gave away nearly ¼ of Russia’s territory and 1/3 of the

population, minerals, and factoriesThis gave Lenin what he needed – time. Time to defeat

the White Army of Tsar supporters

• Then Lenin started to make changes• His policy War Communism changed to

become the N.E.P., New Economic Policy:– nationalized the banks– nationalized industry– created universal education– established rights for women– allowed for some free enterprise

• Russia was renamed the U.S.S.R. , the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922

• Lenin died in 1924• He was succeeded by Joseph Stalin, a brutal

leader• As of 1991, Communism is no longer in power

in Russia

The Russian Revolution of 1917

• The ideas of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution did not reach Russia by the beginning of the 20th century

• The Industrial Revolution only reached Russia by the 1890s

• When most western European nations were becoming modernized politically, economically, and socially, Russia remained feudalistic

• It was a land of peasants, aristocrats, and the Tsars

• The rigid policies of most tsars especially frustrated the intelligentsia who turned to revolution and terrorism to bring about change

• Many of the intelligentsia were exiled in 1900 as a result

• With the revolution of 1905, also known as Bloody Sunday, Nicholas II was forced to give concessions: give Duma some power but that did not last long

• The country did pull together, unite, at the beginning of World War I

• But when losses seemed too great and the civilian population suffered too much, the people began to blame the corrupt bureaucracy of the Tsar

• The Duma asked for more power• Nicholas refused

• March 1917: demands for bread turned into strikes and riots, and some troops refused to fire on the people; some joined the people

• 12 March 1917: Duma organized a Provisional Government

• 15 March 1917: Nicholas II resigned, was held captive, and was later shot

• The Provisional Government passed laws giving:– civil liberties– religious freedom– equality before the law– union rights

There were problems with the Provisional Government. There were differing factions coupled with its inexperience at governing

• They had to share power with the Soviets – political organizations of workers, soldiers, and radical intellectuals

• Provisional Government also chose to continue the war with Germany and that drained Russia of men and resources

The Rise of the Bolsheviks

• Marxism influenced many of the intellectuals of the 19th century

• Marxists formed the Social Democratic Party led by Gregory Plekhanov and Vladimir Lenin

• Repression of the tsar forced the Social Democrats into exile by 1900

• In London in 1903, a split came in the party: the radical Bolsheviks of Lenin and the more moderate Mensheviks

• Bolsheviks were a minor irritant until 1917• Members in Russia were hunted down,

imprisoned, exiled, or shot• Lenin remained in exile for 17 years living in

Switzerland– He made plans to overthrow the tsar– He developed principles and goals for his party

• His party would not be open and democratic• His party would be elite and a highly trained group of

Marxist revolutionaries

• Lenin wanted a dual revolution in Russia of both workers and peasants

• He wanted the revolution to spread to other nations

• He was opposed to World War I• In April 1917, Lenin made a deal with Germany:

Germany would transport Lenin from Switzerland to the Russian border if Lenin created chaos in Russia and took Russia out of the war

• When Lenin returned, he made himself known with slogans like “peace to the army”, land to the peasants”, and ownership of the factories to the workers”

• Interest in the Bolsheviks began to grow• Kerensky had many arrested and other

Bolsheviks fled• Lenin fled to Finland for awhile

• But the Kerensky government was weakening– It couldn’t extract Russia from the war– There was a threatened ouster of General

Kornilov– Kerensky then released Bolsheviks hoping they

would help him defend the capital from Germans and revolutionaries in September 1917

– By October, Lenin and his followers had gained control of the Petrograd and Moscow Soviets

• 6 November 1917: Trotsky, a follower of Lenin, seized control of the power centers of government

• Trotsky then arranged to transfer the power to the Soviets and Lenin

• 7 November 1917: the Bolshevik majority elected Lenin as head of their new government

The Bolsheviks in Power

• Bolsheviks immediately strove to consolidate their power

• They set up a bureaucracy:– They had a pyramid of soviets or people’s councils

who were elected by universal suffrage– The party was dominated by a few Communists,

as the Bolsheviks now called themselves– It was “arranged” that Communists would be

dominant in all elections

Changes Made

• Capitalism was abolished• Barter system replaced money• Industry and commerce were placed under

the committees of workers• Land was nationalized and management was

given to the local peasants• Crop surpluses were turned over to the state• Church lands were confiscated by the state

• Lenin had been opposed to Russian involvement in World War I, so he immediately opened negotiations with Germany

• Germany dictated the terms because Russian soldiers were deserting in droves, and Germans threatened to attack Petrograd and Moscow

• The result was the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

• Russia lost Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Ukraine, Bessarabia, and the Polish Provinces

• This added up to 1/3 of Russia’s European population, ¾ of its iron, 9/10 of its coal

• Russia had to pay a large sum of money to Germany to get out of the war

• After this very harsh peace with Germany, Russia was thrown into 2 years of a civil war: The Red Army vs. The White Army

• The White Army was made up of aristocracy and army officers aided by French, Polish, Japanese, Czech, and American troops – who backed the Tsar

• The Red Army finally defeated the White Army and the Communists took back the Ukraine

• After all the fighting, the Russian economy was in a shambles

• Lenin first tried to mobilize the economy and society with “war communism”, but there were problems– Peasants did not know how to run the factories– Peasants didn’t want to give food surpluses to the

government

• By 1921, 30 million Russians were threatened with starvation in spite of relief sent by other nations

• Many died• So Lenin tried something new, The New

Economic Policy (NEP)– Lenin allowed for some capitalism like private

ownership– Money and credit were restored– All NEP programs were supervised and regulated

• 1923, Lenin suffered a paralyzing stroke• He died in 1924• A power struggle ensued• Joseph Stalin won out

Joseph Stalin

• Son of peasants• Became a revolutionary and a terrorist• Arrested and imprisoned several times• Exiled to Siberia during World War I• Given amnesty by Alexander Kerensky in 1917• Became a devoted associate of Lenin• Became executive secretary of Communist Party• 1927, became leader of Communist Party and

dictator of the Soviet Union

5 Year Plans

• Stalin had a series of 5 Year Plans with specific goals for a planned economy

• First Plan Objectives – 1928– End NEP– Eliminate remnants of capitalism– Industrialize USSR– Collectivize and mechanize agriculture– Set up national defense– Transform economy to Communist economy

• Stalin got rid of private ownership• He consolidated farms and mechanized them• Farmers had to surrender land to the

government but could keep animals and gardens for their private use

• Collective farms were supervised by Communist Party members

• To mechanize farms meant to industrialize them

• This was practically non-existent in the USSR in 1928

• With help from other nations, great strides were made: steel mills, power plants, foundries, mines, refineries, and railroads were built

• 1932, Stalin announced that the goals of his first 5-year plan had been met

• The 1930s brought his next 2 5-year plans– He stressed collective and mechanized farming– He stressed heavy industry– He began the production of consumer goods

Problems for Stalin

• Great resistance to collectivization because of mismanagement, drought, and starvation

• Collectivization cost the lives of 10 million people

• Resisters to collectivization were killed or exiled to Siberia

• By 1939, 90% of Soviet agriculture was collectivized and mechanized

Industry• In each 5-year period, production doubled but it

cost lives• By 1941, the Soviet Union was the 4th largest

industrial power in the world• The changes of Stalin cost many lives• All opposition was destroyed, usually by killing

millions and even within his own party• By 1939, all the original Bolshevik leaders had

been removed from power and from the party• Most were killed; some just removed

Totalitarian Control

• By 1939 the USSR was under totalitarian control, dominated by the Communist Party

• It controlled the economic, social, religious, political, and cultural life of the nation

• Only the Communist Party could organize political activity:– name political candidates– set policies– produce propaganda

• Opposition was considered to be disloyalty and would be crushed by the police – secret and regular police

• Within the government, there was the Politburo:– 16 men– met in secret– made all decisions to be accepted and carried out

without questionObedience was demanded of all Party members

Society and Culture

• 1917 – 60% of all Russians were illiterate• 1928 – there was free, compulsory, secular

education: elementary, high school, and higher

• Scholarships were given to talented Party members

• By 1941, Stalin decreed that illiteracy had been banished from the Soviet Union

• The Arts were supported by Stalin’s programs• Musicians, dancers, architects, and painters

were all subject to the Communist ideology• All liberal, bourgeois, or capitalist literature

was heavily censored

Soviet Society

• Made egalitarian• Party members enjoyed more privileges• Women benefitted:– no discrimination tolerated– equal pay– equal educational and professional opportunities

At home it was different; the man dominated

• Social organizations were saturated with the Party line and were carefully watched

• Religion:– Church property was confiscated– Churches were turned into museums and sometimes

rented out for certain occasions– There was no religious instruction in schools and no

religious instructors Religion was perceived as a problem. Communists

thought it could get too powerful and overthrow government.

Soviet Union and the World

• The USSR expected other capitalist societies to fall after World War I and turn to Communism

• The only country to embrace Communism was Hungary that set up a Communist dictatorship in 1919; it only lasted 4 months

• The USSR started the Comintern, or Communist International, to guide and aid other Communist Parties in other nations in the common cause of world revolution

• In 1917 and 1918, other Western nations felt Communism would not last

• To help with its collapse, France, Great Britain, Japan, and the U.S. sent in troops in 1918 and gave aid to the White Army

• For several years, no Western nation would recognize the new government of the USSR or accept it into the League of Nations

• But when Communist leaders recognized they needed the knowledge, technology, and aid of capitalist nations, they toned down their rhetoric against them

• The result:– 1922, Germany recognized USSR– 1924, Great Britain and France recognized USSR– 1933, the U.S. recognized USSR

• One reason why they recognized the USSR was that they wanted to sell them what USSR wanted to buy

• The Depression years softened the West’s stance against it

• During World War II, USSR allied itself with Great Britain, France, and the U.S. against Germany – only after Germany broke its treaty with USSR

• USSR joined with Western nations out of necessity against Germany

• After World War II, USSR’s relations with the West cooled rather quickly

• This resulted in the Cold War which lasted until the 1990s