Shaping of the Modern World

 

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Brooklyn College Core Curriculum:
The Shaping of the Modern World

Section 14: World War I and Cultural Anxiety

Introduction: This Week's Goals

The 19th century represented the apogee of European power. We have seen so far how governmental, scientific, economic and industrial development had created, by the mid 19th century, a civilization that was strong enough to establish a world wide hegemony.

  • The nation-state model of Britain and France proved to be a very efficient model of government. Nationalism and Liberalism, in different ways, helped strengthen this model of government in the 19th century as Germany, Italy and the United States became important powers.
  • The Scientific Revolution, in addition to its theoretical aspects, gave Europe a continually improving technology which made it militarily stronger than any other part of the world.
  • The Industrial Revolution made the European economy massively more productive.
  • One result was the rapid success of the new imperialism, as European states imposed their control on every part of the world.

It is true that there were certain cracks in the facade (nationalism destabilized some states, and socialist activity demonstrated class conflict), but this was not clear at the time.

The rest of this course looks at how that Western hegemony came apart. One might say, in general, that the factors that had made Europe so strong began, in the 20th century, to weaken it:

  • National rivalries, which had once merely trained European armies, now led to wars in which massive armies with industrial-age weapons tore apart large parts of Europe [In the world wars, and in a number of civil wars.]
  • Industrialization proved to be quite exportable. Already by 1905, Japan was powerful enough to defeat one European power. Over the rest of the 20th century, the other parts of the world regained much of their economic importance vis-a-vis the west.
  • Science, which had backed up the view of culture propounded during the Enlightenment, began to present a much more complex set of theories, many of which undermined Enlightenment beliefs about reason, nature, and progress.

In this section, we shall:

  • Look at the problems developments in science presented to the dominant Enlightenment culture:
    • At Darwinism and its view of nature.
    • At Freudianism and its views of the Human mind.
    • At modern physics, and the collapse of the Newtonian Universe.
  • Look at World War I, which was in fact not so much a World War as a European War in which European states destroyed much of their wealth, and undertook mutual atrocities that lead many to question the self-proclaimed "superiority" of the West. We shall look at:
    • The causes of the war.
      • The Eastern Question
      • The Alliance System.
    • The course of the war.
    • The intellectual and artistic response to the war.
    • The results of the war.
      • In Europe - the creation of many ethnic states.
      • In Europe - the creation of a German state with inbuilt instability.
      • In the Middle-East and Far East - the setting in motion of many modern political developments.

Text

Kagan, 877-907, 958-63, 921-39, 944-45

Multimedia

Sources

Once again we have many interesting sources for this period. You must read Darwin: Origin of the Species, Spencer, Social Darwinsm, Freud: Interpretation of Dreams,   Arnold: Dover Beach (read slowly), World War I Poetry, Wilson: The Fourteen Points, and the Versailles Treaty. The rest are optional.

World War I

Outline

I. Late 19th/Early 20th Century Cultural Conflicts

We need to look at cultural and scientific changes in late 19th and early 20th century.   The period saw the European consensus in thought, established during the Enlightenment (in the context of Newtonian physics) challenged by new scientific discoveries and ideas. The challenge was to Liberalism, rationalism/empiricism and classical science. These challenges are still very much part of the modern world.

A. The Enlightenment and Reason

Rationalism, Empiricism, Enlightenment thought -- the confidence of mid-19th century thinkers -- all can be seen as a form of HUMANISM - the belief that human beings are:

  • a) important and central to the universe
  • b) reasonable and able to make choices with freewill

It also emphasized

  • c) Toleration of others
  • d) respect for science and reason.
  • e) There was a lot of CONFIDENCE in humanity.

B. Romanticism and Nationalism

Reason was not satisfying to some, even apart from new scientific discoveries.   From the late 18th C. there were many who opposed excessive stress on reason. We have discussed two forms of opposition in previous classes  -- Romanticism and Nationalism.

C. Context of Cultural Change in late 19th C.

By the late 19th century the number of people who were directly impacted by intellectual change was much greater than in earlier periods. The Industrial Revolution had produced new educated social groups, and education was now more widespread:

  • Large reading public/state education
  • Cheap newspapers: e.g. Daily Mail, Daily Express
  • Beginning of modern universities and scientific investigation of humanities - e.g. history, economics, sociology.

D. Realism in Literature

Writers in late 19th Century became impressed by science in general -- there was an emphasis on observation -- and then by the new science, which saw man as at the subjection of vast uncontrolled forces.

  • Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) Madame Bovary 1857
  • George Eliot (1819-1880) Adam Bede 1859

II. Science Challenges Humanism

Not all problems with the outlook of the Enlightenment  came from emotionalism. The development of science itself posed problems for humanistic views of the world.

This is perhaps the most important issue
in the development of modern thought.

Before the 20th century educated people were usually knowledgeable about both humanities and science (Voltaire wrote on physics and literature, for instance). In the 20th century, a split develops -- there is an emergence of two intellectual cultures:Scientific and Literary.

A. 1850: The Acme of Classical Science

Scientists knew they did know everything, but thought that they were almost there. All this was to change over the next 50 years.

B. Darwin and Biology

Biology provided the first shock.

Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

  • The Voyage of the Beagle On a sea voyage, Darwin saw the massive variety of species on the Galapagos Islands -- due to adaptation of one species into many others to fulfil ecological roles played by others in other areas.
  • The Origin of the Species 1859 Proposed his theory of evolution through a mechanism of natural selection.
  • The Descent of Man 1871 Applied this idea to human beings.

The idea of Evolution was not original to Darwin, but its spread is due to him. The crucial point was his use of the principle of natural selection (also thought of by Alfred Russel Wallace 1823-1913) by the "survival of the fittest". (Concept used by Herbert Spenser before Darwin).

Darwin could not explain how natural selection worked  and neither could anyone else, until the work in genetics of Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) on genetics was made public after 1900.

Darwinism was a scientific revolution equivalent to Copernicus -- it changed the frame of  of reference. Now, there was no need for a God to explain life. The idea that man was a special animal, as opposed to just a very evolved one was hard to support. Darwin's view also implied tha human being's moral nature and religion had developed naturalistically.

The Cultural Impact of Darwinism

There was a basic change in way people saw Nature.

  • Newtonian Harmony - Nature as a series of mechanical Laws.
  • Darwinian Evolution - Nature is "red in tooth and claw" -- nature as a bloody struggle for survival

Darwin and Racism - Social Darwinism

Darwin's theories were applied to other fields, such as politics -- they were used to justify the supremacy of Europe and ignoring the poor.  Although Darwin may have objected, his ideas seemed to suggest that "Might is Right."

Racism: Applied to Race, they suggested the idea that one race is superior to another -- the core of modern  racism.

Eugenics:  The idea of breeding survivors became quite popular, and not only among right-wingers.  Progressives such as the Fabian society, and some feminists supported it.

["Eugenics" is a classic case of an idea which seems rational, but where the facts seem to belie the theory.  Compare modern Singapore.  The Chinese people there were the scum of south China (which is why they left).  Outside China they have done very well indeed. This has stopped the Singaporean government calling for only graduates to have children.]

Use by Nazis: The horrendous combination of social Darwinism with nationalism.

Darwinism Opposed

Darwinism contradicted ideas in the Bible and was een as a threat to revealed religion.

  • There was a NEW type of fundamentalist defense of the Bible, which insisted it was literally true in every word.
  • Darwinism becomes a watchword for science's supporters -- almost equally supported for emotional reasons.

C. Physics and Einstein

1870 - Newtonian Physics still holds, along with the notion that science describes the real world. This changes by 1914, by which time most physicists are aware that all they have are models of how nature works. The big problem -- which still persists -- was that the two best new theories in physics (General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics) were mutually contradictory.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

1905 - General Theory of Relativity: Reality depends on the observer.  Challenged Newtonian Physics with Relativity  Science becomes less easy, but more fruitful.

D. Freud and the Mind

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

From a prosperous Viennese Jewish family. He based his theories on the experiences he had in Viennese culture. [Fin-de-siecle (end of the century) Vienna was one of the most important cities in terms of cultural creativity.]

Psychoanalysis - was the name Freud gave to his new "science" and is "single most important idea whereby 20th C. people identify themselves."

  • Idea of the Soul
    • Ego, Id, Superego (cf. Plato : Reason, Emotion and spiritedness)
  • The idea of the Unconscious.
    • Sex at heart of the personality: Civilization depends on the sublimation of sexual energy.

Freud ends up profoundly compromising the idea that human beings had freewill and rationality. The problem with this was that ideas like "democracy" really rely on the belief that voters will take rational decisions -- not vote for a candidate because he/she reminds them of their mother.

Psychoanalysts

An entire  profession grew around psychoanalysis.  In some countries, especially the US, the profession became very powerful, demanding 20 yr treatments for some patients.

Is Psychoanalysis science?

Another Viennese thinker -- Karl Popper -- provides one of the most important definitions of science:

  • Not to search for Natural Law, but 
  • Science is essentially falsifiable -- it proposes a testable model (or a model which is in theory testable)

Popper claims Psychoanalysis is in theory untestable, as any challenge to it is said to be due to psychological rejection of its principals.

E. The Crisis of Humanism?

  • Mathew Arnold (1822-88): Dover Beach, c. 1867, [At Gobernet]

Can we tie Darwin, Einstein and Freud together ?

Purpose: Is Humanity just the "accidental assembly of atoms at the present time, which will separate in the future" (a saying of  Bertrand Russell) Does science say that the beings that created it are unimportant?

Free will: Do people lack all free will -- are their actions predetermined by their genetic make-up, or their psychological background (two modern points of view). Or do people have a real opportunity to make an impact on the world, and to be responsible for their actions.

The older science of the enlightenment had suggested a knowable and harmonious universe, in which clear-thinking  human beings could make rational decisions to reach a better future.  The new science suggested that we do not know the universe, that what we know suggests a bloody struggle, and that human beings take part in that struggle because their minds are clouded by unconscious motivations.

F. Problems of Rational Thought & Philosophy

Philosophers and artists increasingly became aware of these basic problems -- the problem of modern humanity. We had lost faith, but what did we have to replace it?

Auguste Comte (1798-1857)

The Positive Philosophy 1830-1842 - saw science as the highest human achievement.

Frederich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

Beyond Good and Evil 1886 -- we should act rather than think.

III. Religion in the 19th Century

A. The Attack on Religion

The was a continuing intellectual attacks on Christianity, and other forms of traditional religion, in 19th century:

  • David Friedrich Strauss (1808-1874): Life of Jesus 1835 - denied Jesus existed.
  • Liberals attacked the Church as an Ancien Regime supporter.
  • Nationalists attacked Catholicism as non-national. Kulturkampf in Germany in 1873-
  • Jewish reformers objected to the keeping of the old Torah laws.
  • Science was seen as removing the need for God.

All this created a climate in which God and Faith were seen as irrelevant.

B. Judaism in the 19th Century

  • The Haskallah [Jewish Enlightenment]
  • Reform Judaism tried to treat Jewish Religion as a kind of ethical code.
  • Origin of Modern Orthodoxy in Germany.
  • Creation of non-religious Yiddish culture in eastern Europe and the US..

C. Protestantism

  • Some mainstream churches adopted and assimilated much of the challenge of the non-religious critics.
  • Protestants in Europe also developed a "Neo-orthodox" response to the challenge -- which affirmed the importance of faith over reason.
  • Evangelical Protestants in America came to emphasize Biblical literalism.

D. The Anglo-Catholic Movement

  • Oxford Movement
  • Attempt to overcome ossification of Protestantism.

E. The Roman Church and the Modern World

Pius IX (1846-1878): A Conservative

  • Decree on Immaculate Conception 1856: a test run for infallibility
  • Syllabus of Errors 1864: The pope opposed "Liberalism, Capitalism, Socialism, and modern science."
  • Vatican Council I 1870: Papal Infallibility: Opposed by many - the "inopportunists." Many writers say it says Pope is infallible when speaking officially: it is in fact more restricted than this.
  • The real new power of the pope was that he began to appoint more and more of the world's bishops.

Leo XIII (1878-1903): A Liberal?

  • Rerum Novarum 1891 The Pope liberalizes -- opposes modern capitalism, and socialism, But faces modern world and supports Catholic trade unions.

Pius X (1903-1914)

  • Extends communion to children (First Communion and all that)
  • But condemns Catholic Modernism.

Theology

  • Higher Criticism
  • Evolution
  • Thomism - the Catholic response

Centralization of the Church

  • Popularity of the Pope: "The Prisoner of the Vatican"
  • Code of Canon Law 1911
  • Appointment of bishops by Rome

Spirituality

Marian Apparitions: Very striking spect of modern RC spirituality. -another rejection of rationality. Not an essential part of the Faith.

  • Lourdes - 1858- St Bernadette
  • Fatima - 1911

Saints - John Bosco, Maria Goretti

England - John Newman, Gerard Manley Hopkins

The Catholic Worker

IV.  The First World War:  Introduction

A. 1815-1914: A Century of Peace and Prosperity

For most of period balance of power works in Europe. There were no major wars. People were optimistic about progress.

B. 1870-1914 New Problems

  • Differing rates of industrial development
  • Nationalism in many countries.
  • Emergence of Germany as the most powerful state in Europe -- this was probably the factor which most destabilized the situation.

V. Causes of War 1: The Alliance System

The "Alliance System" was a long term result  of the Franco-Prussian War, and a direct result of the way Germany was unified. Bismarck had  unified Germany by uniting it against France, and the new German Empire had been proclaimed not in Germany, but in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. France had to surrender to the new Germany, the area known as Alsace-Lorraine..

After 1870, Germany was a military and increasingly a militaristic power, while France openly wanted revenge and the return of Alsace-Lorraine.

Another result was that Britain took no major part in  European Politics for most of the late 19th Century. This "Splendid Isolation" was possible as Britain's major historic foe, France, was not powerful.

A. The Creation of the Triple Alliance

Bismarck's Policy 1870-1890

Bismarck did not want to expand Germany any more. He said it was satiated. He wanted peace in which to build up Germany. But he had to try to keep France isolated. He did this by attempting to isolate France, and for the most part Bismarck succeeded in keeping the other major power either friendly to Germany, or neutral. His strategy was a series of alliances and treaties. The crucial issue for Germany was to make sure Russia (in the east) and France (to the west) were not allies - since any war would then have to be fought on two fronts.

The Three Emperor's League 1873-1878

Austria, Russia and Germany. The problem was a conflict between Austria and Russia over the Balkans [see "Eastern Question" below.] The League failed at the Congress of Berlin in 1878

Building of the Triple Alliance

This was a more successful effort at creating an alliance. The Dual Alliance was made with Austria/Hungary in 1879. Bismarck then got Austria and Italy  to agree that each will defend the other if one is attacked in 1882. This Triple Alliance stuck until 1914. (Germany, Austria/Hungary, Italy.)

BUT BISMARCK DID NOT FORGET RUSSIA

The Reinsurance Treaty 1887 was a secret treaty between Germany and Russia that neither would attack the other.

The whole system of secret alliances depended very largely on Bismarck personally.

B. Building of the Triple Entente

France and Russia

France was isolated  until 1890. At that time Kaiser Wilhelm II (1888-1918) dismissed Bismarck  to try to conciliate socialists in the Reichstag.  [Wilhelm I has a a reputation as having a deficient character -- envious of his Grandmother (Queen Victoria) and  bombastic.] The new chancellor was Gen. Leo von Caprivi, who was not as competent as Bismarck.

The new regime in Germany forgot, it seems, to renew the Reinsurance treaty with Russia.

France took the opportunity to woo Russia, and in 1894 France and Russia become Allies.

Germany and Britain

Britain was out of European power politics and concentrated on her overseas empire. But Britain began to get very worried about the rising power of Germany -- the Kaiser was into saber rattling. He kept saying he wanted to overtake Britain in trade and militarily. In 1896 he sent the leader of the South African Boers the "Kruger telegram,"   in which he supported a group fighting Britain.

In 1898 the building up of the German Navy begins, and there was an arms race. There was a period of increasing tension between Britain and Germany, who up until then had look kindly on each other.

We can see this in  popular literature: English novels begin to show Germany as the main aggressor.  The German press showed Britain as hindering Germany's rightful development.

Britain Draws Closer to France and Russia

Even though they were traditional rivals, they settled outstanding colonial disputes. In 1904 an Entente Cordiale (friendly understanding) was reached.  By 1907, Britain was so worried about Germany, in allied with Russia (another old enemy -- it had been fought furing the Crimean War in 1851), and the Triple Entente was created (France, Russia, Britain).

The Alliance System and War

By 1907 Europe was in two armed camps and Bismarck's worst dreams were realized: Germany had enemies on East and West. Origin was in Germany's attempt to restrain France. This ensured, or made it more likely that any war that broke out would be a general war.

VI. Causes of War 2: The Eastern Question

We saw in previous sections that Nationalism succeeded in uniting ethnic groups which were split into lots of small statelets -- hence the creation of Germany and Italy.   But in the older dynastic empires, nationalism was a disintegrating force.

The immediate cause of World War I, was neither external imperialism, nor the Alliances of the major powers, but the problems of two dying empires.

A. Austria-Hungary

Austria was badly effected by Austro-Prussian War of 1866, and in 1867 in the Ausgleich (Compromise), it split into a "Dual Monarchy," in which Germans ruled one half and Magyars (Hungarians) ruled the other.

The Hungarians were thus given power, but all the other national ethnic groups remained subordinate.

Nationalities in Austria: Germans, Italians, Czechs, (Moravians), Poles, Slovenes, Jews.
Nationalities in Hungary: Magyars, Slovaks, Ruthenians/Ukrainians, Croats, Serbs, Romanians.

Many of these groups had middle class politicians who agitated for there own wanted national states.

The government response was to promote the idea that the Slavic groups could be united under the rule of the Habsburgs - so-called Austro-Slavism.

The real problem was what to do about the new National states in the Balkans, such as Serbia after 1878, which wanted to "unite" with Slavs in the Austrian Empire?  

B. Ottoman Turkey

The Ottomans had been a great Power but by 19th century there was a fairly corrupt court in Istanbul and the Ottoman Empire was beginning to break up in Africa, and Europe.

  • Greece had become independent in 1821
  • Serbia 1878
  • Walachia/Romania
  • Bulgaria

Both Austria and Russian were interested in the area.  Austria because it wanted to prevent its own Slavic peoples seeking self-rule, and Russia because of an ideology of   Pan-Slavism, and because of a long term goal to control Istanbul, and thus have easy access to the Mediterranean from its Black Sea ports.

C. Trouble in the Balkans.

The "Eastern Question" focused on the  Balkans as a place with:

  • A lot of national struggles.
  • Possible conflict between Austria and Russia.

There were a series of "International Incidents" leading up to the War, many of them involving the Balkans in some way.

  • 1908 - Bosnian Crisis.
  • First (1905) and Second (1911) Morocco Crises [Not a Balkan issue]
  • 1911 Italy attacks Turkey.
  • 1912 Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria and Montenegro attack Turkey.
  • 1913 Serbia vs. Bulgaria.

We are at the eve of 1914

VII. Causes of War 3: The Domestic Situation in the Major Powers

There is some indication that domestic problems led many groups to think that a short war would really help clear the air.

A. Britain 1900-1914

  • Problems with Trade Unions
  • Women's Suffrage
  • Ireland

Perhaps a war would make people rally round the flag.

B. France

The Third Republic, the French government after 1871, was the longest lasting French governmental form since 1789, but only because no one could agree on who should be king -- Bourbon, Orleanist, or Bonapartist. There was a  massive division between the Left and Right.

  • The Dreyfus Affair, in which a French military officer was falsely accused of being a traitor, split France. The Catholic conservative  Anti-Semitic "Anti-Drefusyards" were opposed by the Liberals.

There was, on all sides,  a strong feeling that France should get Alsace-Lorraine back from Germany.

C. Italy

  • North/South division.
  • Catholics vs.Liberal  State supporters. (The pope even forbade Catholics to vote.)
  • Class divisions

D. Austria

Although, in the end, it was Austria which began the war, its domestic policy called for peace.

E. Serbia

Serbia was dominated by Nationalist politicians who, while protesting the government of Serbs in the Austrian Empire, was willing to fight, and indeed succeed, in establishing Serbian control over areas occupied by Macedonians and Albanians. It was a Serbian government agent who assassinated Archduke Franz-Ferdinand and began the series of incidents which led to war.

F. Russia

Russia had been defeated by Japan in 1905, and the government did not want war, but was impelled to "protect its interests.".

G. Germany - Did Junker's cause war?

Germany was unified by "blood and iron", and this gives the army tremendous cultural prestige.

On the other hand, there was a great deal of Popular Nationalism in Germany, a lot of pride in Germany's great success, and popular pressure for an Arms Race, especially naval.

The Junker Class and Fischer Thesis

After the War, many historians decided that Germany should not have been blamed for the war -- as was done in the Treaty of Versailles.

Fritz Fischer, a German historians, in  1961 suggested that the Junker class (the landed nobility of Prussia), in order to keep power (away from the business classes and the working class), deliberately promoted the arms race. But by 1914 it was getting too expensive. Therefore went to war to stop the build up and hopefully to dominate Europe.

H. Common Issues in Many Countries

All states had enthusiasts for war. All thought it would help with domestic problems. This is hard to explain but it seems that everyone wanted a war. [Can we bring in Darwinism etc - a certain social hardness]

No-one in 1914 knew what the war would be like. All battle plans were for a four month war. The War was in fact to mark the great divide in European history.

The outbreak was greeted with joy.

VIII.  The Outbreak of War

Many People could see a war coming. There were lots of little incidents. The assassination Sarajevo was just a spark. The Austrian Crown Prince (i.e. the heir to the throne), Archduke Ferdinand Assassinated in Sarajevo by Black Hand operative on 28 June, 1914.

War Calculations

Should Austria go to war with Serbia? The Alliances did not kick in for an aggressive war. Serbia was conciliatory to Austrian demands, but if Austria could conquer Serbia, it might get some stability in the Balkans.  Germany pushed Austria by promising support -- the so-called "Blank Check" -- and Austria decided to attack one month later -- 24 July, 1914.

Mobilization began 30 July. This is really important - mobilization was necessary given the new industrial technology of war and given the military build up. But once started, it was hard to stop.

Russia came to the aid Serbia.

Germany and France get pulled in.

As soon as Germany realized a war was inevitable, it had to be prepared to strike first. Germany invades France through Belgium -- Aug 1 & 3, 1914.

Britain was the official protector of Belgium, so it declared,. Aug 4, 1914

Italy, however, said the Triple Alliance was defensive, and since Germany and Austria attacked she will not fight!

IX. The Course of the War

In dealing with WWI -- known as the Great War until the Second World War. For first time in course we are dealing with living history. 1914 is only 85 years away. There are still people alive who were active in the war. [My grandfather fought at the Somme in 1916!]

Kaiser William II's opposition to England and support for Austria.

A. Initial Attack

The Schlieffen Plan 1905

Count Alfred von Schlieffen (1833-1913) -- Head of German Staff  1891-1906 -- had proposed a military plan that should have ensured German success. The goal was to defeat France quickly, so that Russia could be fought with all forces. [Russia was harder to defeat because of its sheer size in geography and population.]

Part of the plan was to allow France to penetrate into German territory, and then trap the French Army by invading through Belgium. [Like a revolving door.] But the initial German attack was stalled. General Helmuth von Moltke not a great general; he made the German defense too strong so that the French Army did not penetrate Germany; and the Belgians put up a resistance that let France and Britain get troops up and ready.

B. The Western Front

When the German advance was stopped, at The Marne September 1914, a stable Front   was established from  the Channel to Switzerland -- one long set of lines. [It was closer enough to Paris that soldier could take taxis to the front!]

Trench warfare -- which had been seen in American Civil War -- unleashed new horrors into the annals of warfare.

New Weapons

  • Machine Guns made cavalry redundant
  • Later on Tanks -- after 1916 -- they made Trench warfare impossible in later wars.
  • Chemical Weapons - Mustard Gas
  • New Diseases - Shell Shock

Great Battles

  • Verdun - Feb -Dec 1916 10 months - "They Shall not Pass"
  • The Somme Jul-Nov 1916 Bombardment of German Lines for days. Did not work. British Troops go over the top - perhaps 60,000 killed in first hour
  • Jutland 1916 -- A stand-off - sea power was not relevant in this war after all the efforts on building up navies!

C. The Eastern Front

Germany wins -  Serbia, Russia, Rumania all defeated.

  • Russian Attack
  • Tannenburg 1914 - Lead by Ludendorff
  • German Attack 1915

The Russian Revolution. 1917 (March and November).

  • Russians send Lenin to Petrograd.
  • Armistice 1917.
  • Treaty of Brest-Litovsk March 3 1918: Germany does not treat Russia leniently -- it demanded huge territorial concessions.

D. Other Fronts

Most action was on the Western and Eastern fronts, but there were other aspects to the War.

  • Austria-Italy (eventually Italy entered on the side of Britain/France/Russia. It was the only country Austria could beat.)
  • Turkey: Gallipoli
  • The Arab World
  • Colonial Wars
    • East Africa - (The African Queen)
    • The Pacific

E. The Home Front

Popular Support:  Most people ion the various countries saw the war in nationalistic/patriotic  terms -- White Feathers were given to non-fighting men in Britain

Total War and Economic Mobilization: Mobilizing for total war -- the model first used by the Committee of Public Safety during the French Revolution.

  • Factories
  • Munitions
  • Pub hours in England were shortened
  • Rationing - especially harsh in Germany

Total control of economic and social life to obtain a common goal strengthened socialist ideals.

Labor shortages brought about benefits for organized labor.

Role of Women: Changes drastically as women enter about force. The Right to vote was granted after the war to women in Britain and Germany and Austria.

F. German Collapse at the Western Front

Germany had won against Russia, but by 1916 morale had declined, especially in Germany. Then the United States entered the war.

  • The "Lusitania" 1915 1,200 die (inc. 118 Americans), and this altered American public opinion.
  • The Zimmerman Telegram
  • America Enters the War 1917:

Germany had to act quickly before the US forces built up.

  • The Spring Offensive by Germany -- March  1918
  • The Collapse - German resources exhausted
  • The Armistice - November 1918

End Result: 8.5 Million dead, 37 Million casualties

H. Warfare in the Modern Ages

Nature of the War Changes

  • Trench Warfare
  • Chemical Warfare: Mustard Gas
  • Air Warfare -- [Von Richthofen -- Is dying better when it's glamorous?]

Response to Horror of War

Wilfred Owen: Dulce et Decorum Est, Pro Patria Mori

What country was worth dying for in 1914?

X. The Treaty of Versailles 1919

A. Nature Of German Surrender

Note that Although Germany was not instigator of the War, it was regard as main defeated power.

  • There was not a  complete defeat.
  • Military Defeat not acknowledged by the army.
  • The general insisted that the Civil Government bears the stain.

All this was to make things hard for the new postwar government.

B. Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924)

The Fourteen Points Jan 8 1918

Self Determination - was it a good idea (think of problems with this in Eastern Europe)

C. Aims of Other Allies

Britain: David Lloyd George (1863-1945): Had to bow to public opinion at home, and they wanted reparations.

France: Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929): Wanted the destruction of German Threat and Reparations.

D. Provisions - The New Europe

Unlike the Congress of Vienna in 1915, the Versailles settlement attempted to redraw the map of Europe, and to punish the vanquished.

  • Nine new "nation-states":  Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Austria, Hungary.
  • France - gains Alsace-Lorraine
  • Germany - loses territory
    • Alsace-Lorraine
    • Saarland
    • A lot of Prussia to Poland
  • Austria-Hungary: An Empire disappears
    • Austria - a small rump state
    • Hungary - another small rump monarchy for a while (problem - many Hungarians in Transylvania, which was given to Romania).
    • Czechoslovakia - the democratic success story -Czechs, Slovaks, Moravians (Problem - Germans in Sudetenland)
    • There was a loss of coherence in middle Danube region - trade barriers go up.
  • Balkans
    • Yugoslavia - Serbia grows and gains a little empire over Croats, Slovenes. Dalmatians, Macedonians, Bosnians, some Hungarians, and Montenegrins (Problem - Albanians.)
  • Rumania - gains territory
    • Transylvania + Moldavia + many Hungarians. Gypsies ignored.
  • Bulgaria
    • Loses land to Yugoslavia and Greece
  • Russia -- loses a lot of land [Will look at Russian Revolution in next section.]
    • Finland
    • Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania
    • Poland [The Poles actually conquer a large  part of Belorussia -- so much so that half the population of New Poland was not Polish.]
    • Moldavia to Rumania
  • Colonies: German colonies are divided up.
    • Britain gets African lands
    • Japan gets Asian lands.
  • Ottoman Empire
    • Britain and France divided the Middle East.
    • Britain renegades on promise made to Arabs.
    • Greece tried to conquer Western Anatolia
    • The New Turkey, under the leadership of Kemal Ataturk repulsed the Greeks, and then drove out the Greeks from cities they had lived in for millennia.

E. Provisions - Reparations

  • Germany was to pay $5 Billion per year until 1921
  • Then a fixed sum which would be paid off over 30 years.
  • This was never paid, and could not be, but it infuriated the Germans.

F. Provisions - The League of Nations

  • A League of Nations to be established to govern later disputes.
  • Germany and Russia excluded.
  • USA would not join.
  • It never worked.

G. Clause 231 - The War Guilt Clause

"The Allied and Associated Governments affirm, and Germany accepts, the responsibility for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies"

Criticized By John Maynard Keynes in The Economic Consequences of Peace 1921. Led to UK and USA really leaving France to enforce the Treaty, which was not all bad. France was  unable to this.

Overall, the Versailles settlement managed to set the scene for another, even more destructive, war within 25 years.

Web Exercise

The History of Disillusionment

The themes of this section have addressed the ways in which the self-confidant and aggressive European culture of the mid-19th century began to face problems by the beginning of the 20th century -- problems within its basic belief structures, and in its political strutcures. One result was the disillusionment we find in such poets as Wilfred Own, or in artistic movements such as Surrealism. To understand the later appeal of Bolshevism and Fascism it is important to grasp this aspect of European cultural history.

These considerations do not really apply to the United States, however, which continued (with a real downturn during the Depression) its path of success after success.  It was only after the Vietnam War that a fairly large section of the population became disillusioned with the "American Dream."

For this web exercise, you should seek out and find websites which address the protest movements of the 1960s and 1970s andf compare what you fins with the texts you have looked at for the period around World War I. [Look for websites on, for example, Bob Dylan, "The Sixties," Then Anti-Vietnam war movement, or even Punk Rock.]

Try to work out what, exactly, the peopel who were disillusioned were disillusioned about. Do you think "disillusionment" is just a phase within a culture, or   does it represent a time of fundamental cultural change?

Discussion Questions

Cultural Conflict

What does Matthew Arnold lament in Dover Beach?

How did new ideas in biology challenge the Newtonian view of nature?

What were the implication of Social Darwinism for politics?

What ideas of Freud seem to conflict withLiberal ideas about the nature of how human beings act in politics and in the economy?

How did art and poetry reflect on the "end of reason"?

WWI

What was more important in the outbreak of war -- the Alliance System, or the Eastern Question?

What experiences most focused the attention of the war poets?

Was Germany treated fairly in 1919?

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created 9/11/1998 : revised 5/22/1999