World War One
INTO
Geographical Europe: Do Ma of Europe. pg 555 Home work is this, 566 fighting overthere to
576 the end of the chapter
Homework 574 - 576
1914-1918
The president is Woodrow Wilson.
Interestgly no one knows why WWI
happened. That is the tragedy. Men had created all the machines of the
industrial revolution and then boom.
The Western Front
By November, when the winter rains began
and all got muddy, the war of rapid movement turned into slogging matches
between entrenched armies. The
Shlieffen Plan was dead.
In the first four days of fighting the
French lost 140,000 men. In the first
16 months the French and german had each had about 600,000 killed. But the real horror of the war was trenches.
Draw
the Trenches and explain the difficulty.
Some attempts to advance (Verdun for
example at 336,000) cost hundreds of thousands of lives and went nowhere. People were stuck and heroism was dead. There was just stupidity and pointlessness.
and so the Battle lines were drawn for 4
years.
Show the transparence of the front in
1914 - 18.
We’ll look at several causes of WWI, but
to me the most interesting is the concept of National character. This is the one we shall emphasize.
We shall look at that then other , immediate causes of the war, and then
the war itself, and finally the results of the war.
If this is so then the nations, were
real entities. Part of this was their
history, their culture, their food, their race, their language. It is all summarized as their National
Character. America also has a national
character.
I’ve chosen the most commonly chosen philosophers that reveal
their national characters.
This is nationalism, the result of
napoleon, writ large. We must say that
war is a great equalizer. It reduces
all to shambles. But before war and
after, the differences are strong.
If you go to France you will find the people mysterious and
rude. They don’t tolerate lessers like
the americans. They sit in cafes and
drink coffee and smoke artistically with their berets on.
The germans are very machine like. They follow the laws exactly. Tell of my experiences in Germany.
The Germans terrorize militaristically
and cruelly (as they do in WWII).
The British are nothing special. The british are a plain people with plain
food.
The English don’t have the draft during
WWi (the only country) as it wouldn’t be fair.
I haven’t been to russia, but it is
usally described as bleak. It has only
had maybe 10 years of democracy. It didn’t get rid of the middle ages system of
peasants and nobles until 1861. It has
often had bad cruel leaders.
The Russians always fight a tragic
stupid battle won by numbers and the fact that noone can endure the russians
painful lifes winter. Their misery
kills their enemies.
The Americans practicality makes them
want to stay out of this war of lunatics.
We shall see how such things effect the
military of countries. The french need
enthusiqasm and artistically bright clothes and nostalgic methods of fighting.
After 1917 the conflict of ideologies
supplemented that of nation states. Now
that is dead All the great 19th century
political ideals fought over were western.
OTHER REASONS FOR WAR
National character
The Austrians wanted to take the Serbs.
Russia said they’d back up the Serbs.
If so the Russians backed up the Serbs, the
Germans said they’d back up Austria.
France said that they’d back up Russia if they
were attacked by Germany.
If France attacked Germany then Italy would join
Germany.
England weren’t sure, but said they’d probably
back up France.
America Wanted nothing to do with the crazy
Europeans.
Draw a map that shows the racial divisions, and
Bosnia Herzogovina and Austria and Serbia.
DRAW Page 588 and do section 3
NEED BOOK TO DO PAGES
Bismarck had predicted that “Some damned foolish
thing in the balkans,” would ignite the next war. And it did.
The Actual Explosion
You could say the war started because of one
pistol shot.
It was the assasination of the Austrian heir
apparent, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, by
Serbian Nationalists on June 28, 1914.
Hungarian Austrian (Germanic) Empire said it was worried about separatists
and demanded that Serbia had to allow Austria to stop anti Austrian propaganda
and groups and that all Serb officials
who were anti Austria should be dismissed.
The Serbians were given 48 hours to reply.
Austria was sure it could beat Serbia and take
part of it.
When Austria had done its prior aggression, the
Kaiser said he would be there in “Shining Armor” to help his ally Austria. Russia could do nothing about this attack on
the Slavs by the Germanics as it had just been whooped by Japan.
At that point the drama was set.On July 23rd
Austria delivered an ultimatum to Serbia.
On July 26th the serbs rejected it, on July 28th Austria declared war on
Serbia, And on July 29th started their attack.
On July 30th
Russia ordered mobilization
against Austria. On July 31 Germany
told Russia to back down within 12 hours and say they’d done so.
On august 1st there was no reply from
Russia. Germany was sure that
Communists were causing problems in Russia and they wouldn’t fight well. In Berlin on August 1st crowds gathered
outside the Kaiser’s palace. In germany
the workers love of communism wasn’t as strong as their hate of Slavs.
The Kaiser
told his people that the “sword has been forced into our hand:. They waited nervously for a declaration and
then at 5 o’clock policemen at the palace anounced Men were to report for
service. The crowds immediately broke
into singing their national anthem “Now we thank our god”, people cheered
wildly and many suspected russian spies were beaten to death that and the next
days.
The Schlieffen Plan
Draw
a Map of Europe
The Schlieffen Plan was named after the
man who headed the German general staff from 1892 till 1905.
His
plan of attack assumed the Russians and the The French would join. And it figured that the best french troops
would go for an attack down the middle.
Therefore, he recommended, sending the best troops through Belgium and
down to Paris for a quick wipe out of France.
The
critical factor was time. They had 6
weeks to take france and get back to defend from Russia.
Remember
Neitsche? The German General was Von
Moltke. Von Moltke told King albert of
Belgium once, “Your Majesty cannot imagine the irresistible enthusiasm which
will permeate Germany on the Day”. The
german Army was invincible. Nothing
could stand up to the furor teutonicus; terribel destruction would mark its
path; its victory could not be in doubt.
The
German General was Von Moltke. He had
been under Schlieffen. There was a
chance to avert all out war. Britain
and France would possibly stay nuetral if France wasn’t attacked. The Kaiser was Excited as they could
concentrate their whole army on Russia.
Von
Moltke refused absolutely. For ten
years he had been preparing “the day” when he’d do the Schlieffen plan. He was ready for this plan that would lead
Germany to its final mastery of Europe.
When
told that war with France and England could be averted Von Moltke told the
Kaiser “Your Majesty, it cannot be done.
The deployment of millions cannot be improvised. If Your Majesty insists on leading the whole
army to the East it will not be an army ready for battle, but a disorganized
mob of armed men with no arrangements for supply. Those arrangements took a whole year of intricate labor to
complete. And once settled “he
finished” it cannot be altered”.
The
German people would not be robbed of their glory.
He
convinced the Kaiser. And on August
2nd, they had crossed into Nuetral Belgium illegally.
-The War-
The Belgians
The
King of Belgium was Albert. He had
asked that the Germans respect his countries nuetrality as it fought
France. Instead Germans told Albert
they intended to go to France through Belgium.
If uninterrupted, they would withdraw once they had taken France. It was said that this was necessary
defensively as the French had started the war by attacking them intellectually,
by no doubt planning to attack. If
Belgium refused they were to be devestated.
This was given to them on August 2nd as they were entering Belgium.
Little belgium wanted to be nuetral
because it was little.
King Albert had a big decision to
make. He wasn’t slated to be King. But the real heirs had died and he was
really well liked. He read alot and was
very energetic and never did the pomp of other royals and had a good marriage.
The
Belgium troops were not prepared for war.
The Generals had always believed the germans when they said they would
always respect little Belgiums nuetrality.
King Albert knew better as he had been to a dinner with the Kaiser and
Von Moltke where they had told him war with france was coming. Von Moltke told him, “Your Majesty cannot
imagine the irresistible enthusiasm which will permeate Germany on the
Day”. The german Army was
invincible. Nothing could stand up to
the furor teutonicus; terribel destruction would mark its path; its victory
could not be in doubt.
But King Albert couldn’t lead the
military unless there was war declared.
Good King Albert realized that once the Germans got into Belgium they wouldn’t
leave, they wanted to rule Europe. On
August second at 9pm in the palace he told the government. “Oour answer must be “NO” whatever the
consequences. Our duty is to defend our
territorial integrity. In this we must
not fail” But he said don’t be fooled
the war wil be grave and terrible.
Nervous germans needed to strike fast
and had always thought the Belgiums would be cowards and not fight. They tried to convince the Belgians they
meant no harm.
Belgium blew up its bridges and
railroads to slow the Germans.
The germans took two weeks to get
through Belgium. The world was stunned
and made proud by the little doomed Belgians defiance. Indeed their actions
delayed the Germans long enough for
the to counterattack by French reserves
on the German’s left.
But they didn’t fully counter and
destroy the Germans. This was because the
French had their best troops showing their Elan Vital by going up the middle
and they would not retreat as an evolving confident people or species would
never go back.
The Russians were very late
materializing (they still weren’t over their butt whipping by Japan) but they did get into Eastern Prussia and
this caused the Germans to take troops away from the West and put them towards
the East.
-
The Eastern Front
The Russians were incompetent and beaten
and so poorly supplied. They tried to
show they were serious by stopping the sale of Vodka in their country. Their nation earnings dropped by one
third. They had one victory against
Austria, but after that they fell back.
In 1915 The russians were pushed back into Russia and their casualties were
1 million.
They put together another huge army and
got back some of their losses, but Most of east4ern Europe (Finland, poland
ukraine and the baltic states became German satellites).
America
Enters
The unites
states enters even though Wilson campaigned on “he kept us out of war”.
Why
1 – The
Lusitania. 1,198 people (128 Americans)
die
2 – The
Zimmerman note
We are fresh we kick butt.
Results of WWI
Wilson’s 14 points
1) League
of Nations
Wilsons 14 points appealed to oppressed people
everywhere. It was a rational plan for
remaking the world on sane principles.
1.
Nations should engage only in open covenants (agreements) openly arrived
at. There should be no secret treaties
among nations.
2. Freedom of the seas should be maintained for
all.
3. Tarriffs and other economic barriers among
nations should be lowered or abolished in order to foster free trade.
4. Arms should be reduced “to the lowest point
consistent with domestic safety” in order to lessen militaristic impulses
during diplomatic crises.
5. Colonialism policies should consider the
interests of the colonial peoples as well as the interests of the imperialist
powers.
The most important points are:
Self
determination
The next points dealt with specific boundary
changes. Wilson based these provisions
on the principle of self-determination “along historically established lines of
nationality.” In other words, national groups who claimed distinct ethnic
identities were to decide for themsleves what nations they would belong to.
League of
nations
The 14th and capstone was the league of
nations.
The leage was to be an international body that
would work toward global disarmament, self determination for subject peoples,
and better relations between workers and owners.
Its members would pledge to honor one another’s
territory and independence, and to submit to discussion, arbitration and a
cooling off period if war iwith another member seemed imminent.
Unlike earlier alliances, it would allow all
countries in it.
European reaction
The winners
wanted : Colonies and revenge.
colonies
He found out that the French and British leaders
of the peace treaty conference were more interested in imperialism and revenge
than Wilsons rational plans to remake the world. They were all ready to carve up the colonial booty.
The ottoman empire had been defeated , was the
enemy and they were gonna take it all.
Syria and lebanon were given to France and
Palestine, Jordan and Iraq were given to Iraq.
Iraq had Kuwait divided out of it.
They were just “Mandates” meaning all
administration would be done by the European colonizers.
Revenge
The worst part was that the french wanted part of
Germany. They wanted their colonies and
to take some of their terrritory and for them to pay for the war.
Wilson said this will just lead to further war
(it did). You cant have the French rule
several million Germans. But the french
were more into passion and art and revenge than common sense.
The Germans also lost some territory to
Checkloslovakia and poland
The treaty also required that Germany repay much
of the cost of the war. They wanted $5
billion immediately and $32 billion plus interest two years later.
It also reduced their military.
The Japanese wanted parts of China that Germany
had controlled.
To get it passed he had to give in to the
romantic passions of the victors. He
had to give Part of China to Japan. He
had to allow revenge taken on Germany.
The Treaty of Versaille, finally signed in June,
1919, included only aobut four of the original Fourteen Points.
Many came back from the war sick of the insanity
of Europe and didn’t want any league that involved us in protecting them from
eachother.
And, in the end, Wilson was too stubborn to get
it passed in America. Henry Cabot Lodge
was his advesary.
American reaction
People wanted to stay out of the league of
nations because it maeant that we’de be tied to European security and Europe
was crazy.
Belief that people are
crazy
America
goes to war on FILM movie and our industrial strength.
Some call
it greed.
Result of WWI
1) WW2
2) UN