World War I

At the turn of the 20th century, the nations of Europe had been largely at peace with one another for nearly 30 years. This was no accident. Efforts to outlaw war and achieve a permanent peace had been gaining momentum in Europe since the middle of the 19th century. By 1900, hundreds of peace organizations were active. In addition, peace congresses convened regularly between 1843 and 1907. Some Europeans believed that progress had made war a thing of the past. Yet in a little more than a decade, a massive war would engulf Europe and spread across the globe.

## Causes

While peace and harmony characterized much of Europe at the beginning of the 1900s, there were less visible—and darker—forces at work as well. Below the surface of peace and goodwill, Europe witnessed several gradual developments that would ultimately help propel the continent into war.

### Rising Tensions in Europe

One such development was the growth of nationalism. Nationalism can serve as a unifying force within a country. However, it also can cause intense competition among nations, with each seeking to overpower the other. By the turn of the 20th century, a fierce rivalry indeed had developed among Europe’s Great Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, and France.

This rivalry stemmed from competition among nations for materials and markets, and territorial disputes.

Within the Balkans, the intense nationalism of Serbs, Bulgarians, Romanians and other ethnic groups led to demands for independence.

### Imperialism and Militarism

A force that helped set the stage for war in Europe was imperialism. The nations of Europe competed fiercely for colonies in Africa and Asia. As they continued to compete, their sense of rivalry and mistrust of one another grew.

Another troubling development throughout the early years of the 20th century was the rise of a dangerous European arms race. The nations of Europe believed that they needed to have a powerful military. By 114, all the great powers had large standing armies to quickly movilize in case of war. The policy of glorifying military power and keeping an army prepared for war was known as militarism. Having a large and strong standing army made citizens feel patriotic.

### Tangled Alliances

Growing rivalries and mutual mistrust had led to the creation of several military alliances among the Great Powers as early as the 1870s.

* 1879 - Germany and Austria-Hungary form the Dual Alliance
* 1882 - Italy joins to form the Triple Alliance
* 1892-1894 - After being abandoned by Germany in a pact, Russia forms an alliance with France
* 1907 - Alarmed by Germany's shipbuilding to create a massive navy fleet, Britain joins Russia and France to form the Triple Entente

By 1907, two rival camps existed in Europe. On one side was the Triple Alliance—Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. On the other side was the Triple Entente—Great Britain, France, and Russia. A dispute between two rival powers could draw all the nations of Europe into war.

### Crisis in the Balkans

Conflict was most likely to ignite in the Balkans, known as the "powderkeg" of Europe.

By 1900s, many Balkan groups had freed themselves from the Ottoman Empire, while others were still struggling for independence. One of these groups, Serbia, wanted to extend its borders, seeking to form a slavic state. Russia supported Serbian nationalism.

In 1908, Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina, two areas with large slavic population. Serbia was outraged and tensions grew.

## The Great War Begins

On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife visited Sarajevo (Bosnia) and were shot and killed by a Serbian activist.

On July 23, Austria presented Serbia with an ultimatum containing numerous demands. Serbia knew that refusing would lead to war, so they complied with most demands and agreed to settle the rest in an international conference. Austria was not willing to negotiate, so they declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914. Russia ordered the mobilization of troops towards the Austrian border.

Knowing Austria's ally would soon mobilize, Russia sent troops to the German borders. Germany declared war on Russia on August 1 and on France two days later. Soon afterward, Britain declared war on Germany.

Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary) in the hopes of regaining lost territory.

Japan and Italy joined the Allies (Britain, Russia and France). Even though Italy had been allied with the Central Powers, they joined the opposite faction after accusing their former allies of unjustly starting a war.

### The Western Front

In the late summer of 1914, millions of soldiers marched happily off to battle, convinced that the war would be short. As the summer turned to fall, the war turned into a long and bloody stalemate, or deadlock, along the battlefields of France. This deadlocked region in northern France became known as the Western Front.

Facing a war on two fronts, Germany had developed a battle strategy known as the Schlieffen Plan. The plan called for attacking and defeating France in the west and then rushing east to fight Russia. The Germans felt they could carry out such a plan because Russia lagged behind the rest of Europe in its railroad system and thus would take longer to supply its front lines. Nonetheless, speed was vital to the Schlieffen Plan. German leaders knew they needed to win a quick victory over France.

Early on, it appeared that Germany would do just that. By early September, German forces had swept into France and reached the outskirts of Paris. On September 5, however, the Allies regrouped and attacked the Germans northeast of Paris, in the valley of the Marne River.

Although it was only the first major clash on the Western Front, the First Battle of the Marne was perhaps the single most important event of the war. The defeat of the Germans left the Schlieffen Plan in ruins. A quick victory in the west no longer seemed possible. In the east, Russian forces had already invaded Germany. Germany was going to have to fight a long war on two fronts. Realizing this, the German high command sent thousands of troops from France to aid its forces in the east. Meanwhile, the war on the Western Front settled into a stalemate.

Along the French and German border, the battle became a trench war, as both sides stayed in trenches, with little advancement. The actual fighting occured in the middle area, known as "no man's land." Life in the trenches was pure misery. “The men slept in mud, washed in mud, ate mud, and dreamed mud,” wrote one soldier. The trenches swarmed with rats. Fresh food was nonexistent. Sleep was nearly impossible.

Military strategists were at a loss. New tools of war—machine guns, poison gas, armored tanks, larger artillery—had not delivered the fast-moving war they had expected. All this new technology did was kill greater numbers of people more effectively.

### The Eastern Front

This area was a stretch of battlefield along the German and Russian border. Here, Russians and Serbs battled Germans and Austro-Hungarians. The war in the east was a more mobile war than that in the west. Here too, however, slaughter and stalemate were common.

At the beginning of the war, Russian forces had launched an attack into both Austria and Germany. At the end of August, Germany counterattacked near the town of Tannenberg. During the four-day battle, the Germans crushed the invading Russian army and drove it into full retreat. More than 30,000 Russian soldiers were killed.

By 1916, Russia's war effort was near collapse. Poorly industrializez Russia struggled to get supplies from their allies in the west, as Germany and the Ottomans controled every access point. As a result, the Russian army was continually short on food, guns, ammunition, clothes, boots, and blankets.

### A Global Conflict

World War I was much more than a European conflict. Fighting spread to Africa and Asia as Europe's colonies got involved. Australia and Japan, for example, entered the war on the Allies’ side, while India supplied troops to fight alongside their British rulers. Meanwhile, the Ottoman Turks and later Bulgaria allied themselves with Germany and the Central Powers. As the war promised to be a grim, drawn-out affair, all the Great Powers looked for other allies around the globe to tip the balance. They also sought new war fronts on which to achieve victory.

In various parts of Asia and Africa, Germany’s colonial possessions came under assault. The Japanese quickly overran German outposts in China. They also captured Germany’s Pacific island colonies. English and French troops attacked Germany’s four African possessions. They seized control of three. Elsewhere in Asia and Africa, the British and French recruited subjects in their colonies for the struggle. Fighting troops as well as laborers came from India, South Africa, Senegal, Egypt, Algeria, and Indochina. Many fought and died on the battlefield. Others worked to keep the front lines supplied.

#### America Joins the Fight

Germany had intensified the submarine warfare in the Atlantic Ocean. They would sink any ship in the waters around Britain. The Germans sunk three American ships in this unrestricted submarine warfare.

Later, the U.S. intercepted a telegram stating that Germany would help Mexico "reconquer" lost land to the U.S. if they allied with Germany.

On April 2, 1917, the U.S. declared war on Germany.

## A Total War

Countries devoted all their resources to the war effort. In each country, the government took control of the economy. They told factories what to produce and how much. Governments also turned to rationing food to supply soldiers.

Antiwar activity was suppressed, censoring news about the war ans using propaganda to keep up morale and support for the war.

Thousands of women replaced men in factories, offices and shops. Although most women left the work force when the was ended, they changes people's views of what women were capable of doing.

## The End of the War

With the United States finally in the war, the balance, it seemed, was about to tip in the Allies’ favor. Before that happened, however, events in Russia gave Germany a victory on the Eastern Front, and new hope for winning the conflict.

The Russian Revolutions and civil unrest forced Russia out of the war. In 1917, with Lenin in power, Russia and Germany signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk to end the war between them. Russia had finally withdrawn for World War I.

In 1918, the Central Powers collapsed. With Russia out of the way, Germany turned to France for a final, massive attack. Although the plan seemed to be successful, the German army was weakened and the Allies had now the support of fresh U.S. troops. German soldiers mutinied and the kaiser stepped down. Germany declared itself a republic. The new government met with France and signed an armistice on November 11.

### The Treaty of Versailles

On January 18, 1919, a conference to establish those terms began at the Palace of Versailles, outside Paris. Attending the talks, known as the Paris Peace Conference, were delegates representing 32 countries. For one year, this conference would be the scene of vigorous, often bitter debate. The Allied powers struggled to solve their conflicting aims in various peace treaties.

Despite representatives from numerous countries, the meeting’s major decisions were hammered out by a group known as the Big Four: Woodrow Wilson of the United States, Georges Clemenceau of France, David Lloyd George of Great Britain, and Vittorio Orlando of Italy. Russia, in the grip of civil war, was not represented. Neither were Germany and its allies.

In January 1918, while the war was still raging, President Wilson had drawn up a series of peace proposals. Known as the Fourteen Points, they outlined a plan for achieving a just and lasting peace. These included the creation of new nations and an international association of countries to solve world conflicts.

As the Paris Peace Conference opened, Britain and France showed little sign of agreeing to Wilson’s vision of peace. Both nations were concerned with national security. They also wanted to strip Germany of its war-making power.

The Treaty of Versailles between Germany and the Allied powers was signed on June 28, 1919, five years to the day after Franz Ferdinand’s assassination in Sarajevo. The treaty created the League of Nations and severely punished Germany. As sole responsible for the war, Germany lost substantial territory, had to pay reparations, and was not allowed to develop their military.

## The Legacy of the War

World War I was, in many ways, a new kind of war. It involved the use of new technologies. It ushered in the notion of war on a grand and global scale. It also left behind a landscape of death and destruction such as was never before seen.

Both sides in World War I paid a tremendous price in terms of human life. About 8.5 million soldiers died as a result of the war. Another 21 million were wounded. In addition, the war led to the death of countless civilians by way of starvation, disease, and slaughter. Taken together, these figures spelled tragedy—an entire generation of Europeans wiped out.

The war also had a devastating economic impact on Europe. The great conflict drained the treasuries of European countries. The war also destroyed acres of farmland, as well as homes, villages, and towns.

The enormous suffering that resulted from the Great War left a deep mark on Western society as well. A sense of disillusionment settled over the survivors. The insecurity and despair that many people experienced are reflected in the art and literature of the time.