The Road to WWI

Homburg

American Studies

Emergence of Germany

• Germany united in 1871 and formed a nation with a growing population, wealth, industrial capacity, and military power.

• Austria-Hungary had been weakened by Nationalism

• French power was damaged by Franco-Prussian war (Germany gets Alsace-Lorraine)

• Bismarck sought to prevent an alliance between France and any other European power.

Otto von Bismarck Chancellor of Germany

Bismarck and Alliances

• In 1872 formed Three Emperor’s League (Germany, Russia and Austria-Hungary).

• Goal was to bring stability and avoid war• 1882 triple Alliance formed (Italy, Austria-

Hungary, and Germany)• Because of Italy's resentment towards

France they joined the Alliance even though it was with their former enemy—Austria-Hungary

• The Reinsurance Treaty of June 18, 1887 was an attempt by German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to continue to ally with Russia after the League of the Three Emperors had broken down

• Germany and Russia both agreed to observe neutrality should the other be involved in a war with a third country. Neutrality would not apply should Germany attack France or Russia attack Austria–Hungary.

Collapse of Bismarckian Alliances and Formation of Triple Entente

• Bismarck was fired by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1890. • Failed to renew alliance with Russia• the Russian leadership was alarmed at the

country's diplomatic isolation and entered the Franco-Russian Alliance in 1892

• Great Britain joined in the alliance with France and Russia because of the expansion of the German Navy into a battle fleet that could threaten British naval supremacy.

• Bismarck’s original peaceful alliance system was replaced with a dangerous one

Alliances and StrategiesThe goals of each of the alliance members• Britain – maintain continental balance and sea

superiority• France – confine Germany• Russia – expand if possible • Germany – solidify German-speaking peoples

and never fight on two fronts (West first and then East)

• Austria – hold everything together• Italy – try to solidify your own territory

Outbreak of War

• Balkan trigger– Serbs revolt/backed by

Russians– Austria suppressed Serbs– Serbian killed Austrian heir

• War (domino effect)– Austria declared war on Serbia– Russia declared war on Austria– Germany joined with Austria– France and Britain declared war on

Austria and Germany

Archduke Ferdinand on day of

assassination

Assassination of Franz Ferdinand

Gavrilo Princip

The Assassination

• Franz Ferdinand was invited to the opening of a hospital in Sarajevo

• The car's top was rolled back in order to allow the crowds a good view of its occupants.

• The seven conspirators lined the route. They were spaced out along the Appel Quay, each one with instructions to try to kill Franz Ferdinand when the royal car reached his position. The first conspirator on the route to see the royal car was Bosniak Muhamed Mehmedbašić. Standing by the Austro-Hungarian Bank, Mehmedbašić lost his nerve and allowed the car to pass without taking action. Mehmedbašić later said that a policeman was standing behind him and feared he would be arrested before he had a chance to throw his bomb.

• At 10:15 A.M., when the six car procession passed the central police station, nineteen-year-old student Nedeljko Čabrinović hurled a hand grenade at the Archduke's car. The driver accelerated when he saw the object flying towards him, but the bomb had a 10 second delay and exploded under the wheel of the third car. Two of the occupants, Eric von Merizzi and Count Ludwig Joseph von Boos-Waldeck were seriously wounded. About a dozen spectators were also hit by bomb shrapnel.

• After Čabrinović's bomb missed the Archduke's car, five other conspirators, including Princip, lost an opportunity to attack because of the heavy crowds and the high speed of the Archduke's car. To avoid capture, Čabrinović swallowed cyanide and jumped into the River Miljacka to make sure he died. The cyanide pill was expired and made him sick, but failed to kill him and the River Miljacka was only 13 centimetres (5 in) deep. A few seconds later he was hauled out and detained by police.

• Princip had gone into Moritz Schiller's cafe for a sandwich, having apparently given up, when he spotted Franz Ferdinand's car as it drove past, having taken the wrong turn. After realizing the mistake, the driver put his foot on the brake, and began to back up. In doing so the engine of the car stalled and the gears locked, giving Princip his opportunity. Princip stepped forward, drew his FN Model 1910 pistol, pistol-whipped a nearby pedestrian, and at a distance of about five feet, fired twice into the car. Franz Ferdinand was hit in the neck and Sophie (who instinctively covered Franz's body with her own after the first shot) in the abdomen, and they both died before 11:00 A.M.

Punishment

• Princip attempted suicide first with the use of his pistol after the assassination, then by ingesting cyanide. But he vomited the past-date poison (as did Čabrinović, leading the police to believe the group had been deceived and bought a much weaker poison). The pistol was wrestled from his hand before he had a chance to fire another shot.

• Princip was too young to receive the death penalty, being twenty-seven days short of his twentieth birthday at the time of the assassination. Instead, he received the maximum sentence of twenty years in prison.

History of the Balkans in 5 minutes

• “If there is ever another war in Europe, it will come out of some damned silly thing in the Balkans”. Otto von Bismarck

• 594 B.C.- Greek colonies first reported in the Balkans

• By 14 A.D.- Conquered by Rome. It is called Balkan= Hostile. Considered a good source for slaves. (Slave comes from the ethnic name: Slav)

• 1096-99: Conquered by crusaders. They thought the people were heathens.

• 1348-1370: ½ of population wiped out by Black Death.

• 1453: Conquered by Suleiman, a Muslim (Ottoman Turks)

• Religious conflict: – Bosnians- Islam becomes the dominant force– Serbs- Eastern Orthodox (persecuted)– Croats- Roman Catholic (persecuted)

• 1871-1914: Ottoman Empire loses Balkans to Austro-Hungarian Empire (Roman Catholics)– “get even time” for Croats– Serbs/Bosnians still persecuted– Bosnians become an ethnic minority– Serbia becomes independent

• June 1914: A Serbian kills the Archduke of Austria (Franz Ferdinand)– WWI starts– Serbia joins the Allies (UK, France, Russia,

US)– Bosnia/Croatia join the Axis (Germany,

Austria-Hungary, Italy

• 1919: Peace of Versailles– Ends WWI– Forms Yugoslavia

1992: Four new republics emerge:– Bosnia-Herzekovina, Croatia, Slovenia,

Macedonia

1994: Civil War– Serbs try ethnic cleansing of Muslims

Fin

WWI Stalemate and Life in the Trenches

Definition: Stalemate

• A situation in which no progress can be made or no advancement is possible

Schlieffen Plan

• Both sides originally believed that the Great War would be over quickly.

• German plan- Schlieffen Plan- Take Paris in 42 days, then attack Russia.

• The Schlieffen plan got off to a quick start with a German army invading Belgium to reach Paris, and then soon began to unravel.  

Trench Warfare

• New styles of warfare, like the use of gas and heavy artillery, produced new kinds of horror and unprecedented levels of suffering and death.

• When the German invasion of France failed to take Paris or destroy French and British resistance on the river Marne, stalemate quickly followed, and a line of trenches soon stretched along the war's Western Front from the Swiss Alps to the English Channel

• both sides targeted both civilians and military personnel, and mobilized men and resources at an unprecedented rate, the Great War was a "total war." 

• Total War: Mobilization of all available resources, whether human, industrial, agricultural, military, natural, technological, or otherwise

• By the war's end, each side had dug at least 12,000 miles of trenches.

America During WWI

In 1914, when war was declared in Europe, America adopted a policy of neutrality and isolation

That neutrality extended to a policy of ‘fairness’ – whereby American bankers could lend money to both sides in the war

Trade was allowed with both sides

British blockaded the German coastline- made it impossible for goods to be delivered.

Britain even stopped America, who was neutral, from delivering food to Germany.

German answer was unrestricted submarine warfare.

On May 7th, 1915, the 'Lusitania' was sunk. 128 Americans on board the liner were killed

Germany apologized, their relationship became tolerable

The U.S. had huge economic investments with the British and French. If they were to lose, then they would not be able to pay the U.S. debt back (amounting to about two billion dollars while Germany only borrowed a mere 27 million).

November 7th, 1916, Wilson won the presidential election by using the slogan “he kept us out of war”

British secret royal navy intercepted the Zimmerman telegram to Mexico to join the war as Germany's ally against the United States, should the U.S. join. The Germans promised to give Mexico Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.

the U.S. Congress declared on 6 April 1917.

America's Official Reasons for Entering War

the renewal by Germany of her submarine warfare. Imperial Germany was running amuck as an international

desperado Prussian Militancy and autocracy let loose in the world

disturbed the balance of power and threatened to destroy the international equilibrium.

The conflict [had gradually shaped] into a war between the democratic nations on one hand and autocratic on the other.

[America's] tradition of isolation had grown out warn and could no longer be maintained in the age of growing interdependency.

Because of the menace to the Monroe Doctrine and to [America's] independence

The Committee on Public Information was created to influence U.S. public opinion regarding American participation in World War I.

The CPI at first used material that was based on fact, but spun it to present an upbeat picture of the American war effort. Very quickly, however, the CPI began churning out raw propaganda picturing Germans as evil monsters

Used speeches, posters, movies, and boy scouts to get their message out