Chapter 24: The First World War

airplanes

though this innovation possessed destructive qualities, they were used almost exclusively for reconnaissance, save for the occasional "dogfight." Even zeppelins, sent by the Germans to raid London, did little significant damage.

Lusitania

a passenger liner carrying war supplies torpedoed by Germany on May 7, 1915, resulting in the deaths of nearly 1,200. The deaths of 128 Americans on board led to American animosity against unrestricted submarine warfare and, eventually, the U.S.' entry into the war in 1917.

total war

a term introduced to describe the intense mobilization of society, on the military fronts as well as on the home front.

gas

a weapon first used effectively by the Germans in April 1915 at the second Battle of Ypres that was physically devastating as well as psychologically disturbing. The environmental damage caused was severe, as farmers were injured decades after the war ended and unexploded shells are still occasionally found today.

tank

a weapon introduced into battle in 1916 that possessed the power to end the stalemate. However, tradition-bound commanders and its halfhearted employment caused the weapon to make almost no difference.

Leon Trotsky

a well-known socialist and the leader of a soviet organized during the 1905 revolution that reemerged after February 1917 and asserted claim to be the legitimate political power in Russia.

civilians

these people, as workers, taxpayers, and consumers, were vital parts of the war economy, producing munitions, purchasing war bonds, and shouldering the burden of tax hikes, inflation, and material privations.

Bolsheviks

("members of the majority") a faction of the Russian Social Democrats who favored a centralized party of active revolutionaries, believing revolution alone would lead directly to a socialist regime. Though their rival faction gained control of the party, they managed to survive as a splinter party under the leadership of lenin.

Mensheviks

("members of the minority") a faction of the Russian Social Democrats who, like most European socialists, wanted to move toward socialism gradually and believed Russia needed to complete its capitalist development before a proletarian revolution could be possible. They regained control of the party, though their rival faction survived as a splinter party under the leadership of Lenin.

(Grigorii) Rasputin

(1869-1916) the eccentric spiritual mentor and faith healer of Russia who used his influence on the royal family to operate corrupt and self-aggrandizing schemes. His presence only added to the image of a court mired in decadence, incompetent to face the modern world.

John Maynard Keynes

(1883-1946) British economist who, like many others at the time, argued reparations would undermine Europe's most important task: repairing the world economy.

Gallipoli

(April to December 1915) a campaign of the Allies against Turkey that constituted the first large-scale amphibious attack in history. It was unsuccessful but continued for seven months before a withdrawal was finally ordered.

Nivelle Offensive

(April to May 1917) a plan proposed by the French general Robert Nivelle to break through the German lines with overwhelming manpower. It failed immediately.

Battle of Tannenberg

(August 26-30 1914) a decisive German victory against Russia; 92,000 prisoners were taken, and the Russian Second Army was virtually destroyed. Despite this early win, the Eastern Front remained bloody and indecisive through 1916.

July Crisis

(July 1914) the event referring to the aftermath of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, involving a series of entangling alliances that caused country after country to declare war on one another.

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

(March 1918) the treaty that ended the war between Russia and Germany. Russia surrendered vast territories, including Ukraine, Finland, Poland, and the Baltic states, to Germany and avoided almost certain military defeat. Lenin's political enemies were outraged by this treaty, and Russian withdrawal from WW1 incited vicious civil conflicts.

October Revolution

(October 1917) the Russian revolution led by Lenin and aided by Trotsky, which began as a relatively quick and bloodless coup d'état, but which soon devolved into a one-party dictatorship of the Bolsheviks. Also known as the "ten days that shook the world," as Germany secured victory on the Eastern Front, the agenda was set for future revolutionary struggles, and a socialist regime gained and held power in what many considered to be a backward country.

Battle of the Marne

(September 1914) the most strategically important battle of the First World War that upended Europe's expectations for peace by Christmas. The Germans were forced into retreat by the combined French and British forces and dug the trenches they would fight in for the next four years.

economy

After the war, the United States and Japan emerged as leader in the new world ---.

Pals Battalions

British units that allowed volunteers to serve with their friends. Because of these, there were neighborhoods and villages in Britain in which every married woman became a widow in the span of a few minutes.

Schlieffen Plan

Germany's plan for attacking France first so they might end the two-front war and concentrate all their forces on Russia.

Nicholas II

the tsar of Russia who was forced to abdicate his throne during the February Revolution of 1917, during which 60,000 troops sent to Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) to quell a revolt mutinied and joined the revolt.

attrition

The First World War, around 1915, soon became viewed as one of ---, as each side determined to hold out long enough for their opponents to crack.

colonial

These kinds of recruits from all around the globe were enlisted for European armies and employed in European industries. These areas also became strategically important theaters for armed engagement.

disillusionment

WW1's most powerful cultural legacy, as the world reflected upon an entire generation of men who had been sacrificed to no apparent end. This also bred distrust for the "old men" who had dragged the world into the war, and a new literary culture emerged of war-time memoirs and fiction that commemorated the experience of soldiers on the front lines. Postwar Europe was once described as "a laboratory atop a graveyard."

cult of the offensive

a group which insisted a breakthrough was possible with enough troops and weapons.

Belgium

a neutral territory violated by Germany at the onset of WW1 as part of the Schlieffen Plan.

Fourteen Points

Woodrow Wilson's widely publicized ideas for the foundation of a permanent peace, including an end to secret diplomacy, freedom of the seas, removal of international tariffs, reduction of national armaments, self-determination of all peoples, and the establishment of a League of nations to settle international conflict. These points represented the spirit of idealism and shaped the expectations Germans brought to the peace talks.

soviets

a Russian term for local councils elected by workers and soldiers which claimed to be the true democratic representatives of the people. After the 1917 February Revolution, these constituted one center of power, the provisional government the other. They generally pressed for social reform, land redistribution, and a negotiated settlement with Germany and Austria.

Verdun

an attack on this French stronghold, begun in February 1916, was meant to break French morale, as the city itself had little strategic importance. General Henri Pétain led the French forces, and, ten months later, over 400,000 lives were lost, with no clear victor.

Zimmerman Letter

an intercepted telegram from Germany's foreign minister, Arthur Zimmerman, stating Germany would support a Mexican attempt to capture American territory if the U.S. entered the war. This led to the U.S. severing diplomatic relations with Berlin and declaring war on Germany on April 6, 1917.

League of Nations

an organization envisioned as the arbiter of world peace that never achieved the idealistic aims of its founder for several reasons, namely its lack of enforcing power, its exclusion of various countries (such as Russia and the Central Powers), and the decision of the U.S. to remain isolated and decline their invitation of membership. It reflected the larger problems of power politics that emerged after the war.

Battle of the Somme

begun on June 24, 1916, this battle began as a British offensive against the Germans. However, when British shells failed to destroy the Germans barbed wire, the attack turned into a slaughter, and after almost four months of fighting, more than 1,000,000 lives had been lost on all sides., tying into the idea the only side that could win this war was the war itself.

Balfour Declaration

declared by British foreign secretary Arthur Balfour, which stated Britain's support for Zionists. Similar commitments to Bedouin leaders led to the later Arab-Israeli conflict.

colonialism

despite ideals of self-determination at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, Europeans were too set in the illusion of white supremacy to completely abandon this pursuit and liberate the colonies that had helped them fight in the war.

provisional government

emerging after the February Revolution of 1917 and organized by leaders in the Duma, mainly middle-class liberals, this body hoped to establish a democratic system under constitutional rule. However, their refusal to concede military defeat in the war prevented domestic reforms and cost valuable popular support.

Turkey

formerly known as the Ottoman Empire, this country, along with Bulgaria, later joined the war on the side of the Central Powers. It altered the dynamics of the war by threatening Russia's supply lies and Britain's control of the Suez Canal. It also inspired the hope offensives on other fronts could end the stalemate in the West.

Friedrich Ebert

head of the provisional council that took control of the German government after the kaiser fled to Holland after the many independence revolts in early November. Nothing could be done but accept the Allies' terms, and the war officially ended on November 11, 1918.

communication

lack of this between the front line and general headquarters was another major problem with the First World War's military strategy and helps explain the continued slaughter.

Triple Entente

later known as the Allied Powers, included Britain, France, and Russia.

Triple Alliance

later known as the Central Powers, included Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy.

nations

many of these were formed at the close of WW1. Going along with Wilson's ideals of self-determination, their borders were meant to encircle various ethnic, linguistic, and historical groups, though the lines were often-times hastily drawn and minorities within them still existed.

Hindenburg Plan

named for Paul von Hindenburg, the chief of the imperial staff of the German, a plan that put the German economy in the hands of army and industry. Under this plan, pricing and profit margins were set by individual industrialists. Those Germany's economy was devastated by the end of the war, historians now speculate its wartime management of the economy wasn't necessarily worse than that of Britain or France.

Bedouins

nomadic peoples speaking Arabic.

arms race

occurred in the decades leading up to the war as European military leaders assumed superior technology and larger armies would result in a quick victory in the case of war.

Paris Peace Conference

opened in January 1919 to negotiate the peace settlement of WW1. Woodrow Wilson, the American president, played a prominent role, marking the rise of the U.S. as a world power. Some thirty nations sent delegates, and the conference was covered intently by the mass press. Only the victorious were allowed at the tables.

lost generation

refers to the huge losses sustained by the countries who fought in WW1, especially in the demographic of young men, whose mortality skyrocketed to eight to ten times its normal rate. (Germany lost one-third of men aged nineteen to twenty-two in 1914.)

propoganda

taking the form of film, posters, postcards, and newspapers, this dehumanized the enemy and made it more difficult for any country to accept a fair, non-punitive peace settlement.

Franz Ferdinand

the Austrian archduke, heir to the throne, and nephew of Franz Josef, who was assassinated by members of the Society of the Black Hand in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. His death was blamed on the Serbian government, and Austria demanded reparations, knowing well their demands were unreasonable and hoping for a war that would allow them to subdue the Serbians once and for all.

Austria-Hungary

the country that started the conflict, surrendered on November 3, 1918, and disintegrated soon after.

Lenin (Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov)

the dedicated revolutionary who led the Bolshevik party with an incredibly radical approach, believing an insurrection should be launched immediately and rallying workers, soldiers, and peasants with the slogans, "Peace, Land, and Bread, Now" and "All Power to the Soviets." He was the single most powerful politician in Russia between October 1917 and his death in 1924.

Big Four

the four leaders who dominated the Paris Peace Conference of 1919; consisted of Woodrow Wilson (the U.S. president), David Lloyd George (the British prime minister), George Clemenceau (the French premier), and Vittorio Orlando (the Italian premier). Their warring interests resulted in fierce debate.

Great Britain

the only country NOT to have conscription laws before the war.

Japan

this Asian nation declared war on Germany in order to attack German possessions in the Far East.

mutiny

this became more common, especially among French troops but in all major armies, after 1917 and the debacle of the Nivelle Offensive.

Russia

this country boasted the largest army, though it was poorly trained and, at the beginning of the war, under-supplied and inadequately equipped. By the end of 1916, a combination of political ineptitude and military defeat brought the state to the verge of collapse.

Romania

this country was brought into the war on Russia's side due to initial Russian success. However, the Central Powers quickly retaliated and knocked this country out of the war within a few months.

Britain

this country, in particular, benefited from its vast network of colonial dominions and dependencies, bringing in soldiers from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, and South Africa.

women

this group became symbolic of many of the changes brought by the Great War. They constituted much of the labor force, worked close to the front lines as nurses and ambulance drivers, and deviated from previous Victorian standards. There were attempts to demobilize them after the war ended, but these, too, were met with serious roadblocks.

Ireland

this nation was on the brink of negotiating a home rule bill when WW1 broke out, and their plight was pushed to the side. The 1916 Easter Rebellion was brutally suppressed and renewed the debate. By 1945, it was completely free of Britain.

7,000

this number of British men were killed or wounded daily in the trenches.

Armenian Genocide

this occurred during WW1 in the Ottoman Empire, as Armenians, like many minorities throughout Europe were targeted and used as scapegoats, resulting in the death of over one million Armenians by the war's end.

imperalism

this practice resulted in European victories that left many countries overconfident.

nationalist

this type of movement was supported by the British in the Middle East in the hopes of undermining their enemies, such as the Ottoman Empire.

food

this was in shortage, especially in urban areas, as governments struggled to decide where to allocate their already scarce resources. Prices soared accordingly.

birth control

this was increasingly available after the war and contributed to low European birthrates, as families could not economically support a family.

inflation

this was rampant in Germany, as the country increased the amount of paper money in circulation by over 1,000% during the war. As a result, prices rose by 400%.

empires

those of Britain and France were expanded and those of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottomans were all but destroyed.

Treaty of Versailles

though five treaties were signed in total, one with each of the defeated nations (Germany, Austria, Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria), this settlement with Germany required the nation to surrender various territories to France, Denmark, and Poland, disarmed the country, forbid a German air force, and greatly reduced the size of its navy. Most significantly, the war-guilt provision made Germany and its allies assume responsibility for the entire war and placed the debt of paying it back (all $33 billion) on them. Overall, it was shaped more by the desire for punishment and war reparations than by Woodrow Wilson's idealism.

Italy

though this country had been part of the Triple Alliance, it claimed neutrality in 1914 on the grounds it owed nothing to Germany, which had violated the neutral territory of Belgium. In May of 1915 did it give in to popular demand and join the Allies, in the hopes of a favorable treaty.

United States

though this country had financially supported the Allies throughout the war, they officially joined the fray in 1917, effectively boosting British and French morale was severely undermining Germany's. Large amounts of food and supplies came with fresh troops and helped shift the tide of the war.