reflection
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World War I (1914-18)
Destruction The two sides in World War I were:
Allied Powers (victors) Russia* France Great Britain Japan Italy (1915) United States (1917)
Central Powers Germany* Austria-Hungary* Ottoman Empire* Bulgaria
The major theme we will discuss about World War I is “Destruction.” The first example of Destruction is the death toll: Over 12 million dead. No previous war in human history had such a high death toll. The second example of Destruction concerns assumptions about technology and progress. The War destroyed the assumption that advances in technology usually brought progress. The fighting destroyed a sense of confidence that the potential of technology was nearly always positive.
• To think this through, consider our earlier discussion of Industrialization. We emphasized how technology increased productivity which increased wealth and the standard of living, which are examples of progress. Knowledge of chemistry helped develop the oil and steel industries. Electricity led to mass production of automobiles and eventually electricity in homes. By around 1900 many Europeans confidently assumed that continual advances in technology would continue to bring progress.
• The War destroyed such confident assumptions about the potential of technology. The War showed that technology could be used for terrible purposes as well.
• During the War, technology was used for destructive purposes. Technology was used to increase the human capacity to kill other humans rather than raise the standard of living. Knowledge of chemistry was used to produce poison gas. Automobile factories powered by electricity produced military vehicles, including the first tanks, rather than cars.
• The War clearly highlighted that technology could be used to increase death rather than wealth. Such uses of technology are a primary reason for the high death toll. The War thus destroyed the confident assumption that the potential of technology was nearly always positive.
• This does not mean that technology stopped bringing progress. Technology has led to all kinds of wonderful things since World War I. But World War I highlighted that technology has a dual potential. It can lead to progress, like the vast amounts of wealth created in
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recent decades because of the Internet. But it can also increase death, like the use of the Internet by terrorist organizations to recruit members and organize attacks. World War I highlighted this dual potential of technology.
The third example of Destruction concerns the countries with an asterisk* above – Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire. These four powers shared one thing in common. They were all Multi-National Empires with traditional political structures led by Emperors and aristocracies. A multi-national empire is an empire in which one national group rules other national groups. Consider the Russian Empire described below. Russians led a multi-national empire. They ruled many other national groups such as Finns, Ukrainians, Poles, etc. Each of these other national groups were a “people” with their own language, culture, and history. But each did not have their own independent country. Consider the Polish people. They were divided among several empires. Some Poles lived under Russian rule in the Russian Empire; some Poles lived under Austrian rule in the Austro-Hungarian Empire; and some lived under German rule in the German Empire. Here are the four Multi-National Empires and the various national groups they ruled.
Russians ruled the Russian Empire which means they ruled the following national groups:
• Finns
• Ukrainians
• Poles
• Lithuanians
• Estonians
• Latvians
• Georgians
Austrians ruled the Austro-Hungarian Empire which means they ruled the following national groups (with some autonomy in the empire for Hungarians):
• Hungarians
• Bosnians
• Croats
• Montenegrins
• Serbs
• Slovenes
• Czechs
• Slovaks
• Poles
Turks ruled the Ottoman Empire which means they ruled the following national groups. The first modern genocide occurred in this empire when the Turks sought to exterminate the Armenians from 1915-23. About 1.5 million Armenians were killed and others fled as refugees.
• Bosnians
• Serbs
• Albanians
• Greeks
• Armenians
• Arabs Germans ruled the German Empire which means they ruled the following national groups:
• Poles
• Danes
• Belgians
• Lithuanians
• Czechs
• French Back to the theme of Destruction. The third example of Destruction is that the four multi- national empires were destroyed in the War.
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• The Russian Empire was destroyed. There was still a Russia after the War, but Russia was a smaller country, no longer a multi-national empire ruled by an emperor.
• The German Empire was destroyed. There was still a Germany after the War, but Germany was a smaller country, no longer a multi-national empire ruled by an emperor.
• The Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires were also destroyed. After the War, Austria and Turkey were both smaller countries, no longer empires.
To visualize how the multi-national empires were destroyed, compare the following two maps:
• Click here for a map before the War. Locate the four empires – Russian, German, Austro- Hungarian, and Ottoman.
• Click here for a map after the War: The four empires are replaced by smaller countries – Russia, Germany Austria, and Turkey.
Look at these maps side of side.
• Notice how the first map clearly shows the four empires. Three of the empires share boundaries – the Russian, German, and Austro-Hungarian Empires.
• But notice how the second map shows Russia (U.S.S.R.) and Germany much smaller because their empires were destroyed. They no longer share a boundary. And there are many new countries in between them. Similarly, the Austro-Hungarian Empire is gone, with a much smaller Austria in its place. And the Ottoman Empire is gone, with a much smaller Turkey in its place.
World War I destroyed the four multi-national empires.
Opportunity? World War I was an enormous event. Its impact was global. It involved soldiers from across the world – Europe, Africa, the Middle East, India, Australia, China, Japan, Canada, the United States, etc. It involved more soldiers fighting in more battles with more casualties and deaths than any previous war in history. Individual battles in the war – such as the Battle of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme – included more casualties and deaths than many entire wars in the past. But World War I was not simply a bigger war than earlier wars. It was a different kind of war. World War I was unlike any previous war in history because it was the first large scale industrial war. Entire societies mobilized for the war. This means societies used the workers and factories of the industrial revolution to produce not consumer products, but war-making products – rifles, machine guns, artillery, grenades, tanks, etc. Industrial transportation – railroads – transported goods and soldiers into battle. This returns us to our point that World War I revealed the dual potential of technology. Consider the machine gun. Guns had existed for centuries before World War I. But the war saw
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the first widespread use of machine guns. Think of that phrase “machine gun.” It is a machine made by machines – a product of the industrial revolution. It massively increased the ability to kill. The enormity of World War I provoked various responses during and after the war. One response was disillusionment. For many, it seemed like civilization had imploded on a scale of horror, destruction, and death unknown in human history. The scars of the war did not disappear after the fight stopped (1918) and the peace treaty was signed – the Treaty of Versailles (1919). Millions of maimed men remained. No one understood post-traumatic stress at the time, but they saw its consequences in many of the war’s survivors. Entire societies noticed the reduced number of men in society. Writers expressed this sense of disillusionment.
• The psychiatrist Sigmund Freud published Beyond the Pleasure Principal in 1920. Freud argued that the human mind includes unconscious drives such as a drive toward aggression, destruction, and death. The war led readers to think Freud was on to something. Many would later read his book, Civilization and Its Discontents (1930).
• The poet Robert Graves published Good-By to All That in 1929. It’s an autobiography of a soldier who recounts the horrors of the War, the death of friends, and the idiocy of political leaders and government bureaucracies which had directed the destruction for over four years.
But in the destruction, in the disillusionment, some saw opportunity. Some saw the destruction of the war as creating an opportunity for new kinds of politics and international relations. Some intellectuals in particular envisioned the peoples and politics of the world as like chess pieces in a chess game they were playing. They envisioned remaking the politics of the world – or at least parts of it – by moving the pieces in new ways. Two of these intellectuals were the American Woodrow Wilson and the Russian Vladimir Lenin. We’ll discuss Wilson and Lenin in more detail in the next lecture. For now, let’s consider why many intellectuals saw the destruction of the war as an opportunity to remake world politics. The first reason is that the destruction of the four multi-national empires led to the creation of new independent countries. Many of those national groups listed above who had long lived in multi-national empires ruled by others began to assert their national independence. They began to create their own countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Let’s again consider the Poles. Poles had previously lived in three different empires (Russian, German, and Austria- Hungary). But as these empires crumbled, most Poles united to form their own independent country – Poland. Other national groups did the same. You can see their new nations by clicking here. You’ll see that
• Finns formed their own nation – Finland
• Hungarians formed their own nation – Hungary
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• Ukrainians formed their own nation – Ukraine
• Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estonians each formed their own nation
• Czechs and Slovaks formed Czechoslovakia
• Bosnians, Croats, Montenegrins, Serbs, and Slovenes formed Yugoslavia Because these were new nations, they presented new opportunities. Many wondered what kind of nations they would be. What kind of politics would they practice? Would they be democracies, dictatorships, democratic dictatorships, or something else? Would they become allies of countries like Great Britain and the United States, or allies of other countries? Their futures were uncertain and their societies not yet stable. Some intellectuals thus saw these new nations as opportunities to reshape world politics. But it wasn’t just these new nations which presented new questions and new opportunities. The most powerful country among the defeated Central Powers was Germany. It experienced unrest and turmoil at the end of the war as its empire collapsed and its Emperor Wilhelm II fled into exile. Revolutionary movements spread. A civil war atmosphere was in the streets. So Germany also raised important questions. What kind of a nation would it become? What kind of politics would it practice? Who would be its allies? Some intellectuals also saw Germany as an opportunity to reshape world politics. Other places around the world also showed signs of instability and uncertain futures, and thus presented opportunities for intellectuals to remake world politics.
• The Russian Empire collapsed during the war. Revolution broke out in early 1917 which led the Russian Emperor Nicholas II to surrender the throne. What would Russia’s future be? What kind of politics would it practice? Who would it ally with? Russia was unstable and its future uncertain.
• Italy experienced unrest and turmoil at the end of the war. It too seemed unstable and its future uncertain.
• Further away, the Chinese Empire had collapsed right before World War I, ending the nearly 300 year Qing dynasty. China was declared a “Republic” but what exactly that meant was unclear. China’s future was uncertain and it was on the verge of civil war.
• Arabs in the Middle East also demanded their own country. Arabs had rebelled against the Ottoman Empire during the war. As a result, some formed the General Syrian Congress which in 1919 declared, “We desire full and absolute political independence for Syria.” See map here.
Let’s summarize: World War I destroyed old empires and replaced them with new and not yet stable countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The war also created widespread unrest and turmoil in places from Germany and Italy (as well as France) to Russia, the Middle East, and China. Some intellectuals viewed this destruction and turmoil as an opportunity. They envisioned all these peoples and societies like a chess game of world politics. These intellectuals presumed their own ability to remake the politics of the world in ways that fit their
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own ideas. Two of these intellectuals were the American Woodrow Wilson and the Russian Vladimir Lenin. We’ll discuss these two figures in the next lecture.